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Twice in one week Chance Crawford took the playing surface at David Jaynes Stadium for one last home game in two separate sports.

On Monday it was soccer. On Friday it was football.

Senior Night ceremonies tend to make emotions run high for many high school athletes, but Crawford knows he has unfinished work to do the rest of his senior year. For starters, he has a regional championship soccer game at 6:30 p.m. today against defending state champion St. Thomas Aquinas. Then there’s the football district finale at 7 p.m. Friday at Topeka Seaman where he serves as the Braves’ kicker and punter.

This is just a typical week in the life of Crawford.

Since the age of four, he has been submerged in sports. His dad, Chris, and his mother, Jean, have supported him every step of the way, with his dad coaching him in his youth.

“Sports have just been part of everyday life for as long as I can remember,” Crawford said. “I get bored and stir crazy when there is nothing to do.”

By the end of the year Crawford will have lettered in baseball four times, soccer four times, basketball three times, cross country three times and football once. His sophomore year he earned All-Kaw Valley League second team honors in his favorite sport, baseball. He followed up that honor with an honorable mention selection as a junior despite playing half of the season with a broken finger.

Crawford is no stranger to injuries. After his freshman year while playing baseball in a summer league he broke his skull. He is embarrassed to talk about why it happened because he blames himself. He went out for a fly ball and misjudged it and at the last second the ball slammed into his head, fracturing his skull. He was checked into the hospital but was sent home at first. After being hit by another ball, Jean Crawford took him back to the doctor this time fearing a concussion. It was worse, he needed surgery to fix his skull. Three screws and a couple of months on the couch did the trick and he was back to normal.

“I was pretty scared when the injury happened,” he said. “But what really scared me was heading the ball when soccer season rolled around. I wasn’t sure how my head would react, so once I was cleared it was just a matter of going out there and doing it. After the first one I knew I was fine.”

Crawford’s family is a big part of his success. His parents are at nearly every game that he plays, and they are at his sister Chelsea’s games if they aren’t at his.

“My parents have been there all along,” Crawford said. “It is nice to have that support system. If you think about it, it’s not really fair or right for them to have sacrificed almost every night to come watch me play.”

Overall Crawford appears to be a pretty humble guy. He is respectful to others including his coaches and peers, and as witnessed at a baseball camp this summer for young children he takes pride in teaching kids how to play the game the right way.

“As a freshman coming in to play sports I was able to see a lot of the older guys that were in leadership positions,” Crawford said. “They weren’t all the greatest leaders, but some were. It really taught me how to lead, and the things that I wouldn’t do in a similar position if given the chance. It just really helped shape how you were supposed to act.”

He also tries to keep his teammates loose, recalling his favorite sports memory as not something that he accomplished, or that would be considered a highlight — maybe more of a blooper.

“My freshman year sitting on the bench during a baseball game and watching my older teammate Willie Wilson slide into third base, but he came up about five feet short of the bag,” Crawford recalled. “He had to crawl the rest of the way and he was safe, but it was hilarious. We all really laughed and gave it to him. If you aren’t having fun, then what is the point, right?”

He has other interests outside of sports, though. When he was young his dad gave him a guitar, but he said he didn’t get into it that much. But recently he has rediscovered music. He plays anything that is rock and sometimes plays on an electric guitar.

“I play anything acoustic; I really like the sound,” said Crawford who says he styles himself after Jack Johnson. “I went to see him this summer in concert. He was pretty good. I’m not that good yet.”

When he is not strumming away, Crawford is more than likely thinking of what he is going to have to do between the lines of whatever sport it may be on a particular day.

“I usually start getting restless about lunchtime, but really clamp down on my school work and try to focus the rest of the day,” Crawford said, noting that his favorite subject is math. “I start to get a little nervous right before the game starts, but once it starts I calm down and just do my job.”

Crawford will be forever remembered as a crucial piece of the Bishop Ward-Bonner Springs rivalry after this year’s football matchup. Playing in his first football game since middle school, he missed an extra point and a 27-yard field, but with 11 seconds left in the game he lined up for a 34-yard field goal attempt. BSHS was trailing by two. Crawford split the uprights and sent his team home with a 29-28 victory.

“That will be one of the things that sticks with me for the rest of my life,” Crawford said. “I had never had a game-winning play before that in any sport. It was pretty nice.”

He is looking forward to playing basketball this winter and has heard that the team might be implementing a new offense. He plays the small forward position on the floor even as one of the taller guys on the team. He said that he thinks the Braves can come together and compete this season.

He is really waiting for baseball to get here, though, and the fact that Rick Moulin is staying on as coach this season has Crawford very excited.

“I think we can make a run at league with what we have coming back,” he said. “It is nice to know we have a coach that we know and can trust, and we know he knows us and can trust us.”

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