Photography by Mandy Caulk
When deciding where to attend college, a school with a good lacrosse program was a must for Callie Crawford, a senior at Queen Anne's County High School. Although she has a few months left of high school, this 17-year-old, who hails from Queenstown, is more than ready to take
the field at the collegiate level.
Crawford is a member of the varsity cross country, indoor track, and lacrosse teams at Queen Anne's. She's been playing lacrosse since the fifth grade, started indoor track her freshman year, and ran cross country this past fall. Before beginning cross country, Crawford assisted with the volleyball team by taking stats for three years. While she enjoys running on the cross country and track teams, she also knows they provide the additional benefit of helping her stay in shape for her favored sport, lacrosse.
“My dad played lacrosse,” she explains. “So I started that and I didn't really like it at first, but I stuck with it because it was something I had to do. I started liking it more and more as I played.”
Crawford grew more serious about lacrosse when she joined a club/travel team in sixth grade. She bounced around from various organizations, ending her club lacrosse career with Maryland United Lacrosse Club. She also plays on an indoor league at The Edge Arena in Stevensville to prepare for the spring season.
Crawford certainly stays busy with school, as well. She takes several Advanced Placement classes, is on the Honor Roll, and is on track to be her class' Valedictorian, excelling with a 4.4 GPA.
“My freshman year coming into high school, I was like, ‘I want to be Valedictorian!'” she claims. “I worked hard and got some reward out of it. I forced myself to take harder classes and got a lot more out of it.”
Though she visited many schools, such as Franklin and Marshall, Dickinson College, and Washington and Lee University, come fall, Crawford will be attending Haverford College, just outside of Philadelphia. She has committed to play on their NCAA Division III women's lacrosse team.
“I looked everywhere—Division I, II, and III,” she says. “I received good feedback, but Haverford was one of the first colleges I looked at just because it was close. I went to a clinic there my freshman year and I just imprinted. I always kept coming back to it.”
Crawford chose a Division III school because she is very focused on her academics and intends to study Bio-Psychology/Neuroscience, with hopes of becoming a psychiatrist. Ultimately, it was the great sense of community and welcoming from the school she appreciated the most.
“I just loved the people there,” she smiles. “It's a great school and a good lacrosse team, but I [visited] and fell in love with the community and the people there and the way I'd be living—that was the most important to me.”
With all of the wonderful success she's had, Crawford is eager to begin her collegiate career, both academically and athletically.
“I'm just looking forward to playing lacrosse,” Crawford admits. “The reason I wanted to play lacrosse in college was because I couldn't imagine not playing. So the fact that I get to continue that is just awesome.”
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