Crossroads Athletics Celebrates 40-Year Anniversary and Creates Hall of Fame

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CROSSROADS SCHOOL FOR ARTS & SCIENCES

Crossroads Athletics Celebrates 40-Year Anniversary and Creates Hall of Fame by tara shima, athletics communications coordinator

When Crossroads athletics began in 1973, only two sports were offered: basketball and flag football. For the first time in the young School’s history, Crossroads students could experience the thrill of athletic competition in a supportive environment.

During this time, there were fewer than one dozen athletes and one coach between the two sports. Crossroads’ student-athletes traveled to rented gyms and fields because none of these facilities existed on the School’s campus. During games, the teams played in mismatched sporting attire because there were no team uniforms. This original, motley group of student-athletes left a legacy for those who followed, not solely based on their athletic performance, but on their love for athletics that was felt long after their absence.

Now, 40 years later, the School is instituting an athletics Hall of Fame with this inaugural class, which is profiled in the pages that follow. The criteria by which the individuals are considered by the voting committee are most strongly based on Upper School athletic achievements, moral character, positive role modeling and good citizenship during their time at Crossroads and post-graduation.

Student-athlete nominees need to have graduated from Crossroads at least five years ago, and a team must have competed more than five years ago to be considered for the Hall of Fame. While the program’s inaugural class accomplished phenomenal feats during their high school careers and beyond, they have remained unique to the School because of their continued Crossroadian spirit. Their stories show what their love for a particular sport has allowed them to accomplish, but also how their ability to think critically, artistically and creatively has come into play throughout their career.

Today, Crossroads’ athletics program consists of 16 sports and 57 teams. Just as their predecessors were, these athletes are also artists, thinkers, scientists, writers, philosophers and humanitarians. The fact that all students are encouraged to participate in athletics regardless of their abilities proves that the program isn’t about winning; it’s about students growing together through sportsmanship and camaraderie.

Congratulations to all Crossroads student-athletes. You have left something valuable behind for those who come after, and for that, the School is truly grateful.

40th Anniversary of Athletics at Crossroads: Celebration Weekend Crossroads has come a long way from being a small school with an upand-coming athletics program. This year, we are celebrating the growth and strength that the Athletics Department has demonstrated throughout the years. Please save the date for the following events in June of 2014. Detailed RSVP and ticket information to come this spring.

Inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame Dinner June 7 Alumni Sports Reunion and Barbecue June 8

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CROSHERE

really became an extraordinary basketball player. He even started to catch the attention of college recruiters. It didn’t hurt that he grew from being 6 feet tall to 6 feet 9 inches by 11th-grade; however, nothing came to Austin that wasn’t earned through hours upon hours of intense work. “The thing about him is, he’s just the hardest worker you could imagine,” Paul Cummins said in a 2000 Los Angeles Times editorial that referred to Austin.

HALL OF FAME HONOREES

MEN

Austin Croshere ’93

Austin Croshere came to Crossroads as a freshman. He was a tall, thin young man who was described by his coaches as pleasant, hardworking and a man of few words. He did not make the varsity basketball team as a freshman; instead, he pushed hard to make an impression on the junior varsity team in hopes of making the varsity squad the next year.

Not someone to take a season off, Austin spent his spring season as a valued member of the junior varsity volleyball team to close out his ninth-grade year. The Boys Volleyball coach Mary Jo Deutschman (MJ) remembers him fondly as a wonderful, hardworking boy who rarely spoke. His tendency to say very little was such a strong character trait, that she gave him a dictionary as an end-ofseason gift.

Austin’s hard work paid off because he earned his place on the varsity basketball team as a sophomore; he was a power forward and a center for the team. Although his work ethic was admirable and his play respectable during his sophomore year, it was in his junior year that Austin

In his senior year, Austin earned League MVP and All-CIF honors, and he was the leading scorer in the first Division 4 CIF Championship that Crossroads won.

Throughout his junior and senior years at Crossroads, he was actively recruited and eventually chose to attend Providence College in Providence, R.I. In the 1997 NBA draft, Austin Croshere was a firstround pick. He then went on to play nine seasons with the Indiana Pacers. He was a threat from the outside with an all-around offensive game and an ability to perform well in the postseason. After his time with the Pacers, he played for the Dallas Mavericks during the 200607 season and the Golden State Warriors during the 2007-08 season. Currently, he works as a game analyst for Fox Sports, where he’s putting his dictionary to good use.

Baron Davis ’97

Baron Davis’ love of basketball started on a bumpy backyard court built by his grandfather in South Central Los Angeles.

