The lone sophomore: After spending first year as average student, Crouse hits the field for lacrosse
A few weeks after naming its first head coach in program history, the Central Michigan women’s lacrosse team recruited its first player — defender Amber Crouse.
The Hartland native was recruited in early August 2014 after Sara Tisdale was announced as head coach on July 16, 2014.
The other 25 future Chippewas — who were still finishing their high school careers — signed on with the program between fall 2014 and January 2015.
Meanwhile, Crouse was already living on campus. She spent her freshman year focusing on studies and awaiting the arrival of her new teammates.
“I was just an average student,” Crouse said. “I worked out on my own and took a lot of naps. I had a lot of free time and I used that to really focus on school.”
Tisdale said she was not able to spend much time with Crouse during her first semester on campus because of the five-month period she spent traveling and recruiting. She said Crouse was "on the ground-level in terms of experience" when the training for their first season as a program began.
On April 12, 2015, Crouse and more than 120 other student-athletes were recognized for academic achievement. Athletes were honored for earning at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA.
"I was the one lacrosse player on the field," she said. "It was a little weird because I had to go by myself and carry the lacrosse sign."
Crouse had originally planned to play club lacrosse at Saginaw Valley State before discovering the opportunity to play for CMU.
“I heard (CMU) was talking about getting a new team, so I was keeping it open as a possibility,” she said. “I chose CMU because it’s close to home and my dad is an (alumnus), so he was pushing for me to go here too.”
Crouse's high school head coach contacted Tisdale, helping connect her with CMU lacrosse.
Crouse played defense all four years at Hartland High School. She was named Michigan Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association First Team All-State in the 2013 and 2014 seasons along with first-team conference honors.
She holds the state record for most assists in a game with 14. She also ranks in the top five in Michigan for most assists in a single season with 70 in 2014 and most career assists with 117.
Besides training and putting in hours on the lacrosse field, Crouse spends her time at CMU studying biology. She has a passion for animals and hopes to attend veterinarian school at Michigan State.
Tisdale said her staff looks for players who stand out on and off the field.
"We look for those intangible things like the hustle plays," she said. "I think it's pretty easy to put the ball in the back of the net and stand out that way, but we look for other ways that players stand out. In our mind that means hustle plays in the midfield, assisting teammates, running through a ground ball hard or causing a turnover."
Crouse has played three of CMU’s seven games, starting once. She hasn’t attempted a shot yet and has picked up five ground balls on defense for the 3-4 Chippewas.
The team starts Atlantic Sun Conference play Wednesday at Detroit.
“It’s exciting because we’re going in as underdogs,” Crouse said. “But we’re hoping to surprise people. We’re building the foundation of the new program so that’s been really exciting for me.”
