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Revitalized Crum Eyes Medical Career
by Frank Burlison, Long Beach Press-Telegram
August 17, 2006
The irony is as rich as an industrial-sized slice of double chocolate
cake, a la mode - with a liberal helping of hot fudge and whipped cream
ladled on, just for the heck of it.
"It's funny," Mariko Crum said Tuesday evening after she and
her Long Beach State volleyball teammates had wrapped up a practice in
the West Gym, moments after the senior right-side opposite hitter had
discussed the lower back disk issues that have hampered her, on and off
the court, for two years.
"But my goal is to become a back doctor."
Crum is the third of Bob and Kim Crum's five children. They have all starred
at Horizon High in Phoenix, athletically and academically, before playing
college sports. Crum said she pretty much decided she was going to become
a physician "when I was 12."
Like her sisters Cassie, a recent graduate of the University of Arizona
who played volleyball for the Wildcats, and Chevon, a junior setter at
Pepperdine, Crum was trained as a dancer and that might have put a crimp
in those medical school plans.
"I wanted to dance on Broadway," she said.
What sidetracked her on that career path?
"I kept growing (eventually topping out at 6-foot-2)," she said,
tapping into her infectious smile again.
She once thought she'd end up an obstetrician, a doctor who specializes
in the care of mother and child during pregnancy and after birth.
But the physiology major wasn't a 49er long before she realized that she
was destined to become an orthopedic specialist.
With her back problems ("my disks are degenerating," she said,
not smiling) and her seeing the litany of knee, shoulder, knee and ankle
injuries that are taken for granted as being occupational hazards in her
sport, it isn't surprising.
"I think that everything I've done (and been exposed to) in life
so far puts me ahead of other people (who aspire to specialize in orthopedics),"
she said.
"I started out as a dancer and can tell you about every part of a
dancer's body (in regard to training and potential injuries).
"And then, with my family background, I was exposed to all of the
sports."
Crum's father, a commercial real estate broker and developer in the Phoenix
area, was drafted by the Cleveland Browns before playing for the St. Louis
Cardinals.
The oldest of the five children, Conan, played offensive tackle at the
University of Arizona and is now studying for a PhD in economics at the
University of Texas.
The youngest child, Dax, is a freshman quarterback at Arizona State.
"I've experienced it or seen it all," Crum said with regard
to athletic injuries. "I know how devastating they can be (for an
athlete)."
Crum learned of her back's condition while in high school, when Conan's
football career ended during his sophomore season at UA because of disk
problems.
"I was told (by doctors) that it shouldn't be an issue because I
didn't play football," she said.
And, for the most part, it wasn't until early in her sophomore season
in LBSU coach Brian Gimmillaro's program.
"It just started to wear on me," she said. "And then, in
my sophomore season, I slipped and tore a disk."
Crum toughed out the rest of the season and then played well enough as
a junior (2.2 kills and 1.1 blocks per game with a .298 hitting percentage)
to earn honorable mention All-Big West Conference honors.
That she played in 99 games (out of a possible 110) during Long Beach's
25-7 and conference co-champion season speaks volumes about her focus
and pain threshold.
"She could have very easily and legitimately given up (her volleyball
career)," Gimmillaro said. "It's a testament to her character
that she hasn't."
After consultations between Crum, orthopedic specialists and Gimmillaro,
it was decided that Crum's back needed a long layoff from the wear and
tear and pounding it takes from the constant jumping and lateral movement
on the court.
So she skipped spring individual workouts, didn't play on the 49ers' May
exhibition tour of Europe - she did make the trip - and didn't get on
a court all summer until reporting for the start of practice last week.
The words came out measured and cautiously.
"It feels very good right now," she said.
She smiled.
"Yeah," she said, "definitely ... knock on wood.
"But there is no question the back feels a lot better."
Sara Kroneberger, a Long Beach teammate of Crum's for three seasons and
now a substitute teacher in the Long Beach Unified School District, never
ceased to be amazed by Crum's tolerance for pain.
"But she always worried more about how her (injured) teammates were
feeling more than she did for herself," Kroneberger said.
"It was always, `How is your back?' or `How is your knee?' She was
such a great teammate."
And she's a pretty cool sister as well.
After wearing jersey No. 17 during her freshman season, Crum approached
assistant coach Debbie Green with a request:
Could she switch her jersey number to 79?
How could she have gotten anything other than a thumbs-up when Green relayed
the reasoning to Gimmillaro?
Conan Crum wore jersey No. 79 before his football career came to an untimely
end.
"My brother worked so hard (to be a football player) and it was so
hard to see that taken away from him," Crum said.
"So I asked Debbie if I could take his number (in tribute)."
Two years later, her brother still feels touched by the gesture.
"I wasn't expecting it but it didn't surprise me because she is always
trying to do something to support others," he said from Austin, Texas.
"She's a great sister."
Crum hopes she'll be called a "great doctor" some day.
She plans to take the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) in the spring
and apply to "about 20" medical schools in June.
"We were in the cafeteria the other day," Crum said.
"I said, `2012 - does that sound far off, girls (teammates)?' They
said, `Yeah."' The smile was its brightest and most confident.
"I told them, `Well, that's when I'm getting out of medical school,"'
she added.
Count on it just as assuredly as she does - and anyone who has been around
her.
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