He and his little sister moved in with their grandparents at a young age so that they could have a consistent and safe environment to call home. Baron learned to play basketball amidst older kids who did

not go easy on him simply because he was smaller. Although his neighborhood was littered with frequent gang activity, there was little pressure on him to join one because it was well known in the neighborhood that Baron only thought about one thing: playing basketball.

Baron’s grandmother wanted him to be brought up with values and to have opportunities far beyond the barriers of South Central. This is what led him to Crossroads. His former coach, Thaddeus McGrew, introduced Baron to Daryl Roper, head coach of Crossroads boys varsity basketball. From there, he became a Crossroads legend.

In 1996, during his junior year in high school, Daryl was receiving more than 20 phone calls per day from college recruiters.

At the time, he was the most sought-after high school basketball player in California and was actively pursued by some of the biggest basketball schools in the country, including the University of Kansas, Duke University, the University of Connecticut, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Los Angeles.

DAVIS

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CROSSROADS SCHOOL FOR ARTS & SCIENCES

During the following school year, as a senior at Crossroads, Baron led the School’s basketball team to the championships of The Beach Ball Classic Tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He earned the honor of MVP and a spot on the all-tournament team.

That same year he was named Gatorade National Player of the Year and a Parade AllAmerican. He was also selected to play in the McDonald’s High School All-American boys basketball game and won the Sprite Slam Dunk contest.

It was during the 1985 playoffs, Steve’s freshman year, that he was called up from the Junior Varsity Baseball team to play outfield. That team went on to win the CIF championships, and Steve remained a varsity player throughout the balance of his Upper School career. In 1987, the team won CIF again and in 1988, they were runnerups. Steve was named an All-State outfielder in 1987 and 1988 and was All-CIF in 1986, ’87 and ’88.

After all of his success in high school, he played NCAA Division 1 basketball for UCLA and was the third pick in the first round of the 1999 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets. He went on to play for the New Orleans Hornets, the Golden State Warriors, the LA Clippers, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks. Baron is currently emceeing “How I Rock It,” a new men’s style show for Esquire TV. Social activism is also at the top of his future list. “I want to help bring peace to Los Angeles,” he says. “Basically, I want to help others live the life I’ve been able to live.”

After being exposed to baseball scouts, Steve was invited to play on the National Junior Baseball Championships Team in Sioux Falls, S.D., and earned a place on the U.S. Junior National Team, which would go on to win a gold medal at the World Championships in 1988. In his senior year at Crossroads, he was recruited by Stanford, where he ended up playing ball and earning Pac 10 All-Conference. Academically, Steve flourished at Stanford, which he credits to his ability to work diligently and independently on the type of education he received from Crossroads.

Steve Solomon ’88

Steve had the desire to play baseball when he was still in diapers and watching his two older brothers play little league in Cheviot Hills Park. He started playing five-pitch by the age of 4 and that was all it took to hook him.

Steve Solomon came to Crossroads in seventh-grade, after attending Castle Heights Elementary School. It was a difficult move for him because he didn’t know anyone at the School. He bonded with a few people in the beginning and gradually made more connections while using the Crossroads batting cages that used to be located on the southeast end of the Alley. Steve played ball at his local park and made the junior varsity team at Crossroads his freshman year.

SOLOMON

After graduating from Stanford, Steve was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies, where he played for four seasons before retiring and settling down in Orange County.

Currently, he is an acting member on the board of directors for Children’s Hospital of Orange County and an investment manager for U.S. Trust.

WOMEN

Jen Anderson (Abramson) ’94

Jen Anderson (Abramson) has played baseball since the time she could walk. Her dad, an avid baseball fan from a long line of Dodgers zealots, would toss her balls when she could hardly toddle to retrieve them. She grew up attending public magnet schools,

ABRAMSON

and initially, her family intended her to continue her education in public schools.

This was until they met Chuck Ice, the Crossroads baseball coach at the time, at a tournament. Chuck encouraged Jen’s brother to attend Crossroads, and two years later, Jen followed suit.

She tried out for the Crossroads soccer team as a freshman, a sport she had played since she was a little girl, and made the varsity squad. This gave her the opportunity to bond with a team and form a new group of friends. In the spring, she joined the softball team, where she made even more friends and finally started to feel at home as a Roadrunner.

By her senior year, Jen was a three-sport varsity athlete in volleyball, softball and soccer. She was named Softball All-CIF Player of the Year as a sophomore and Softball State Player of the Year as a junior.

During all four years of her Upper School career, she earned All-CIF honors in softball.

