three times a STAR : Some Say Marcy Crouch, Who Plays Volleyball, Soccer and Softball for Marina, Is the Best Three-Sport Athlete in Orange County History

The question was simple: What athlete do you look up to and why?

The response seemed unusual: Kristin Folkl, a Stanford freshman who led the Cardinal to the NCAA title in women’s volleyball and the Final Four in basketball.

Then Marcy Crouch explained herself, and it didn’t seem so out of place: “She’s an awesome athlete in two sports, and I want to do that.”

Crouch knows something about being an awesome athlete in three sports. But after she graduates from Marina in June and heads to Stanford, she’ll scale back. Volleyball will become a hobby. Soccer will be put on the back burner. Softball will be her sport of choice.

She will leave a remarkable legacy. Teams she has played on have won four Southern Section titles--three in soccer, one in softball. She has been an all-section performer in two sports and a star in another competing in sports that contrast so much it begs a question:

Just how awesome is Marcy Crouch, and is she the county’s best three-sport athlete ever?

*

“I’ve been in a lot of big games, so I’m used to it, but this year there’s been pressure every game. I was the CIF player of the year (in soccer and softball), and people are going, ‘How good is she, really?’ I would rather not have it, but I know that I do. I’m looking forward to starting anew at Stanford. I hope they don’t try to play me up--I don’t want to go in there with a reputation.”

*

There are others whose legacy runs as steep as an ocean-side cliff. Gary Carter, the baseball All-Star who was recruited by UCLA as a quarterback, was also a starting point guard for Sunny Hills in the Class of ‘72; and Ann Meyers, a four-time all-American at UCLA and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, received varsity letters in seven sports before graduating from Sonora in 1974.

Although they set the Orange County standard for multiple-sport athletes to follow, they also represent a bygone era.

Advancements in training and the proliferation of club sports have created a more intense atmosphere and a higher level of competition. Many of the best athletes limit themselves to one sport, hoping such specialization leads to a college scholarship. When they do play a second sport--much less a third--they seldom have the same success.

Yet Crouch has.

She has been the Southern Section Division I soccer defensive player of the year twice, softball player of the year once--and counting. Her volleyball coach, Jason Bilbruck, said Crouch should have been selected All-Southern Section in that sport but was overlooked because Marina failed to reach the playoffs.

Crouch’s admirers far outnumber her detractors--if you can find any.

Larry Doyle, Marina’s athletic director, has watched Orange County athletes since 1967. He has seen some of the best athletes to pass through these parts, including Marcy Crouch.

“Can she play better than the best soccer player ever to play? Probably not. Can she pitch better than Michele Granger? Probably not,” Doyle says. “Can she play volleyball better than the best who’s ever played? Probably not. But is there anybody who has put the performances together that she’s put together and had the successes that she has had? Probably not.”

Since walking onto the Marina campus, Crouch has earned 12 varsity letters; her first two years in volleyball, she was second-team All-Sunset League--and that’s the least of her achievements as an athlete.

Despite her physical talent, the image most people who watch Crouch are left with is her ability to perform in a big game. That’s her legacy.

Bobby Bruch, who recently resigned as Marina’s soccer coach, recalled this year’s Southern Section quarterfinals.

Marina was struggling in the first half against Chino Don Lugo and had tied the score at 1-1 only two minutes earlier; Crouch took the corner kick--she takes all of Marina’s free kicks--and hooked the ball inside the far post for a goal. The Vikings won, 2-1.

“There was a sense of urgency because we were playing so terribly,” Bruch said. “But those are the types of games where she knew she had to get it done because she’s such an extreme competitor and loves to win.”

Same thing in the final against Claremont. Score tied, 0-0. Crouch goes to the corner and puts the ball at the far post, where Kristen Palmer heads it in. The Vikings win, 2-0, their 61st consecutive game without a loss. Marcy Crouch, the sweeper--the last line of defense before the goalkeeper--started all of them.

Bilbruck said Crouch could do the same thing in volleyball. He remembered the Orange County Championships, when Marina trailed Huntington Beach, two games to one, and the Oilers were ranked in the county’s top three.

“(Marina) wasn’t playing real well, but she said, ‘Get on my back and I’ll carry you.’ You could see it,” Bilbruck said. “She started moving in front of people to pass balls, called for sets a lot more--she really took over.

“I think you have to be a pretty exceptional athlete to get away with that, but you also have to be someone who’s respected by your teammates--a ‘You lead, we’ll follow.’ If it’s someone the other girls don’t like, they probably won’t respond to her.”

That was the game in which Crouch went up against another outside hitter, junior Melissa Wendt, who will be one of the nation’s most highly sought seniors next year, “and (Crouch) held her own,” Bilbruck said. “She definitely plays at the highest level. (Newport Harbor’s Southern Section player of the year) Misty May is just a stud, but Misty May also plays volleyball 12 months a year.”

Crouch plays volleyball four months a year.

She plays soccer for 3 1/2.

She hasn’t played club volleyball in four years. She hasn’t played club soccer regularly in four years. Yet the three sports she plays have strong club support , and club play has become almost a requirement for players who want to excel.

