By K.D. Norris
New Godfrey-Lee Public Schools athletic director Tray Crusciel, on his first day on the job, had to help make a hard decision about the Legends football program — a program which has struggled mightily in recent years including going 0-4 and being outscored 193-41 in games played in its 2020 independent schedule season.
The decision made was to move the high school program to the 8-man football game, and to scramble to find games — any games — for head coach Mark Smoes’ players.
“My first day in the office, I was tasked with helping make this decision for the district,” AD Crusciel said to WKTV this week. “After seeing the numbers we had out for the program, seeing the low numbers currently at 7/8th grade level, and the strength of the program over the last 10 years, we felt this was best for our kids right now.
“Our move to the Alliance conference will definitely help across the board, give us more level competition and, I think, with the conference move and the move to 8-man, this community and school will benefit from it greatly.”
After forfeiting a perviously scheduled 11-man game last week, the Legends will open their season by hosting an 8-man game against NorthPointe Christian’s junior varsity squad on Wednesday, Sept. 1, at 5:30 p.m.
The game will be covered by the WKTV Featured Game crew, and broadcast on cable television and made available on-demand.
This week’s game is one of four currently scheduled for Lee, with two being varsity 8-man and another JV game. (The Legends will be at Martin Sept. 20, hosting Gobles on Oct. 1, and at Dansville Oct. 21. But Crusciel said more games are likely to be added.)
“We felt comfortable (scheduling both JV and varsity games) because half our team is freshman/sophomore, but the teams we are playing are all facing the same issues,” Crusciel said. “We are keeping our eyes open for more games but we might have to get lucky.
“For the future, my plan is to seek our 8-man leagues/scheduling agreements to give us full schedules or build numbers back up to transition back to 11-man. Our enrollment sits at 505, so that tells me we have a decent number to tap into. But, this is a huge soccer community and we have kids with various interests and obstacles to overcome.”
He also said a “bright side” is that the district has 30 or so kids playing football in 5/6th grade. “Our goal needs to be getting engaged with those kids at the lower levels more and keeping them interested and engaged in football.”
Prior to last season’s 0-4 record in a season also impacted by the pandemic, coach Smoes first season leading the team, Lee was 3-6 under then coach Tom Degennaro while also playing an independent schedule.
AD Crusciel’s journey to Lee
Prior to coming to Lee, Crusciel had been an athletic director for eight years, including three at Covert, where he helped build the athletic department from 1 team to 13 teams, and to get the school back into an athletic conference. He then worked at Benton Harbor for one year. His resume includes stops at Jackson Lumen Christi and Battle Creek Lakeview.
“The reason I’m up here now (is) wife got a new job at Mercy Health (and) we have tons of family in the surrounding areas and we wanted to move closer to our family,” he said.
Crusciel holds degrees from Western Michigan and Wayne State universities, in for my physical education and sports administration. He played football growing up, he said, and has coached multiple sports.
