photo by: Conner Becker

Veritas Christian senior Rahseem (left) and junior Ameer Dowdell (right) smile together before the Eagles' regular season finale on Feb. 21, 2023.

For three seasons now, Veritas Christian’s boys hoops team has gotten a boost from brothers Rahseem and Ameer Dowdell — and the basketball-loving family they’re a part of.

Rahseem, a senior forward, and Ameer, a junior combo guard, have been steeped in basketball since early childhood. Their father, Kwam, played college basketball at Cowley Community College and Central Arkansas and was an assistant coach at Veritas several years ago. And their mother, Hagar, follows them to every game and has her camera out for just about every play.

With that kind of upbringing, it’s no surprise that they bring great chemistry to the court.

“We’re not twins, but we can definitely read each other’s minds,” Rahseem said. “If he wants a screen, I can just look at him and know that he wants a screen.”

photo by: Contributed Photo

Rahseem and Ameer Dowdell have been around basketball since their earliest years of school.

They’ve done more sports than just hoops. They played baseball and soccer as early as kindergarten, and even as high school upperclassmen they sometimes have wrestling matches at home, which sometimes makes the dogs bark and gets their parents’ attention.

“They knock each other down at home all the time,” Hagar said. “I know they’ll just get right back up.”

On the court, Rahseem is known for his defense and has been working to be more assertive on the block, and he averages 6.3 rebounds per game. Kwam said Rahseem has always had poise, and Veritas coach Carl Huslig agrees.

“I think everybody looks to Rahseem as the spiritual leader,” Huslig said. “If there’s something that needs to be said, or not said, he’s the guy to go to.”

Ameer, who averaged 16 points per game in the Eagles’ recently concluded regular season, says he’s the better shooter of the two. But he looks up to his older brother and says he’s learned a lot about “grit and effort” from Rahseem’s game.

“He gives 110% every single time he steps onto the court,” Ameer said. “That’s something I can take away — never giving up, perseverance.”

Huslig said Ameer has his own way of making an impact.

“Ameer brings this personality that he’s going to take over the game,” Huslig said. “Everybody knows that.”

The brothers’ performance and work ethic make perfect sense, Huslig said, because when Kwam was a coach, he was “one of the best X and O’s guys I’ve ever been around.” And Kwam has done his best to help his sons with their game plan, both on the court and in life. Rahseem hasn’t yet decided where he will go to college, but he knows he wants to study sports psychology, and Ameer will soon be making college decisions of his own.

“Incorporating life through basketball, that was my biggest thing,” Kwam said. “I feel like there were things that I didn’t do in my career that would have set me better just for discipline, work ethic, all those sorts of things. I always stress to them, if they want to do what they want to do, there’s a process and a work ethic that’s needed for that. It just doesn’t come.”

Veritas’ regular season ended on Tuesday with a 61-34 loss at St. Mary’s. The Eagles (8-21) will begin postseason play on Friday at Flint Hills Christian in Manhattan.