Kasey Crawford is a Sooner after being lifelong Oklahoma fan
OLATHE, Kan. (BVM) – Kasey Crawford is months away from living out a dream of becoming an Oklahoma Sooner. The Olathe West ace committed to Oklahoma baseball in 2020 and signed his national letter of intent last November. For someone who’s watched Oklahoma for as long as he can remember, it’s a special time for Crawford.
“I grew up watching them and that’s what my family raised me to be, an OU fan,” Crawford said. “I remember as a kid watching OU football games so it means a lot because all my family are huge fans of Oklahoma.”
Norman is not that far away but Crawford still has a senior season with the Owls he’s looking forward to. Last year, he and Olathe West made it to the KSHSAA Class 6A state semifinals. That Owls team had 12 seniors on it and even though that’s a lot to lose, Crawford is ready to step up in their absence. It’s his turn to be a senior leader.
“Now it’s my job to teach these young guys how to do it as we’re going to be a younger team,” Crawford said. “I feel like we’re in a good spot to repeat what we did last year and just build the program for the future and this year.”
It’s a group that Crawford is confident in. He wants to leave Olathe West in good hands and he believes in the young talent the Owls have. But he’s also using this season to prepare for Oklahoma baseball.
“I’m going to use it as a chance to figure out what I need to work on,” Crawford said.
He’s already one of the top players in Kansas, with his fastball hitting the low 90s. Crawford does say he needs to know when to slow the game down and let it come to him rather than rush, but it’s something he’ll get to work on plenty. Especially since there’s a target on his back.
Being an Oklahoma baseball commit and one of the best pitchers in the state means that when opponents know Crawford is going to be on the mound, they bring their A-game.
“There’s always a target on my back,” Crawford said. “It feels like everytime I go out there but I like that. I want it there so when I take them down it means more.”
That competitiveness has always been there. The desire to be the best, compete against the best and in the process try to master the game of baseball is what Crawford loves about the game. He played plenty of sports as a kid but baseball was a challenge for him and his competitiveness wouldn’t let him back down from the sport.
“Every other sport came easy to me,” Crawford said. “This one was the only one that really pushed me to work harder as a player and as myself.”
The work he’s put in and the willingness to put in the work is what Crawford believes is his greatest asset. He’s confident he puts in as much, if not more, work than anyone else in the country and he’s willing to back up that belief.
From the work, Crawford realized fairly early in his career that he could take baseball beyond high school.
“It was around like eighth or ninth grade, so I was still deciding if I was going to play basketball or baseball for a long time,” Crawford said. “In eighth grade and ninth grade I was like, ‘I’m pretty good at baseball, like I have a shot to go play at these schools because coaches were calling. Man, I’m just going to stick with baseball over basketball.’”
Then Oklahoma started to reach out and it was all over. Crawford looked at other schools, he even says that there are some out there he’d be happy to go to but he couldn’t pass up a chance to be a Sooner.
“Oklahoma was always the first choice,” Crawford said.
Soon his family will be cheering on Oklahoma like they always do, but with the added bonus of cheering on Crawford. Meanwhile Crawford will be living out his dream of not only playing college baseball, but also being a Sooner.
