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Sky's the Limit for Crimes
by JP Hoornstra, San Bernardino Sun
September 26, 2007
LONG BEACH - Alexis Crimes was a 6-foot-2 sophomore in high school when
her teammates first dared her to dunk a basketball, and she will tell
you she dunked it on the first try. So will, presumably, her teammates
at Quartz Hill High School who saw her leap, reach and dunk on a 10-foot
rim once upon a time.
That was six years ago. Crimes now is a senior at Long Beach State, her
height improved by an inch, her vertical leap up to 10-9. This was all
invisible to the 49ers' men's squad as it ran the court at practice last
week and Crimes studied volleyball charts in her lap at the bleachers
of the Pyramid. On this day, Crimes didn't mind the anonymity.
She did, however, seem to care a month ago, when a neighbor and her daughter
didn't know Crimes was a volleyball player and has been, exclusively,
for five years. She was a third-team All-American as a freshman, a junior
national team player and is a possible 2008 Olympian.
"I ran into this little black girl at my apartment," Crimes
said. "Her mom came up to me and said, `My daughter told me she didn't
know there were so many black female volleyball players before. Now she
wants to play.'
"It made my day. I gave her a poster - I had all the black girls
sign it - and I told her there's plenty more out there, come and watch."
For Crimes, who transferred to Etiwanda High School midway through her
junior year and graduated in 2004, moments like those make it easier to
look forward than back. She can forget about the dunks, two-sport scholarship
offers and a recruiting trip to Tucson, Ariz., where she was handed a
basketball jersey and met Andre Iguodala and Hassan Adams.
"Honestly, I thought I could do something more in this sport, I could
really affect people," Crimes said. "When I started in volleyball,
I never saw any black girls playing. I thought I could really enjoy the
sport, and really become something in the sport."
At 21 years old, she already has.
Crimes is, according to several coaches, one of the best middle blockers
in the nation. Her athleticism - her jumps, hits, speed and ability to
cover the court - is uncommon among collegiate middle blockers, most of
whom are content to clog a smaller region above and around the net.
Crimes has stayed healthy since she arrived on campus, although many of
Long Beach State's recent recruits have not. Through Tuesday, she is eighth
in school history in kills and fifth in career hitting percentage.
"Not many people," said Brian Gimmillaro, the 49ers' coach since
1985, "can do what she does."
How Crimes took up volleyball her junior year of high school, drew recruiters'
attention and became a national team player within months reads like fiction.
Crimes, a track and basketball star in Quartz Hill, a one-school city
in the Antelope Valley, said she was bored one fall and decided to play
volleyball. Her basketball hops and quickness as a hurdler translated
naturally to the volleyball court, and just weeks into the season she
had received letters of interest from UC Riverside and Long Beach.
"I saw her for five seconds and knew that was the number one player
I wanted to work with," Gimmillaro said. "I didn't need any
time.
You don't need time. I saw her move, saw her jump and her attitude just
confirmed her physical ability."
Gimmillaro said this is not rare in volleyball. Tayyiba Haneef and Cheryl
Weaver, who became All-Americans at Long Beach State, were basketball
players until late in their high school careers.
So it was with Crimes. When her mother married and relocated to Rancho
Cucamonga, Crimes transferred to Etiwanda immediately after the Quartz
Hill volleyball season concluded. But she joined a club team in Santa
Monica and commuted across Los Angeles, with her grandfather behind the
wheel, to volleyball practice after school.
Tom Pingel, a director and scout for USA Volleyball, invited Crimes to
try out for the USA youth national team after seeing her play in December
2002. The following summer, she was one of 12 players - out of an original
group exceeding 100 - selected for the team, which played a summer tournament
in Poland.
"After I went to Poland my first year - my first year ever playing
volleyball - all by myself being gone for almost two months, I think that
helped prepare me to go overseas," she said. "After that, I
could handle anything."
But before conquering the world, Crimes had a choice to make. Arizona
and Long Beach had tendered scholarships in basketball and volleyball.
Basketball had become less of a priority after her junior year at Etiwanda,
during which Crimes had trouble fitting in.
"When I tried out for basketball, nobody wanted to talk to me,"
she said, "especially when I took some girls' spots."
And in volleyball, there was that even more tantalizing chance to stand
out as a role model. Gimmillaro agreed.
"What Brian was talking to me about caught my eye more than anything
else," Crimes said. "It's what he expected from me and what
he thought of me. He saw so much potential in me that it blew me away
more than anything else."
Gimmillaro now believes Crimes can make the U.S. Olympic team in 2008.
If not next year, then in 2012, if she stays healthy.
The person least surprised by all of this is Fred Crimes Jr., the grandfather
who logged "200 and some god-dang miles a day" from Lancaster
to Rancho Cucamonga to Santa Monica and back for club practices and raised
his granddaughter until the age of 9.
To Fred, Alexis' role model, his granddaughter has carved her own role.
He was just along for the ride.
"She wanted it and went out and did what she wanted to do,"
he said. "As far as me making her, I didn't make her. It was already
in her."
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