Last Year, State Champ; This Year, He's Prison Inmate

SEAN ROWELL, A TOP athlete with top grades, seemed to have it all going for him. Then he robbed a bank. -----------------------------

To understand Sean Rowell, child of the inner city, good athlete, prison inmate, hero gone wrong, you might start in Bloomer, Wis.

That town of 3,085 is known for physical health. Signs say "Jump Rope Capital of the World."

It is home to Randy Stearns, one of the state's top high-school long-jumpers (23-1 this year).

Last year, Sean Rowell was best in the long jump. As a junior in Milwaukee, he won the state title at 22-9. He was in the state meet as a sophmore, representing a different school.

Last year, he had good grades and received scholarship feelers from 18 colleges. He was going to be the perfect up-by-the-bootstraps story, a talented man who started with nothing and worked his way to success.

Then, last June 27, Sean Rowell robbed a bank.

`IF WE HAD KNOWN . . .'

Stearns knew Rowell from past competitions and kindnesses.

"He asked me to run on a relay team with him one year at the Badger State Games when his team was a guy short, and we've been friends since," Stearns said. "I haven't been around black kids much, but he showed no prejudice toward me. At state last year, he came over and gave me a hug."

Says Randy's father, Russ Stearns, "When we heard about the robbery, we were heartbroken. I had a liver transplant 16 months ago and Sean came to Madison to see me. If we had known he was in trouble, we would have brought him up here and let him live with us."

CIRCUMSTANCES RARELY NORMAL

Stearns, with both parents behind him, plans to enroll this fall at Northern Illinois on a baseball and track scholarship. Under normal circumstances, Rowell would be looking to similar rewards. But his circumstances, says Ron Johnson of the Social Development Commission's Youth Diversion section and a longtime coach and counselor of Rowell, rarely have been normal.

Rowell never knew his father. His sister recently was charged with possession of illegal drugs. His mother, doing her best to support a number of children, is overwhelmed, a friend says.

Rowell sits in a cell in Appleton. He was sent there in April from Waupun's correctional institution, which is filled to overflowing.

`GIVE ME THE MONEY!'

The crime, say those who knew Rowell through athletics, seemed so out of character. Two men wearing masks approached tellers at a bank about two miles from Rowell's house. One pulled a gun and reportedly shouted, "Give me the money! Give me the money!"

Three tellers complied, handing out $12,936. One slipped a packet of red dye among the bills. In time, the dye turned much of the money red.

When Rowell and the other man accused in the crime, Rodney Lamont Brown, were stopped in Texas for speeding, deputies found some scarlet money in the car Brown was driving.

In November, Rowell wrote a letter asking for leniency: "I have been a person of constant achievement and I surrounded myself with ones who did not have the goals I desire in life."

He spoke of failing to find part-time work to support his young son, and of facing, with the boy's mother, "hard times and dire straits.

"I truly am not a criminal, but a person who found himself caught up in the rapture."

LITTLE REGRET

Eddie Roberson, assigned to check on Rowell during home detention, recalls him showing little regret, saying that if they hadn't been caught for speeding, they would have gotten away with it.

Texas deputies and Milwaukee police recovered $9,457. The two men apparently threw away $3,479 because those bills were stained more noticeably.

Awaiting sentence, Rowell spent more than five months in the Home Detention Program, attending classes and living under strict, electronic supervision. Roberson called Rowell's cooperation "exceptionally good."

BAD INFLUENCE

People who have helped Rowell, coached him, taught him, express disappointment at the failure. Track coach Greg Lehman shows the confusion of dealing with Rowell.

"He worked hard, he was goal-oriented, a good competitor, not selfish or narcissistic. But he's a pretty hard kid. You can't break the facade."

"Bad influence" say friends and counselors trying to explain the crime.

The most obvious influence, Roberson suggests, is Brown. He is awaiting trial in a case including another bank robbery two weeks earlier.

Nagle says Rowell is doing just fine. He could gain parole as early as November but may have to stay another year.

Randy Stearns remembers Rowell as an inspiration.

"You figured he could pretty much do what he wanted in athletics. He was that good."