Cowels attended Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota where he led his team to 128 wins with only six losses while winning two state championships in 2006 and 2009, and earning All-State honors twice and all-conference three times. He finished in the top 10 of five categories of the SCU freshman records, including three-pointers made (46, 5th). Three-pointers attempted (146, 2nd).
Free throw percentage (787, 3rd).
Steals (26, 10th); and minutes played (769, 9th).
He played college basketball for Santa Clara University before playing professionally in the Netherlands. As a sophomore in 2006-2007, he averaged 11 points and six rebounds per game as Hopkins made it to the section championship. As a junior in 2007-2008, he averaged 17 points and seven rebounds per game in leading Hopkins 27–2 record.
In November 2008, Cowels signed a National Letter of Intent to play college basketball for Santa Clara University.
He went on to average 16 points and six rebounds as a senior in 2008-2009. In his freshman season at Santa Clara, Cowels played all 32 games with 11 starting assignments while averaging 7.3 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 24.0 minutes per game.
In his sophomore season, Cowels" minutes and production both decreased as he averaged just 5.4 points, 1.8 rebounds and 15.3 minutes in 37 games and only nine starts. In his junior season, Cowels was the only player to start every game as he led the team and tied for Number.
5 on the Bronco single-season list in three-point field goal percentage (431 percent).
In 30 games, he averaged 10.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 27.7 minutes per game. In his senior season, Cowels became the 31st player in school history to score 1,000 career points on February 16 with a corner three in the second half against Pepperdine. In 38 games (all starts), he averaged 9.4 points, 4.3 rebounds ad 1.5 steals in 26.2 minutes per game.
On July 18, 2013, Cowels signed a one-year deal with the Den Helder Kings of the Dutch Basketball League.
In 40 games for Den Helder in 2013-2014, he averaged 10.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game. On November 1, 2014, Cowels was selected with the final pick in the 2014 National Basketball Association Development League Draft by the Reno Bighorns.
He was later traded to the Maine Red Claws on draft night. On November 10, he was waived by the Red Claws prior to the start of the regular season.
In five games for the Grizzlies, he averaged 3.4 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.
On December 17, 2015, Cowels signed with the Halifax Hurricanes of the National Basketball League of Canada. However, six days later, he was released by Halifax prior to the start of the 2015-2016 season. On January 29, 2016, Cowels signed with the Nelson Giants for the 2016 New Zealand NBL season.
His made his debut for the Giants in the team"s season opener on March 11 against the Canterbury Rams.
In 33 minutes of action, he recorded a game-high 29 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in a 100–86 loss. Cowels is the son of Raymond Cowels, Junior. and Wanda Jackson, and has four siblings: Rueben, Carl, Kayla and Ciara.
