By Alexis Dalton
My final Back on the Bank article of my Lovett OnLion career. As I’m sitting here writing this, I’m reminded of my past profiles for this column and how nervous my little freshman self was to interview a senior in my first week of high school.
Now, in my one hundred and tenth week of high school (approximately), I sit in the Senior Lounge with Joe Crenshaw– the brother of my first ever profile, Lucy Crenshaw. This time, we are both wearing our new senior uniforms. I know, it’s so full circle.
Joe spent the first half of his summer playing baseball with his summer team. After a good season with them, his summer “kind of just wound down” around early July. He spent his free-time at the lake or doing his favorite hobby: golf with his friends.
Joe’s been playing golf for about three years, and he’s gotten “subtly” better. “My friends play in season with school,” he told me. “They just always beat me up, but I don’t mind.”
Though he might not be the top on the golf course, Joe likes being at the top of the school and his baseball team. “I’ve always enjoyed having younger kids on teams,” he explained. “It feels like you just have a natural sense of leadership and being able to mentor the younger kids.”
In school, Joe has enjoyed senior privileges. “I have two free periods and a lifting period, so I get a lot of free time,” he said. He explained how most of that free time is spent leaving school early. “I get what I need to get done with my baseball stuff, so I can go home early and just sleep,” he told me.
If you can’t tell already, baseball is an important part of Joe’s life. So important, actually, that he is going to continue his baseball career at the division I school, the University of Richmond. Joe was very honest about the recruiting process. “It’s stressful,” he said. “Everybody wants to make it seem like it’s some fun process.” There were fun parts, he assured me, like visiting different different schools, especially Richmond.
Joe didn’t want to go to a “massive” school, and Richmond was the ideal size. “The main part (in choosing schools) was just loyalty and trust in the coaches,” he explained. “For a lot of the bigger schools, college baseball has become more like a business.” The NCAA is implementing new rules that cut roster sizes. Because Joe sees a lot of guys getting their offers pulled at the bigger schools, he is thankful and relaxed knowing that he has a permanent spot at the school he chose.
Obviously, not every student is going through the athletic recruiting process, but Joe’s biggest piece of advice for non-seniors is to stay the course. “For me, just committing to a process has been the most important thing and being too volatile on the stuff I do,” he advised. “Scheduling out your days and making sure you’re getting done what you need to get done before you have fun or do other things.”
Before Joe gets to go off to Richmond, he has to listen to his own advice and stay the course at Lovett. He’s really looking forward to his Introduction to Psychology class. “At first I heard it was a GPA booster, but I’m also pretty interested in that stuff,” he said. He added that because of the mental aspects of sports, he thinks if he can “deepen [his] understanding of why [his] mind works the way it does,” it’ll be helpful in baseball as well as other aspects of his life.
Aside from academics, Joe is looking forward to his final season of high school, of course. And all the preparation for it. “I honestly love the off season equally as much as the actual season,” he said, excitedly. “Just going to keep working, getting better, and eventually making a state run this year will be fun.”
If Joe has any downtime after his baseball, golfing, psychological investigations, and sleeping after school, you might find him at his favorite restaurant, Chipotle, or watching his favorite movie, Good Will Hunting.