“She plays at the highest level possible for a girl her age,” Bruch said. “That she can not touch a soccer ball for five months and step on the field and within three weeks be at the same level of a player who trains for nine months of the year--she’s been blessed with God-given talent.”

But Crouch’s best sport is probably softball. She was the section Division I player of the year in 1994.

In last year’s championship game, Crouch pitched a one-hitter, doubled and scored, and Marina beat Foothill, 2-0. Foothill had beaten pitchers with a combined record of 58-7 to reach the final. She shut out Pacifica for 10 innings in the semifinals.

In the 1993 playoffs, Crouch had beaten Foothill in the second round with a two-hitter, but Marina lost to Los Alamitos two days later in the quarterfinals, 1-0, in 22 innings. Crouch pitched the first 13 innings.

“She’s very focused about what she’s doing,” Foothill Coach Joe Gonzalez said. “I don’t know her, but it appears she likes to be in the big games.”

She is certainly used to them--perhaps to the point of being bored.

Bruch said he occasionally had to force Crouch to focus on those important moments.

“She’s been to the national soccer and softball finals, she’s been in so many big games, her mental capacity--the ability to deal with pressure, maintain composure under pressure and want to control a game in an ultimate pressure situation--is higher than any other athlete I’ve ever coached,” Bruch said.

“She was much more self-motivated as a freshman and sophomore. She got better her junior and senior years as a player, but the mental edge had to be extracted from her; I attribute that to her playing so many big games and matches in her career in all sports.”

And Crouch always rose to the occasion.

*

“I’m consistent and people know that they can lean on me. When we get down, I think I have to do something to make us win this game ; for me, I think I better be the one to do it. . . . I’m really stable; I’m not really emotional. I don’t cry at movies--there are a few that make my eyes water, but I never cry. “

*

The numbers can be staggering. Crouch has 65 career assists in soccer--ninth in section history--and 17 goals--remarkable totals for a defensive player. That’s 82 goals she contributed to in 101 soccer games.

“That’s why we’re so good,” said Bruch, who estimated Crouch saved an additional 40 or 50 goals on defense.

Marina is 83-8-10 the past four years and has won three consecutive section titles. The 61-game unbeaten streak is the longest current Division I streak in the nation, and the Vikings are 48-0-2 the past two seasons.

Marina’s softball team is 82-17 the past four years. Crouch is 59-11 with a 0.25 earned-run average over that span. She has struck out 451 and walked 28 in 504 innings, and there’s no one who fields her position any better. Her career batting average is .311.

Mater Dei softball Coach Doug Myers has coached against Crouch in high school and club games.

“A lot of times people short-change the other aspects of her game, the offense,” Myers said. “She’s the total athlete, a very smart player, which separates her from some of the other athletes, and she knows what it takes to win. When I was coaching at Ocean View, she beat us with a squeeze bunt--with how well it was executed. The following year, she beat (pitcher) Kathy Ponce with a home run.”

So what makes her so good?

Most people believe it’s her mental makeup more than physical makeup, though she’s a solid 5 feet 8 1/2, 145 pounds.

“She’s an incredible leader, mostly by example,” Bruch said. “And she knows how to win--not many players know how to win.”

Marina’s softball coach, Shelly Luth, graduated from Edison in 1976, making her a contemporary of Meyers.

“Marcy never panics--she’s very, very tough--and I think that’s why she’s so successful,” Luth said. “Marcy has the same aura as Ann Meyers had in the ‘70s, but she’s dealing with more athletes and more competition; I think Marcy’s the better athlete.”

There’s no questioning how skillful Crouch is. She’s an exceptional athlete--strong, fast, steady--who stands out in team-oriented sports rather than the individual ones, such as track and field, swimming or tennis.

Stanford thought enough of Crouch to offer her a softball scholarship. Stanford coaches will consider letting her play soccer beginning her sophomore year.

“I think softball is her best sport,” said Cary Crouch, Marcy’s father and softball coach at Laguna Hills High. “The mental aspect is so important in softball. Marcy’s better days are ahead of her. As soon as she starts specializing, she should be really good. The thing that’s amazing is how she can be so efficient so quickly; she throws four-five months a year and then doesn’t throw at all. She goes from one sport to the next but doesn’t spend that much time trying to hone her skills at anything.”

She can be tough on her three sisters and their friends. On the field, she can be tough, too. She doesn’t mind sharing her opinion. There are some teammates, Bruch said, who probably won’t miss her.

“Marcy’s very hard on the players she played with, especially the younger players, wanting them to play at the highest level,” he said. “She’s a very demanding teammate. A lot of the kids, I’m sure, didn’t understand it, and the only way they were able to understand it was through me and realizing that winning soccer games at Marina is a tradition and will only be upheld by players who demanded that.

“But I heard little comments from players, plenty of times from the opposition; Marcy can be subtle, but she knows how to talk on the field, and that will get a lot of players off their game--she’s very good at intimidation. And if you’re not strong yourself, you crumble under those situations.”

