Sibling Goals: Junior Lukas Lowry has continued his family’s legacy as the third Lowry brother to play as starting varsity goalie

Sitting in the stands of the Shawnee Mission Athletic Complex, elementary schooler Lukas Lowry was mesmerized watching his older brother, Collyn, make remarkable game-winning saves and winning acclaimed awards including Kansas 6A Goalkeeper of the Year. Watching Collyn succeed in soccer sparked Lukas’ dream of one day doing exactly that.

“I was able to see him playing under the lights, people chanting his name and everything,” Lukas said. “I thought that was awesome.”

Now-junior Lukas just completed his first season as a starting varsity goalie, following the tradation of playing goalie at East his two brothers’ and East Alumni Collyn and Will started. Playing the same position has allowed the trio to further bond on and off the field.

It was the week before Christmas. Snow piled thick on the ground as below-freezing temperatures turned any exposed puddle of water to ice. Regardless of what seems like miserable soccer-playing conditions — or the fact outdoor soccer was in its offseason — then-sophomore Lukas Lowry and his brothers Will and Collyn Lowry went outside for their usual backyard goalie training. 

Bundled up in hats, gloves and multiple layers to keep warm, the three brothers made their way to the Bishop Meige soccer field. After shoveling away the deep layer of snow blocking the soccer goal, the three began their endless cycles of catching, kicking and goal-keeping drills — 

encouraging the others to work harder with each set. 

Almost every day when the brothers would come home for winter break they would find time in between Lukas’ school schedule to go out for hours at a time, training until their hands and feet were numb from the cold.

Collyn and Will spent all of their high school years playing for the East soccer team — each spending long hours training goalkeeping skills to work their way up to start on the Varsity team. This year, after continuous training sessions with his brothers and coaches and encouragement from his family, Lukas has been offered the position. 

“You really have to own that position and be strong in it or [else] you’re not going to sit on the bench for five minutes, you’re probably going to sit for a whole game,” Collyn said. “I think there’s a different psychology behind [being a goalie] than the rest of the soccer players.”

Collyn was the first brother to make the decision to play goalie when he found his love for making game-winning saves and being a part of the team from a different perspective. Will followed in line after being subbed into the position in middle school while guest playing for other teams and realizing he had a knack for it even though, according to the brothers, serving as goalie is one of the most stressful positions.

“Every mistake they make is up on the scoreboard,” the boys’ mother, Amanda Lowry said, “It’s a lot of stress on them, but I think they excel with the stress.”

Will began playing varsity goalie his sophomore year — the year after Collyn graduated. Will took after Collyn, also winning Kansas 6A goalkeeper of the year his junior year — only adding to Lukas’ motivation to follow his brother’s achievements.

Up until middle school Lukas was still playing on-field positions including left and center back at Kansas City Athletics. He still wasn’t set as the team’s full-time goalie.

He countinued training with his brothers and their shared goalkeeping coach Andy Gruenbaum. Throughout training, he began to stand out among his peers for the higher-level skills he possessed due to practicing with older players.

“It was a set path for me just seeing both my brothers doing it,” Lukas said. “They go through high school and college to play soccer, and that’s exactly what I want to do.”

After being the C-team goalie his freshman year, later on that same season he was named captain of the team which — being one of the youngest players — he took with pride.  

During his sophomore year, he moved up to the JV team as the goalkeeper and was named team captain for the second year in a row. 

Lukas used the offseasons to train whenever he could alongside his brothers whether it was working on his footwork and technical skills on the field, or staying conditioned for the soccer season in the weight room. To help Lukas train, Will finds new drills to practice with him on Instagram and encourages Lukas to join him in doing his Missouri State D1 soccer workouts. 

 Lukas turns the pressure of seeing his brothers continually succeed in the game as motivation. Just recently he became the first Lowry brother to win the Sunflower League soccer championship — giving him ultimate bragging rights at family dinners. 

“[Sunflower League] is something that Collyn and I were never able to do,” Will said “It’s awesome to see Lukas be able to bring that home after all the work he’s put in.”