Alex Rowe didn’t realize how much basketball meant to her until it was no longer in her life. After that almost happened again, Rowe made sure she wouldn’t take the game for granted.

Rowe is back for a second year playing for the Central Maine Community College women’s basketball team. She wasn’t sure she was going to get a second chance.

“I wasn’t expecting to play,” Rowe said. “I thought I was done basketball. So being able to play one last year is awesome.”

Rowe’s coach, CMCC women’s head coach Andrew Morong, called Rowe’s story unique.

It certainly is.

Rowe graduated from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in 2013, with her eye on playing basketball at CMCC. Then she contracted mono and had to take a year off from basketball.

“It was absolutely miserable,” Rowe said. “I was at a real, real low and I didn’t realize how much basketball played into that. Not having that one go-to that I’ve had my whole life really put me in quite a slump.”

While not having basketball affected Rowe, not having Rowe affected the CMCC women’s team, which was hoping to have the 5-foot-10 forward in the rotation.

“The year that we were supposed to have her we lost in the national championship game to a team that was far bigger than we were,” Morong said. “Who knows if we have Alex what would have happened?”

Rowe finally made it onto the Mustangs last year, after having not played basketball for more than a year. She called it a “big change.”

“It was just so much fun watching her grow, because probably she had regressed since her senior year, taking that year off, so she was really behind the eight-ball,” Morong said. “I think that was one of our biggest team successes throughout the year last year was her, how much she improved, and how much she kind of redeveloped her love for the game and appreciation for the game.”

Even with Rowe in the fold, the Mustangs couldn’t replicate the success of the previous year’s national runner-up season. Morong said the team was so worried about not being the first CMCC team in a recent memory to not win a conference title — and the Mustangs did just that.

Then after missing out on that Yankee conference title, the Mustangs nearly missed out on another season of Rowe. After two years of college, Rowe said she would have had to take extra classes that she didn’t need and couldn’t afford to play basketball again. While Rowe wasn’t sure of her return, Morong said he never doubted her return.

For the Mustangs’ sake — and Rowe’s as well — she figured out a way to make it work.

Her on-court presence is a welcome one for CMCC, as she contributes points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks depending on what the Mustangs need on a given night.

“I go out there and I do whatever coach needs me to do that game,” Rowe said.

“Any time you have a player like that on your roster, everyone else’s job just becomes easier,” Morong said.

But while Rowe’s contribution on the court is a tangible one, her importance off the court for Morong’s team is even bigger.

“As good as she is on the court, her biggest impact on this team is just being a leader. How to do it on and off the court,” Morong said. “She’s someone who definitely hasn’t had things handed to her. She had to go out and get everything. She had to go and earn everything that she’s gotten.”

Morong said Rowe’s job on the court is to go out and work hard, and the example she sets by her effort is more important than the amount of points she scores.

And Rowe’s importance will still be measured once this season is over.

“We’re just so fortunate to have someone like that in our program who can tell their story, because in the long run it’s going to make a difference,” Morong said. “She’s going to make in impact on this program far beyond this year.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com