Jen was offered an athletic scholarship covering her tuition and books to Miami University of Ohio, where she played softball her entire four years of college. She was named All-Mid-American Conference in 1997 and 1998 in athletics and academics.

To this day, she holds a number of records at Miami of Ohio including stolen bases, at-bats and hits.

Every summer, Jen would come back to Crossroads to reunite with old friends and play indoor soccer on the 21st Street basketball courts. The Middle School Athletics director at the time, Linda

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Liberman, convinced Jen to coach for Crossroads. She loved coaching, and soon after, Jen also found a passion for teaching as a Crossroads Middle School math instructor.

also named the 1995 League Singles Tennis Champion, and she was the No. 1 singles player on the team when it won the CIF title that same year.

Jamila Banks ’90

Jamila first discovered basketball in Palms Park, where she and her brother participated in after-school sports. She was in fifth-grade when she decided that she would like to try basketball; however, there wasn’t a girls team. Jamila decided that she would be the only girl on the otherwise all boys team. She thrived through her own natural talents and the encouragement of her teammates.

Jamila came to Crossroads her sophomore year after transferring from Brentwood.

She participated in Crossroads sports year-round. In the fall she was the outside hitter on the varsity volleyball team. In the winter, she was lead forward on the varsity basketball team and in spring she ran varsity track.

Her time on the basketball team was phenomenal. Jamila was awarded AllWestside for three consecutive years. She was named MVP for the Delphic League in her junior and senior years. The Los Angeles Times named her an All-Star in her junior year when she averaged 20.2 points and 10 rebounds per game and totaled 45 blocks and 62 steals. She was selected as the MVP at the Westlake School for Girls Tournament and made the Cabrillo All-Tournament Team. She was All-CIF in her junior and senior years and by the time she graduated, her basketball team had won 77 consecutive regular season games.

After graduating, Jamila played basketball for one year at Howard University. She decided to stop playing and pursue academics instead and, with the mentoring of Crossroads Spanish teacher, Rebecca, traveled throughout Latin America as an educational correspondent. She was the recipient of the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in 2000. Although district budget cuts cost her the job several

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BANKS years later, she persevered and now teaches in a Spanish Immersion program at Edison Language Academy in Santa Monica.

Jamila continues to love and participate in sports and is still an active member of Crossroads, as a mother of a student-athlete and, now, as an inaugural honoree of the Athletics Hall of Fame.

Yasmeen Yamini-Benjamin ’95

Yasmeen Yamini-Benjamin was an Upper School sophomore when she first attended Crossroads. She had come from the magnet program at Palms Middle School and chose Crossroads because of its strong academic base and promising outlook for college options. Yasmeen began playing basketball during the summer before her ninth-grade year. For years, tennis had been her sport of choice; however, basketball has always held a special place in her heart.

Yasmeen began playing as a forward guard for the Girls Basketball team in 1992. By the 1993 basketball season, she was named to the Los Angeles Times Westside Girls Basketball Second Team. In 1995, she was voted AllCIF in basketball.

Yasmeen was

Yasmeen’s athletic prowess on the basketball court caught the attention of Division I colleges. She was offered an athletics scholarship to the University of California-Santa Barbara and committed to play for them. Although her first year of competition at UCSB ended with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, Yasmeen eventually realized that the setback was a blessing in disguise. She had entered the school as a student-athlete and, due to her injury, would finish UCSB as an astounding student. In June 2006, Yasmeen was one of six people who earned her doctorate from UCSB’s Gevirtz School in counseling, clinical and school psychology. Today, Yasmeen is working as a psychologist in New York, and one of her most recent projects involved an art show for veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. For this event, art was used as a therapy for these veterans, allowing them to display issues they were suffering through.

Yasmeen was a natural athlete and a gifted student. She saw adversity as an opportunity for growth, which has made her the woman she is today. She feels fortunate to have learned the art of critical thinking at Crossroads, and she respects the values she learned during her time as a Roadrunner.

“It really does take a community to facilitate individual success,” she says. “I thank my amazing family and Crossroads for providing an opportunity (for me) to have a phenomenal education.”

YAMINI-BENJAMIN

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CROSSROADS SCHOOL FOR ARTS & SCIENCES

2008 Ceremony Honored NBA Players Austin Croshere ’93 and Baron Davis ’97; Event Includes Alumni Basketball Game

On Sept. 20, 2008, over 600 Roadrunners came together in a unique celebration: the retirement of the jerseys of Baron Davis ’97 and Austin Croshere ’93, who led their respective Crossroads basketball teams to State and CIF championships, and who both went on to play in the NBA.

