Forward May Be at Crossroads of His Career

Crossroads High power forward Austin Croshere discovered the college recruiting game can be much like inviting a popular girl to the senior prom.

One minute you think you have a date. The next minute you don’t.

Nearly a month after being dropped from consideration by California and Connecticut and being put on hold by Notre Dame, Croshere has had to rethink his plans.

Croshere, who helped lead Crossroads to a Southern Section Division IV-A championship last season, might make a decision about a college as early as today, although players cannot sign letters of intent until the Nov. 11-18 signing period.

The decision: Accept a scholarship from Providence now or Notre Dame later.

Notre Dame has exhausted its supply of scholarships but would like to give Croshere a scholarship to play in the fall of 1994. The 6-foot-9 senior would have to sit out the 1992-93 season, attend a fifth year of high school at a college preparatory school and wait to receive his dream scholarship.

Croshere, however, can give an unwritten commitment to Providence and hopefully begin his college career in 1993. He met with Providence Coach Rick Barnes on Wednesday and will meet with Notre Dame Coach John MacLeod today.

“If I decide I want to go to a prep school and wait a year, I’ll go to Notre Dame,” Croshere said. “If I don’t, I’ll go to Providence.”

Croshere, who averaged 22.1 points and 15.4 rebounds and 4.3 blocked shots a game during his junior season, has been recruited by more than 30 schools. His top three choices were California, Connecticut and Notre Dame, but he also scheduled home visits with seven other schools, including UCLA.

Croshere said UCLA was willing to offer him a scholarship, but the Bruins wanted to wait until the signing period in April.

“My impression--and they didn’t tell me this--is that they have recruits (listed) ahead of me,” he said. “If they don’t get the players they want, they would have a scholarship for me.”

Croshere has run into that situation at the other schools.

“I had my first home visit with UConn (Sept. 12) and 15 minutes before the visit, I got a call from California coaches saying they were no longer interested in me,” Croshere said. “I had a great visit with UConn. The next day Notre Dame got two verbal agreements and dropped me. I decided to make a verbal agreement with UConn without seeing the campus.”

Croshere called Connecticut assistant Howie Dickenman and said he was ready to make an unwritten commitment to the school.

Five hours later, Croshere said he received a telephone call from Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun, who said Croshere’s scholarship had been offered to Kirkland King, a 6-7 forward from Baton Rouge, La.

Dickenman told the Hartford Courant that the school’s recruiting policy requires a campus visit before a scholarship is offered and that King already had visited the campus.

Croshere canceled last weekend’s scheduled visit to Connecticut.

“Neither party is interested in the other anymore,” Dickenman said. “It was sort of a mutual understanding.”

Croshere was impressed with Providence during his visit to the school on Sept. 19-20.

“I really enjoyed meeting the coaches at Providence,” Croshere said. “It’s a basketball town and they take basketball really seriously. I like the fact that Providence is part of the Big East Conference.”

Croshere returned Sunday evening after visiting Notre Dame, which re-entered the recruiting derby two weeks ago.

“I like MacLeod,” Croshere said. “But I’m not sure if I want to go to another year of high school.”

Croshere is hopeful of making a decision in the next two weeks.

“Hopefully, I will make a decision as soon as (tonight),” he said.

More recruiting--Crossroads High guard Bakir Allen would like to attend Stanford, but Coach Daryl Roper said he has been unimpressed with Cardinal recruiting efforts.

“They’re recruiting, but not as hard as they should be,” Roper said. “I think they’re looking at two other kids who may or may not pan out.”

Allen, the son of former UCLA and NBA star Lucius Allen, also is being recruited by UC Santa Barbara and Oregon State, according to Roper.

Drought ends--Venice ended a two-game scoring drought in a 15-6 victory over Manual Arts in a Coastal Conference game last week.

Fullback Dave Shaibi scored the Gondoliers’ first touchdown on a 17-yard run. The Gondoliers used a hook-lateral play to score their second touchdown. Larry Atkins caught a 10-yard pass from Mike Blasi and pitched to DeAntwan Young, who ran another 26 yards for the score. Atkins had 109 yards in 14 carries to lead Venice.

Fairfax also ended its losing streak, defeating Los Angeles, 31-6, and St. Monica beat St. Anthony, 30-14, for its first win.

“The gorilla is off our back,” St. Monica Coach Norm Lacy said. “They usually say its a monkey, but it’s been so damn long since we won that it became a gorilla.”

University, which has been shut out four consecutive games, and Santa Monica remain winless.

Off and running--The Hamilton High girls’ cross-country team finished second in the nine-team Conference Classic Oct. 1 at Pierce College.

Yankee junior Genevieve DeBose won the race in 21 minutes 26 seconds. Last season, DeBose finished fifth in the mile during City Section track finals. Senior captain Leticia Lamas ran 23:43 and placed 11th for Hamilton.

In the girls’ team competition, Taft won the division with 46 points, Hamilton had 61 and South Gate finished third at 66.

The boys’ team was without four of its top seven runners. Omar Marroquin finished fifth overall at 16:44. Marroquin is the defending City Section champion (B division) in the 800 and 1,600 meters.