*

“It’s not the winning that pushes me, but the competition. I want to win, but I don’t want to run over the little teams. I like a challenge, but I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself; I don’t think I’m ever going to have an ulcer. Dad would yell at people and they couldn’t handle it; I would say, ‘He’s right,’ and move on. I could always handle it--I didn’t take it personally.”

*

Marcy is the second of Cary and Kathy Crouch’s four daughters. She was large--9 pounds 5 ounces--but Kathy Crouch says it was her easiest childbirth: “It seemed like she floated out.”

She has always made it pretty easy on her parents. She has a 3.91 grade-point average that includes honors courses, scored 1,250 of 1,600 on the Scholastic Assessment Test and is ranked 38th in a class of 477. She’s Marina’s nominee for state scholar-athlete of the year.

She’s commissioner of athletics in student government and she’s got a part-time job at a frozen yogurt shop.

She is young for her grade--she won’t turn 18 until July 22--and showed her athletic abilities early.

When she was 6, she was winning most of her events at the local Brownie Olympics.

She once scored 28 points in a junior high championship basketball game when the team’s star, Shandy Robbins (who will play at Oregon next year), was absent.

Last December, Crouch played tennis and beat her 11-year-old cousin, a competitive club player. “He hates that she could go out and play tennis that well,” Cary Crouch said. “And she can hit a golf ball a mile.”

But there are chinks in the armor. She’s not perfect.

“She doesn’t keep a clean bedroom,” Kathy Crouch said. “She’s not a super patient person. It goes along with her intelligence: You don’t have patience for a lack of competence, and she doesn’t understand that other people can’t understand it quite as easily as she does.

“For all that she’s attained, I don’t think she’s overly confident; she’s always telling me she’s going to be the dumbest person at Stanford. It surprises me because she’s very bright.”

That trait may keep her humble, but it also drives her to succeed.

“Camy is very athletic, but was super social too,” Cary Crouch said of his oldest daughter, a freshman at UC Santa Barbara. “Marcy spent a lot more time working on her sports; how good she was was more important than her social life. She was always playing with kids who were two to five years older than her.”

She grew up in an athletic household. Her mother played tennis, volleyball and soccer; her father played volleyball at UC Santa Barbara and has coached football, volleyball and softball.

The first time her parents realized Marcy’s status on a national level was the summer before she entered Marina. She played club everything--volleyball, soccer and softball--although her volleyball and soccer teams were one and the same. The soccer team won the national competition for the Western half of the United States, and the volleyball team was second in California--but couldn’t compete nationally because of the conflict with the soccer championship. No one ever figured the same team would play for a championship in both sports.

“At that point, Marcy was their leader in volleyball,” Cary Crouch said. “And her softball team, the Outlaws, won the national 14-and-under title.”

Many thought she was the best age-group softball player at the tournament.

“Always having a friend over wasn’t as important to her,” Marcy’s father said. “She didn’t mind hanging around Dad doing some sports things. She would ask, ‘Do you think so-and-so is getting better than me,’ and I would say, ‘No, but she’s getting pretty good,’ and Marcy would ask me what she had to do to get on top. She’s always been willing to do the things that would keep her on top.”

One Marina administrator suggested she give up sports to take an honors class that conflicted with the athletic period during her freshman year. That eventually led to a meeting between Crouch and Doyle, the school’s athletic director.

“I wanted to work something out. I told him there was a good chance she could make varsity in three sports,” Cary Crouch recalled. “He said, ‘You mean to tell me that you think your daughter is going to be varsity on all three sports as a freshman?’ ”

Marcy entered Marina as a 14-year-old and made three all-Sunset League teams her freshman year. Her legacy was taking root.

Cary Crouch thinks softball is his daughter’s best sport; Bruch thinks it’s soccer. It’s an argument that might not have a winner. Bruch thinks Crouch could be an Olympian in soccer and softball--at the same time.

And there’s no question in Bruch’s mind about Marcy Crouch’s place in Orange County prep history.

“The level of competition has changed so much just in the past 10 years, I don’t think it’s fair to compare her with the past,” he said, “but she’s definitely the best three-sport athlete of this era.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Honor Roll

Here is a list of Marcy Crouch’s major awards and honors through her Marina years.

FRESHMAN

* Volleyball: All-Sunset League, second team

* Soccer: All-Sunset League, first team; All-Southern Section, honorable mention

* Softball: All-Sunset League, first team; team MVP

SOPHOMORE

* Volleyball: All-Sunset League, second team

* Soccer: All-Sunset League, first team; All-Southern Section, first team; Times’ All-Orange County, second team; team defensive MVP

* Softball: Sunset League MVP (pitcher); All-Southern Section, second team; Times All-Orange County, first team

JUNIOR

* Volleyball: All-Sunset League, first team

* Soccer: Sunset League MVP (defense); Southern Section MVP (defense); Times’ All-Orange County, first team; team MVP

* Softball: Sunset League MVP (pitcher); Southern Section MVP; team MVP; Times All-Orange County, first team

SENIOR

* Volleyball: All-Sunset League, first team

* Soccer: All-Sunset League, first team; Southern Section MVP (defense); Times’ All-Orange County, first team.