There are plenty of ways to define athleticism, and allowing for nuance opens the category up to a broad range of people, but at the end of the day there are no definitions of the word that don’t include speed and power.
Ultimately, the ability to run, jump, and explode are three essential components for anyone who would like to excel at sports, and there’s no way around it.
Which is why a freak injury to senior Dravyn Crowell early in the summer could have been absolutely devastating for the Tyrone football team.
Tyrone is a team with plenty of strong athletes, but in terms of raw ability, of checking the boxes that say a player can run fast, jump high, and explode with authority, Crowell is about the realest of the real deals (he ran an 11.3 100 meter last spring). Kids like him don’t grow on trees in the borough, so when a team has a guy like that, they need him on the field.
So flash back to early June. The Golden Eagles were competing in a 7-on-7 league at Mansion Park in Altoona, and Crowell was running a vertical route that he had probably run 100 times in his years playing receiver at Tyrone.
Crowell had to make an adjustment on a ball that was slightly underthrown, and the result was an injury that nearly put him on the shelf for his entire senior season.
“I turned and jumped, and when I came down I just landed wrong,” Crowell recalled. “I snapped my fibula, and my ankle shifted out about 3 centimeters, and I did some ligament damage. I heard it snap immediately. There was a guy standing in the middle of the field, and I looked up and told him I broke my leg.”
I thought he was out for the year, and my heart just broke for him. He put so much work and time and effort into preparation, and he just looked so good.
John Franco
Tyrone coach John Franco didn’t think at first the injury was as severe as it ended up being, but when he learned the extent of it he was crushed.
“I thought he was out for the year, and my heart just broke for him,” Franco said. “He put so much work and time and effort into preparation, and he just looked so good.”
It was a feeling Franco had experienced before. In 1998, starting running back Mark Wyland suffered a torn ACL at a summer camp at Penn State, threatening to curtail his senior season before it began.
However, like Wyland, who rehabbed an entire summer to play a 13-game season in the best sports brace that was known at the time, Crowell was determined not to let his injury prevent him from playing his final year of high school football.
“Once the x-rays came back and they said I needed surgery, I was kind of devastated,” Crowell said. “I didn’t even know when I would be able to come back. They initially said three months, which would have put me at game 7 or 8. That was my motivation, once I hit therapy, to hit it as hard as I could to get back as soon as possible. I ended up coming back three weeks earlier than expected.”
It’s difficult measure the value of a player like Crowell in the lineup. A starter since he was a sophomore, Crowell led the team in takeaways as a junior from his spot in the secondary with 7. But numbers don’t completely tell the tale with Crowell. He’s got more than 300 career receiving yards, but he’s never been the team’s top target. Instead, he’s a player who can always find ways to get open and stretch the field. He’s never led the team in touchdowns, and yet last season he scored in three different phases of the game, getting TDs on a punt return and interception return to go along with two receiving scores.
Simply put, Crowell is a playmaker, and that goes back to his pure athleticism, which is something that can fade quickly if one can’t trust his body. That was a hurdle as big as the physical obstacles Crowell faced upon his return to game action in Week 4 against Bald Eagle Area.
“It was a big adjustment, and I was really timid at first,” he said. “I didn’t know if my ankle was going to give out or if I was going to be up to speed. Physically, I’m still 90-95 percent, but mentally by the Bellwood game, once I got a couple of receptions, I was back and ready to play football.”
Crowell’s effect on the team has been noticeable, particularly in the win-loss ledger. Tyrone is 4-1 with him in the lineup and its defense is greatly improved, especially against the pass.
Crowell got his first pick of the season last week in Tyrone’s 35-12 win over Central Cambria after getting his first touchdown reception three weeks earlier against Bellwood-Antis.
The comeback has been nothing short of amazing for Franco to witness.
“He said from Day 1, ‘Coach I’ll be back, full speed, and nothing’s going to stop me,'” Franco said. “The only thing that has been a problem is he sometimes works too hard. He’s developed a case of shin splints because he’s pushed so hard to get his ankle ready, so we’re forced to limit his practice time. He makes plays. He’s just a football player, and he takes pressure off Andrew Weaver, and Brady Ronan, and Ashton Walk because teams can’t just focus on them.”
Crowell said natural ability plays into his performance between the lines, but he added that it comes down to preparation and mindset just as much.
“It takes instinct. You can’t be scared to go out and make a play,” he said. “But you also have to take rep after rep in practice, and watch film, and constantly be working on your game.”
ORANGE AND BLACK 