BUTLER TWP— He is president of the senior class, carries a 4.036 grade point average and was the leading scorer and rebounder on the basketball team.

About the only thing Sean Lowry can't do is stay healthy.

The Butler senior has accepted a bid from the U.S. Naval Academy to attend a Navy preparatory school in Newport, R.I., next year and to play basketball there.

Lowry will play in the New England Prep League and will compete with and against numerous Division I-caliber basketball recruits.

"This is definitely something I'm looking forward to. I need another year to develop,"Lowry said.

Navy plays in the Patriot League and was 14-16 this season, 4-10 in league play. The Midshipmen played Georgetown and Villanova from the Big East this year.

Coach Billy Lange is 34-52 in three years at Navy. The program won 23 games in three years before his arrival.

Lowry, a 6-foot-5 forward, missed all of his junior season with a knee injury after lettering as a sophomore coming off the bench. He averaged 13.5 points, eight rebounds and three steals per game this season despite playing nearly half the season with a partially torn meniscus.

"I was feeling pain there after the first New Castle game and had a MRIdone,"Lowry said. "They wanted to do surgery on it then, but there was no way I was gonna miss my senior year.

"The doctor told me if I could put up with it (pain), I could play."

Lowry didn't tell Butler coach Joe Lewandowski about the MRI until after the season ended. He had the surgery done three weeks ago.

"I'm not sure I condone that (not being told), but that shows how competitive Sean is and what kind of teammate he is,"Lewandowski said. "He didn't want to let anybody down."

Once Lowry completes his year of prep school, he is not committed to the Naval Academy.He can go there and play for his basketball team, or he can opt for another school.

Lowry also has been recruited by Wooster (Ohio), Franklin &Marshall, and Susquehanna.

"Navy takes about half the players from the prep school and the other half go somewhere else,"Lowry said. "My first choice is the Navy. If they want me, I'm going."

Lewandowski said they'll want him.

"Absolutely. Sean's the kind of kid they look for," he said. "He's a role model in every sense of the word. When the travel team kids came to see the varsity team, Sean always took the time to talk with them.

"He's a true student-athlete, an ultracompetitive kid who goes the extra mile for everyone. You can't accomplish what he has in the classroom and his senior class without being that way."

Lewandowski said Lowry will be a guard at the college level.

"He's only scratching the surface in terms of basketball right now," he said. "Sean can bring the ball up the floor and break pressure by himself. With his ball-handling skills, he'll be a 6-5 guard when he gets to college."

Lowry's older sister, Annie, will be a senior on the James Madison University women's soccer team this fall.

Lowry was ranked eighth in his graduating class at first semester's end this school year.

"The academic level of the academy, along with playing basketball and developing my game at the prep school, it's all a good fit for me,"he said.