In addition to the jersey retirement ceremony, Baron and Austin were at Crossroads to coach former teammates from the ’90s in an exciting and nostalgic basketball battle, which was won in the last seconds by Baron’s Red team, 45-44.

It was an evening with something for everyone: the retirement ceremony was a touching tribute to the players, the athletics program, and the whole of Crossroads School featuring long-time coach Daryl Roper as emcee and former athletic director Chuck Ice unveiling the huge jerseys hanging on the gym wall.

Then-Headmaster Roger Weaver and Crossroads co-founder Paul Cummins were surprised with official team jerseys at the event, which included a performance by the Crossroads Jazz Band.

Brin Hill ’90, who played on the Blue Team, summed up the event from a player’s perspective. “In classic Crossroads’ tradition, [this celebration] was not done in an isolated way, but rather with the spirit of the collective community in mind,” Hill said. “It was special to celebrate those guys, with whom we all share a tremendous amount of pride, and to celebrate the Crossroads Runners’ legacy.”

TEAM The 1997 basketball team was legendary.

Early in the season, Coach Daryl Roper had to close the door on reporters just to allow his team to focus and block out any distractions. The Boys Basketball team won CIF Division 4A, and it established a CIF record in its game against Calvary Chapel by compiling the most points in any division and winning by the widest margin in the history of the CIF tournament.

The team won the Division 4 state championships against Encina Preparatory High School from San Jose with a score of 91-57.

The Crossroads team was the first California basketball squad to make it to the finals in the prestigious Myrtle Beach Classic, where the top 16 high school teams in the country are invited to compete. Many future NBA stars have showcased their skills in this tournament including Rasheed Wallace, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter and, of course, Baron Davis.

The Crossroads team not only made it to finals, but it won the tournament, beating teams including Simon Gratz High School from Philadelphia. This was a huge accomplishment because Crossroads’ team became the first team from California to win this esteemed tournament.

The following players were members of the Crossroads Boys Basketball team in 1997: Cash Warren ’97, Shooting Guard, CIF Division 4A First Team Chad Gordon ’99, Guard/Forward Felipe Williams ’00, Forward Misha Taylor ’99, Forward Matt Rodman ’99, Forward/Center LeQuan Tolbert ’97, Center, CIF Division 4A First Team Garret Nichols ’98, Forward Aaron Wolfe ’98, Forward Jake Hoffman ’99, Guard Baron Davis ’97, Point Guard, CIF Division 4A First Team/Player of the Year Devrin Anderson ’99, Guard Edmund Harris ’00, Point Guard James Starr ’98, Guard Adam Chiamulon ’99, Forward Albert Gerston ’99, Forward Daryl Roper, CIF Division 4A Coach of the Year, coached the team with assistant coaches Phillip Cooley and Reuben Garcia. The team manager was Marc Brunswick.

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FRIEND OF ATHLETICS

The day Paul Cummins stood in the new student line at Stanford University, another student asked him what he was reading. Cummins had answered: “Nothing. Classes haven’t started yet.”

Years of fine private education had led to an impressive college education; however, at that moment Cummins realized that he lacked curiosity and therefore relevant knowledge. He became motivated to really learn, a drive that would ultimately lead him to pursue more effective means of teaching others.

Cummins went on to earn his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California after finishing his undergraduate work at Stanford and his Master of the Arts in Teaching at Harvard. He taught English at various schools in California before becoming the headmaster of Saint Augustine’s Elementary School in Santa Monica. Having attended and worked as an educator in many prestigious learning institutions, Cummins gained vast experience with various approaches to teaching. In 1971, he saw an opportunity to change the status quo of education and became the primary founder and headmaster of Crossroads.

Cummins formed the curriculum at Crossroads around his “five other solids”: human development, environmental education, community service, physical education and the arts. An avid sports enthusiast and

strong believer in the positive effects of a well-run sports program, Cummins introduced athletics to Crossroads as soon as the size of the student population would allow. Two years after opening the School, Crossroads boasted two teams: basketball and flag football. True to form, he brought his vision of studentcentered learning into the gym, on the field and into the pool. According to his video on www.kidsinthehouse. com, Cummins states: “For many students (athletics is) a source of joy, it’s a source of fun. It’s play. Education at its best should be play. Not only for little kids but for older kids. When we start teaching and coaching that it is something other than a game, that it’s life itself, and that winning is the only thing, then we do disservice to the kids. We put them under tremendous pressure, and we rob them of what it should be: a joyful experience.”

Athletics at Crossroads has been built upon Cummins’ foundation. Coaches are teachers who are mindful of their students’ experiences. Winning is not everything, it is a possible outcome of the learning process.

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