Jareem Dowling begins his third season as the top assistant to Rock head coach Kevin Reynolds.
Dowling has helped lead Slippery Rock to back-to-back winning seasons in his first two years at SRU, including a 21-8 effort in 2008-09.
Dowling is a native of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He moved to Wilmington, Delaware, during his high school years and graduated from Howard High School in 2000. He led the team to the Blue Hen Flight B Championship and the state final four his senior year. For his efforts, he was named to honorable mention all-state and first-team all-conference honors. He was also selected to play in the Delaware State Blue and Gold All-Star Game, in which he scored 19 points.
Following his senior campaign, Dowling signed a National Letter of Intent to attend Cecil College. As a two-year starter at Cecil, Dowling led the team to the 2000-2001 Maryland JUCO regular-season championship. He earned all-tournament honors during the state tournament and received the team’s Hustle Award and Defense Award voted on by his teammates. A knee injury during the early part of the 2001-2002 season forced him to “redshirt” for the season. Dowling returned the following season to lead the Seahawks to the Region XX Championship and the NJCAA Division II final four in 2002-2003. His two-year record at Cecil was 51-11 and he played with nine eventual Division I players.
After earning his degree from Cecil, Dowling received an NCAA Division I scholarship to the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, where he was a two-year starter and ranked second in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in minutes per game as a senior. Dowling scored a career-high 22 points, including five 3-pointers, against Baylor. He earned his degree in sociology from UMES in 2005.
During the summer of 2007, Dowling accepted the prestigious honor of being the head coach of the St. Croix 17 and Under National Team. He also served as an assistant coach for the St. Croix Senior National Team coached by former Rhode Island, UCLA and Georgia head coach Jim Harrick and current Jackson State head coach Tevester Anderson. Their squad competed in the Tournament of Americas Olympic Qualifier in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In the summer of 2008, Dowling led the 17 and Under National Team to a silver medal finish the Tournament of the Americas competition in Antiqua and Barbuda. He also again served as an assistant to Tevester Anderson for the Senior Men’s National Team, which captured the silver medal in Centro Basket 2008 competition in Cancun, Mexico.
Dowling is involved in all aspects of basketball operations at SRU after having similar responsibilities as an assistant to legendary junior college head coach Bill Lewit at Cecil, where he served as an assistant coach from 2005-08. He played an integral role in the recruitment of student-athletes and scouting of opponents that resulted in Cecil compiling a 97-6 record. During his stint as assistant coach, Cecil won three Maryland state regular-season championships, three state tournament titles, two regional championships, two Holiday Tournament championships and the 2006 NJCAA Division II national championship. The Seahawks finished the season ranked No. 1 in the nation in each of his three seasons at Cecil.
Dowling has been responsible for recruiting several current Slippery Rock team members from Cecil to play at SRU including Maron Brown, John Bossle Jr. and Tabari Perry as well as former Rock standouts Kyle Camper and Denell Stephens.
Jareem is single and resides in Slippery Rock.
