Vederian Lowe's path through the University of Illinois has been like no other. As a kid from Rockford, Illinois, Lowe had big aspirations of playing football at a Division I college then making it to the NFL. As an adult now, Lowe knows most kids had those same dreams, but not many young boys from his hometown make it to the big leagues.
One of those goals was achieved when Lowe received a scholarship to play football at the University of Illinois. But when he got here in 2017, he was just an 18-year-old kid who had just graduated high school and thought his life in college would be relatively average.
"When I first got here, I just thought I was gonna play football, and ride it out through college and see what happens," Lowe said. "As a kid, you have dreams of playing at the next level, but I never knew the work it was gonna take to get there. So, I wasn't doing anything much, I was just basically here. Now just looking back on it, I'm glad that the things that have happened to me have happened, because it opened my eyes before it was too late, to realize what I have to do to become a better man and a better football player."
Lowe's life in college became far from average. In 2018, Lowe met his now wife, Haylee, before the pair had their first son — Kingston Lowe — who was born in June 2019.
When Lowe and Haylee first met, she recalls instantly knowing something had clicked. Haylee called her mom and said, "I just met this amazing guy." While neither her nor Lowe anticipated having kids yet, when Kingston came along it was an instant switch. Haylee said everything they began to build felt right with Lowe and she "wouldn't want it to be with anyone else."
In May of this year, Trey Carter Lowe was born and the responsibility between Lowe and Haylee doubled. Then, it tripled. After Lowe's mother passed, he adopted his younger brother, Vydalis, and finally gained full guardianship this July.
"When I first got to school, I never imagined that my life would be what it is now, never in a million years," Lowe said. "If somebody would have told me that I'd be married, have two children and have guardianship of my brother and all this other stuff, if somebody told me that when I was a freshman, I would have been like, 'man, no way, that's not true, never happened.' Because when I got to college, I was just a kid."
Before Lowe became a father or even met Haylee his vision of his time at Illinois was changing. As a freshman offensive lineman, he started seven games, playing in eight and was a BTN.com All-Freshman Team honorable mention. Lowe's plan of slowly working his way into the lineup obviously didn't work out, but it was for the better.
Lowe quickly became a key part of the Illini offense, starting all 12 games at left tackle in 2018. As a sophomore, he helped Illinois' run game become the most improved in the nation, as they finished second in the Big Ten with 243.0 rushing yards per game.
"I've definitely grown the most in my entire life in these three or four years than I have ever," Lowe said. "This place has definitely shaped me into the man I am right now. I can say I've made tremendous strides in all aspects of my life. I think the core of it is football. Football has taught me so many things that I carry over to every aspect of my life and that's definitely helped me become who I am."
Lowe's talent kept improving at a tremendous pace as his spot in the starting lineup never faltered. Along with classmate and offensive lineman Alex Palczewski, Lowe made Illini history a few weeks ago by breaking the career starts record. Previously held at 48, Lowe and Palczewski have now extended their program record to 51 career starts.
Being thrown into the fire, as Lowe puts it, was the best thing for his football career and his personal life. Figuring out how to battle through that adversity as a freshman carried over into his life with Haylee and their two boys.
As football progressed and the family began to grow, Lowe had to really set his priorities, especially for his final season this year. With a new coach, a new son and his brother along with school and training, Lowe had to learn to do it all. But he's never failed his family.
"He's the person who takes care of everything, he makes everything happen," Haylee said. "It's just crazy to see everything that he's able to handle between waking up early in the morning to go to football practice and come home and he always makes sure to be like, 'oh I'll bring you something home to eat' or he brings me home flowers or something to make sure I feel appreciated and then they still able to spend time with the boys. He'll play with the boys when he gets home and then he hops on class and has practice in the afternoon. And then he stills helps with Vydalis and helps with their bedtime every single night. He does bedtime every night because I do the morning stuff and then he goes to bed to do it all again the next morning. He never complains and is so well-rounded with everything that do does."
But the life Vederian and Haylee have built in Champaign is quickly coming to an end. Lowe will likely play his final game of his collegiate career this Saturday against Northwestern. In January, he plans to leave for Dallas to train for the NFL Draft.
Haylee, who runs her own lash business in Champaign, will stay behind with the boys and let Vydalis finish out his school year. Luckily, Haylee's mother is in the area and will be able to watch the kids every other weekend so Haylee can visit Vederian.
While Lowe knows he'll miss Champaign and Illini football, he also understands it's time to move on and reach for that final childhood goal. And he'll do so with his family always in the back of his mind.
"Just having them, it gives me something to get up for every day," Lowe said. "It gives me something to want to be great for, it gives me an extra drive to want to do better, to want to be a better me every day. Things haven't been always easy, I don't know a person who's married with two children that young and an older teenager that it is easy for. But me and my wife, we try to make sure that we make things as easy as we can on each other and just with them being in my life, it's given me like a purpose. I'm not just doing it for myself. When you're doing it for yourself, it's easy to to take your foot off the pedal, it's easy to ease up. But when I go home to my boys every day I want to make sure I give my boys a great life, I want to make sure I give my wife a great life and I want to make sure I give my brother a great life. So that's what I use, to want to be better everyday."
