There are days when Blue Valley Northwest senior Rowan Juhl looks at his schedule and wonders how it all fits. Four sports. High-level coursework. Robotics. Passion projects that involve building real-time object-recognition software “just for fun.” He laughs about the chaos, but he thrives in it. 

“At times the academics sneakily pile up,” Juhl said. “You’ll be fine and then all of a sudden you have a couple deadlines coming up. Sometimes you think, ‘Is all this stuff that I’m doing worth it?’ But it always is, because the second you step on the court, or start playing soccer, or start running, you can forget about the stress. You can get a mental reprieve.” 

That balance — the relentless drive paired with joy — is part of why Juhl has been named the Capitol Federal® True Blue® Student of the Week. The senior is a National Merit Scholar with a perfect ACT score, a state medalist and multi-event record-holder in track, a two-sport fall athlete, an engineer, a coder and a founding member of Northwest’s rapidly ascending robotics team. 

And around Northwest, coaches say, he is known just as much for who he is as for what he achieves. 

“He is wise beyond his years,” assistant soccer coach Michelle Pothoven said. “He is incredibly well-rounded as a person and an athlete. He understands the big picture and how important people are. He is truly a blessing to whoever he is around.” 

Juhl’s athletic slate sounds improbable at first glance. This fall, he competed in both cross country and varsity soccer — a combination that demands not just stamina but hour-by-hour discipline. 

“It is about time management, but at the same time it is about knowing and managing your body,” Juhl said. “I always want to push myself and try to find what that limit is.” 

His weekly load included running nearly every day for cross country — “Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday” — followed immediately by soccer practices after school. 

“You’re managing yourself physically, but also mentally,” he said. “It’s an internal challenge that you have to fight.” 

He wasn’t just surviving both sports. He was contributing. Northwest advanced three runners to the state cross-country meet and was only four points shy of qualifying the team. Juhl relished the moment. 

“Running at state was a cool experience,” he said. “It’s very different to run with more than 100 really good runners. And to be able to run at Rim Rock — it truly is an amazing course.” 

Soccer, meanwhile, holds a lifelong place in his heart. 
 

“I have played since I was three,” he said. “I love the game, I really enjoy the team environment. I feel like I can thrive in it. I just can’t give either one of them up.” 

Northwest soccer coach Brian Pollack said Juhl embodies what a student-athlete should be. 

“When I hear the term ‘student athlete,’ I think of Rowan,” Pollack said. “He pushes himself academically and athletically to maximize his growth. He keeps a positive attitude and works relentlessly to improve.” 

When coaches asked before the season if he could handle both cross country and varsity soccer, Juhl’s answer stuck with Pollack. 

“Rowan said, ‘Coach, I know there will be challenges, but soccer is a passion of mine, and I’m going to give you and my teammates all I have.’ And he did.” 

While Juhl plays soccer, runs cross country and has three seasons of basketball under his belt, track is the sport he calls “my main sport.” He decided to give up playing basketball this winter — even though he still loves it — to train full-time for his senior track season. 

“I am chasing the 800 school record,” he said. “I’m part of two relay records now, but I want that 800 record.” 

Last spring, Juhl qualified for state in the high jump and on two relays. He was part of Northwest’s school-record 4x800 squad and medaled in the 4x400, helping the Huskies place fifth at state. He also holds the school’s distance medley relay record. 
 

This year, he hopes to qualify in both the high jump and the 800. He has a role model in former teammate Jey Durham.

“Jey ran 1:55 last year and placed third at state,” Juhl said. “I saw what he did and how hard he worked. I know it’s possible to work hard and get better. Getting that individual record would show the work I’ve put in.” 

For all his athletic achievements, Juhl lights up just as much — maybe more — when he talks about engineering, coding and creation. 

“Robotics is something I have always loved,” he said. “To have an extracurricular that is not sports is nice for me because it will help my career and what I want to do next.” 

Juhl and classmate Srijan Singh helped start the school’s FIRST Tech Challenge robotics program last year. Their rookie season ended with a trip to the Missouri/Kansas State Championship. 

“A lot of credit goes to Srijan,” Juhl said. “We kind of brought it up from nothing.” 

This year, the “Mechanical Husk1es” have soared even higher, becoming the top-ranked team in both Kansas and Missouri and setting a state record. 

Their success spills beyond Northwest. Using a $10,000 district grant, Juhl and teammates are launching robotics programs at Harmony and Oxford Middle Schools by purchasing kits and providing training. 
 

“We want to create a sustainable program,” Juhl said. “It’s good for them to get that experience early, but it will also help the high school program.” 

Northwest robotics coach Cameron Hora said Juhl’s innovations have been transformative. 

“He gets a lot of credit for our success due to his programming prowess, and his ability to problem-solve when the bot isn’t doing what we want,” Hora said. “His ability to innovate and improve our robot cannot be understated.” 

Hora reminisced about those drives to meets. 

“He would be frantically coding our bot in the car,” Hora said. “He simply works well under pressure.” 

Juhl’s passion stretches beyond robotics competitions. Over the summer he dove into machine learning, coding real-time object-recognition software that could track faces live on camera. 

“For me, the important piece is the creating,” he said. “I get so much joy in figuring out how to solve the problem. I go down a lot of rabbit holes.” 

Despite the stacked schedule, Juhl remains anchored by the school community he loves. 

“One thing that has made it possible is how amazing this community has been,” he said. “Everyone in the sports I play has been extremely supportive. It’s one of the reasons I was hesitant to leave basketball. This Northwest community is one you want to keep coming back to.” 

He plans to major in engineering — likely aerospace or mechanical — and recently completed an interview with MIT. He hopes to run track in college but says academics will guide his decision. 

“It’s a passion of mine, but academics are the important piece,” he said.