Patrick Croft is headed to nearby Elmira College to play men’s soccer following six varsity seasons at Odessa-Montour.
His school took time to celebrate Croft during a signing ceremony Thursday, June 11. Croft was introduced by Greg Gavich, who is O-M’s athletic director and was Croft’s first soccer coach for the Hector Fudge under-5 team in the Chemung Valley Soccer Association.
Croft, 18, was a three-time Interscholastic Athletic Conference first-team all-star at O-M and helped the Grizzlies to back-to-back IAC South Small School titles his last two seasons. The midfielder and three-year team captain registered 24 goals and 16 assists those two seasons. He also excelled in wrestling for the Grizzlies.
Croft, who lives in Montour Falls, is the son of Chris Croft and Alichia Decker.
He plans to major in environmental science at Division III Elmira College, with hopes of working with waterways and fish after graduation.
Question: Can you talk about how much your coaches helped you?
Answer: My first varsity coach, Kenny May, really taught me a lot. More as a person than most coaches would. We didn’t have great seasons. A lot of seniors graduated, rebuilding years, but we got there eventually.
Then Tanner Dupuy, my second varsity coach for my fifth and sixth year on varsity, we really picked it up, got a good group of guys, started doing well.
Q: What made you choose Elmira College?
A: I got a full ride there and I can play other sports like club hockey while I’m there. It seemed smart to me.
Q: What stood out about playing soccer at O-M?
A: It’s a family. It’s so tight-knit that you know everybody, everything about everybody. It’s just a bunch of brothers out there.
Q: What was the key to winning back-to-back division titles?
A: A lot of teamwork. We’ve had a couple times where we’ve been individuals on the soccer field, but when we made it click we made it click well and really got it done.
Q: What will you miss the most about Odessa-Montour?
A: Knowing everybody. Walk down the hallway and you can say hi to 50 friends that I walk by.
Q: When you were a tyke, did you envision a future playing college soccer?
A: I’d always wanted to do a lot with my soccer career, but I honestly didn’t think I’d make it this far. Very happy.
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: 6 questions with Elmira College soccer commit Patrick Croft of O-M
Reporting by Andrew Legare, Elmira Star-Gazette / Elmira Star-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Andrew Legare, Elmira Star-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
