Glenwood School girls basketball coach Julie Humphries received a message a few years back from a parent. The mom had heard about the Lady Gators’ need to fill a “post” position on the team and had a daughter who might be interested.
“They were home schooling,” Humphries said. “I think they had moved to Opelika recently. Audrey was going to be a sophomore and wanted to play basketball.”
Audrey Crowe, 18, is a senior at Glenwood School in Smiths, Alabama. She was homeschooled from fifth grade through ninth grade, moving to Alabama from Tennessee in the eighth grade. She got her start with basketball in the second grade with Upward Bound basketball, a faith-based program numerous churches across the country offer.
In middle school, she played basketball along with soccer and participated in cross country through a home schooling organization in Tennessee. When Crowe’s family moved to Opelika, she traveled to Auburn to play basketball with Ballard Christian School, which allows home schooled students to participate in school athletics.
Crowe learned of Glenwood and its winning girls basketball program in a roundabout way.
“A friend from church had a friend who went to school at Glenwood,” Crowe said. “She played on the team, and she told her friend about needing a post player. My mom contacted Coach Humphries, and after I came over to look, we decided for me to attend school here.”
Julie Humphries has been head of the girls basketball program for eight years. During that time, she coached two state championship teams and won two region titles. Humphries expects a lot from her teams, and she gets it. In 24 years of coaching girls basketball, Humphries has learned a thing or two.
The first year Crowe attended Glenwood, she played varsity. Standing six feet tall in her socks, Crowe said she has always been “the tall girl.” She played post or center all of her basketball career and sees her strength as rebounding, also being best down low. She gave herself a little credit for being pretty good with assists, too.
“Being tall helps,” she said with a smile.
That first season as a Lady Gator happened to be the 2014-15 basketball season, which ended with Crowe gaining a state championship ring. The normally quiet and reserved young woman became animated when talking about the experience.
“It was just incredible,” Crowe said. “I will never forget that night and how it all happened. It was a tough season, but it was all worth it.”
When Crowe talks about a tough season, she is actually speaking of her own experiences of adjusting to regular classroom teaching and life as a student in a bricks and mortar school. Glenwood is a small private school where the majority of students have attended with each other since grade school. Being the new kid was difficult, and not living in the community added to the transition.
“It was just a hard year,” Crowe said, speaking quietly about that time. “Just adapting to the structure, seeing the same people every day. I didn’t know anyone. The person who told my friend about the basketball team, I had only met her once.”
Basketball became her connection to all things in the Gator Nation. Crowe said the team supported her and the coaches were understanding. It took a while to get her balance, but playing basketball was the best part of her school life.
Crowe was good at basketball, too. According to Humphries, Crowe averages 12 points and nine rebounds a game.
As her junior approached, the steady and reliable athlete grew more confident off the basketball court as a student. Academics were never an issue. She maintains a 4.3 GPA and scored an impressive 30 on her ACT, an admission tool for colleges. Socialization with her peers developed when classmates discovered her warm, genial personality.
“When she first came here, she was so quiet,” Humphries said. “Very polite, but quiet. Now, it’s like she just bloomed. She talks more and with the other girls; she is just one of them.”
Perhaps the best indication of Crowe’s adaptation to school life came recently in a telling way. In October, Crowe was named Glenwood’s 2016 Homecoming Queen. The selection of the court is voted on by the student body. Basically, Crowe went from knowing no one as a sophomore to becoming popular enough as a senior to win the homecoming queen nomination.
“I was never expecting it,” Crowe said, shaking her head and displaying an obviously humble attitude about the honor. “I couldn’t believe it. It was just overwhelming.”
Going into the 2016-17 season, Crowe and her teammates have high expectations. Humphries acknowledged the team has the potential to take another run at another state title. The Lady Gators went 24-9 last season. They lost just one senior from last year’s team, while they have also gained a couple of players who are promising as contributors.
Humphries feels Crowe has an important role on this year’s team.
“She has to produce for us offensively, and we expect points from her every night,” Humphries said. “She does a great job rebounding and blocking shots for us inside as well. She is a big part of our plan this year, and (we’re) expecting big things out of her for her senior year.”
Crowe is not pursuing a scholarship to play basketball in college. She said that to do that, she would have to attend a smaller school, which is not part of her plan. Auburn University is high on her list, and she is also thinking of Liberty University. Her long-range plans are not crystal clear, but mission work is a possibility, which is why she is leaning toward a degree in Global Studies.
“I would really like to give this season all I’ve got,” Crowe said. “It’s my last one, and I want to feel good about leaving. Our team is good. The dynamics of our personalities, we just mesh together. I am so excited about the year because it should be a good year just for the sake of basketball.”
Columbus Valley/January 2017
Audrey Crowe
Glenwood School
Smiths, Alabama
Written by: Beth Welch
Photos by: George McDuffie
From Homeschooled to Homecoming Queen
