Page 12 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 3 Spring 2014

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rutchfield began practicing with
the SPS girls varsity lacrosse
teamas an eighth-grader, before
joining the team officially as a
Third Former in the fall of 2010. She has
three times – so far – been named an
All-American. She is a four-year mem-
ber of the Upper-New England team that
competes at the national high school
tournament each Memorial Day. As a
Fifth Former in 2013, she was named
the Boston Globe’s Independent School
League MVP for girls
lacrosse. She has
twice been named
the recipient of the
Archer Prize, recog-
nizing her as the
School’s best female
student-athlete.
And, last summer,
she was named
MVP of her team
in a showcase of
select high school
All-Americans in
Florida.
“She was a stand-
out among stand-
outs,” says Lisa
Parsons, coach
of Crutchfield’s
showcase team
in Florida.
Heading into her
final season with
the Big Red, Crutchfield had amassed
career statistics of 158 goals and 108
assists. Then, in the first 10 games of
2014, Crutchfield accounted for 40 goals,
36 assists, 50 caused turnovers, and 45
ground balls, despite being consistently
face-guarded and double-teamed.
“She is so dominant all over the field,”
says McKinley Curro, who has coached
Crutchfield through Granite State Elite
for the last few seasons. “She controls the
draw, gets ground balls, creates assists,
scores goals, plays well on defense, causes
turnovers. She is multi-dimensional.”
Sparks, the Duke lacrosse alumna and
a three-sport athlete in her SPS days,
credits at least some of Crutchfield’s
compete level and game sense to her
participation in other sports. She has
twice earned all-league honors in soccer
and was one of the top defensemen for
the New England-semifinalist SPS girls
ice hockey team this winter, a team she
captained.
“You aren’t born with that game sense;
it’s really natural,” says Sparks. “She has
developed that through all her sports,
and it’s something that’s really noticeable
in her lacrosse game.”
Crutchfield, say her coaches, is the play-
er who comes to practice early and stays
late, working on her fitness or her shot
placement or some other element of the
game. Her mother,
who is reluctant to
say too much about
her daughter for fear
of seeming biased,
offers only that she
marvels at Maddie’s
sheer determination.
“When the going gets
tough,” says Heather
Crutchfield, “Maddie
gets tougher.”
Maddie credits the
players she watched
as she grew up at
St. Paul’s School.
“Seeing how hard
they worked made
me want to hone
my skills that much
more,” she says, re-
calling how, for years,
she would mirror the
SPS players as she
warmed up the goalies or chased errant
lacrosse balls into the woods. “I wanted
to be able to keep up.”
Her mother shares how the family
“brought Maddie to everything. We all
stuck together, no matter whose game
it was. The whole family came, and she
always had a stick in her hand on the
sideline, always wanted to be one of
the big girls.”
During her elementary-school days,
Crutchfield dreamed of one day wearing
St. Paul’s red. “I couldn’t wait until the
day when I could actually play for my
mom,” she says. “When I actually got to
put on the St. Paul’s uniform, and play
on the fields where I had grown up, I
realized how truly special it was.”
When I actually
got to put on
the St. Paul’s
uniform, and
play on the fields
where I had
grown up,
I realized
how truly
special it was.
C
Crutchfield (No. 12) celebrates a goal
with teammates.
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