Journey

Born in 1979 Cape Town, South Africa to John and Priscilla Hendricks. Rowan moved to Gauteng at the age of fourteen to attend school at the Sports School of Excellence formerly known as the Transnet Soccer School of Excellence. Being one of the first three colored kids from Cape Town to be at a multiracial School of its magnitude, some of his classmates/teammates included names such as Dillion Shepherd, Brett Evans, Steven Pienaar, Shaun Potgieter, Gerrald Sibeko, Lucky Maselesele, Thabo Mabaso, Tshepo Mashishi, Thobela Bikwani, Rufus Mokoti, Lawrence Masegela, Dominic Isaacs and many others that went on to have good professional football careers. The eldest son of seven kids in their family, he played youth football in Cape Town’s amateur ranks as well as being a member of the under 19 Cape Town Spurs team, at sixteen in the “Bayhill Tournament” which is now known as the Metropolitan Premier Cup before going on to sign for an overseas club directly from the Sports School. He spent three years playing at Bundesliga Club, Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany before returning to South Africa to join Ajax Cape Town.

After plying his trade at Ajax Cape Town, he signed for a team in Russia namely, FC Rostov. He endured three great years at the club before returning home to join SuperSport United, under the guidance of former Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane, in the Premier S occer League. After SuperSport United, he left to join 1st Division clubs, FC AK in Gauteng and Ikapa Sporting in Cape Town where he played and then started concentrating on coaching young and senior players in Cape Town. Rowan has been the Head Coach at three different Vodacom/Motsepe clubs, the third highest soccer league in South Africa, both in Cape Town and in Bloemfontein. He has also been an assistant Coach in the National First Division, at FC Cape Town under the guidance of Johnny Ferrera.

Since 2011, he has been concentrating on youth development Coaching. Participated in various coaching courses and eventually completed the SAFA Introductory Course under the guidance of former Santos FC coach Duncan Crowie (now @ Ajax CT youth) and the KNVB Dutch Introductory Coaching Course at Grey College, Bloemfontein. In 2013, Grey College appointed him as the under 15 Grey College Soccer Coach as well as the 1st Team assistant. Rowan now holds a CAF A License, which is the second highest African qualification Coaching License.

In 2013, Grey College and Engen employed him as their Tournament Scout at their Annual Engen and Nedbank Competitions which was held @ Grey College in Bloemfontein.
He was Head Coach of Kovsie Fc at the University of the Free State as well as the assistant coach to Godfrey Tenoff at the Varsity Cup team. Had a relatively fair result as assistant coach at the University of the Free State ( Kovsies) in the 1st ever Varsity Soccer Cup in 2013 and ended the year off by winning Bronze @ the USSA Championship in December 2013.

At a very young age,Rowan made a choice that he was going to use his gift and talent to the best of his ability and pursue his Dream of becoming a Professional Football-Soccer Player. His hard work and dedication paid off when the Soccer School of Excellence in South Africa -Johannesburg, offered him a scholarship and he then eventually played abroad and in South Africa as a Professional. Having enjoyed a football career overseas as well as locally in SA, he founded RH7 Soccer Show in 2018 along with many other RH7 ventures.

Rowan returned to Ajax Cape Town in 2018 & 2019, as Head Coach of the u16 Youth Team. Rowan has also since held Assistant Coaching positions at National First Division Clubs in South Africa, such as Polokwane City and currently at Venda Football Academy.

Listen to the Show and Podcasts as he shares the rest of his Journey and Inspires The Next Generation into #MakingGoodChoices.