It’s easy to forget, in these days of Name, Image and Likeness, whereby young college athletes can now cash in on lucrative commercial endorsements while still in school.
It’s easy to forget how lessons imparted on the playing field – especially for those teammates who won’t get the scholarship or nod from the pros – really can translate to success in the classroom, and then life.
Until one talks to Anton Crudup, a senior at Morgantown High School.
Sure, he’s a .300 hitter for the Mohigans: a solid second baseman with a glove born to keep grounders from turning into base hits.
He also carries a 3.8 grade point average and is known for his work mentoring younger students just entering high school.
That guidance is why he was named Student of the Month for September for Monongalia County Schools.
Eddie Campbell Jr., the Mon Schools superintendent who was also a high school second baseman, said he appreciates that Anton has put himself on the roster as an academic coach, as it were.
“Anton’s a role model, really,” the superintendent said, “especially for the younger student-athletes who are just coming up.”
The first set of advice from the coach?
Don’t procrastinate when it comes to homework or papers due.
“That’s what I tell them. Get your work done. Immediately. Don’t wait it out.”
Last-minute work, he said, is sloppy work.
Sloppy work, in turn, is graded accordingly by the teacher.
While Anton is hoping for a scholarship offer from a college in West Virginia, so he can continue playing the sport he loves in the state he loves, he’s also being realistic, he said.
Either way, he’s going to college.
Anton wants to stay in sports, preferably as an athletic trainer or an exercise science professional.
He discovered the academic side of sports literally by accident.
That was when he was sidelined by a broken ankle and started reading every book on sports he could – initially to quell the boredom.
Today, he’ll draw from that knowledge to help the younger students.
Which, the superintendent said – from one second baseman to another – makes him an All-Star.
“Anton’s a model student and a model citizen.”
