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Life takes on new meaning Crenshaw says she�s changed for the better since car accident By Tim Trower Lu Crenshaw has changed. They say a brush with death will do that to a person. Her soccer, until recently, was restricted by pain and rust. Her daily routine includes a visit to the training room. Her relationships with family and friends are stronger. Her view of her future, her destiny, is inspired. Much change has occurred in the 1� years since the car she was driving slammed into the side of a van, leaving her with two shattered arms, multiple cuts and abrasions and a deeply imbedded belief that there�s a reason her life was spared. And yet, she wouldn�t change a thing. She would not turn back time and prevent the accident if she had the power to do so. "I�m a totally different person now in such a better way," says Crenshaw, a former North Medford High soccer star who had to redshirt her freshman season last year at St. Mary�s College in Moraga, Calif., because of injuries from the June 1999 accident. "The accident opened my eyes to a lot of things," she says. "I don�t think I�d trade the experiences I�ve had. I�ve learned so much and grown so much. I have better relationships with my family. It makes you realize how important people are. I don�t take anything for granted now because you can�t." Among her epiphanies was that, "God has a big plan for me. I really should not be alive. There�s something big that I will do in my life because it wasn�t my time." She�s already doing something big in soccer: She tied the school record with four goals Sunday as St. Mary�s upset 15th-ranked Santa Clara, 4-2. That performance came on the heels of a 2-1 win over Michigan State Friday, in which Crenshaw scored the winning goal, unassisted, in double overtime. And, she will almost certainly be named the West Coast Conference player of the week today. Whether future achievements will be measured on a grander scale remains to be seen. For the moment she�s happy to be alive, happy to be playing. Lu and her brother, Dominic, were headed to Bend to visit friends, then it would be on to Lake Billy Chinook for a relaxing stay on their uncle�s houseboat. It would be a summer fling before Lu started her college soccer career at St. Mary�s, the school she�d signed a letter of intent with in the spring. Facing them on Highway 97, waiting to turn, was an Oregon Department of Transportation van. "I saw him, I saw him waiting to turn, then he turned in front of me," recalls Lu. "I locked my arms and slammed on my brakes." Her car slid 165 feet before striking the side of the van, then traveled another 110 feet and rolled several times before ending up 35 feet off the road and upside down. Dominic, now a senior on the North Medford High boys team, suffered neck injuries and would later battle nightmares, but was able to rush to his sister�s aid. "He thought I was dead," says Lu, who was unconscious, blood serving as a horrific epoxy and pasting hair and dirt to her face. "I was hanging upside down with my arms broken. He doesn�t do well with blood, and he was yelling at me. "I remember waking up outside the car and just screaming. My arms were hurting, my legs were hurting. It was awful." She spent three days in the hospital, where they pieced her arms together with three metal plates and 18 screws � they�re still in her and will be removed in December � and was sick most of the time from a reaction to her pain medication. Among her visitors was the driver of the van, who suffered little more than whiplash. "He brought two dozen roses to the hospital and apologized so much," says Crenshaw. "He was very sympathetic. There�s no way I could be mad at him. He was a young guy, and I felt bad for him. He was so sorry. He said he didn�t see me." When Crenshaw committed to St. Mary�s, Gaels coach Paul Ratcliffe was aware of her soccer talent; in the months after the accident, he got a glimpse of her fortitude. "Sometimes you get tests in life, and if you fight and get through them, you can really prove some things," says Ratcliffe. "They say it only happens to the ones who are strong enough to deal with them. I definitely think Lu is strong enough to deal with it." When school started in the fall, Crenshaw immersed herself in her studies and went to each soccer practice. She worked by herself, volleying, heading and running � but nothing that involved contact. It wasn�t until the spring of this year that she could practice with the team. "I hadn�t played competitively since high school," she says. "It had been almost a year, then I was thrown in with these girls. I was pretty hard on myself because it was so frustrating." She was further vexed when she reinjured an ankle that she�d hurt as a senior at North Medford. This time, it put her in a walking cast for a month. This fall, she finally got to play, contributing two goals � one came in a 1-0 win over Oregon State � and an assist through the Gaels� first half-dozen matches. But her health woes weren�t over, and a variety of ailments surfaced. A loose pelvis, she says, made her walk awkwardly, and that aggravated stomach and leg muscles. "From the ribs down," she says, "I was screwed up pretty much. I was sore in a lot of different places." She sat out more than three weeks of the season and visited a physical therapist, who did wonders in getting her realigned, Crenshaw says. The results bear it out. In five games since returning to action, she�s scored six goals and has four assists. This is what Ratcliffe had planned for her all along. He just didn�t think it would be this soon. "We want her to be one of our top goal scorers," says the coach. "She�s a natural goal scorer and has the ability to be one of the top scorers in Division I when she�s healthy. "She�s very fast and is one of those players who just has a nose for the goal. She gets in the right position and thrives on scoring." For the season, Crenshaw has played in 12 of St. Mary�s 17 games, helping it to an 11-4-2 overall record and a 4-0 mark in the West Coast Conference. She�s started only seven games but leads the Gaels with eight goals, five assists and 21 points. "I�ve been feeling really good lately," she says. "I�m back to normal almost. "I think yesterday (Sunday) was the most amazing day I�ve ever had. I wish I could have the feeling I had yesterday every day." So, is this her grand fate? "Who knows?" says Crenshaw. "Putting St. Mary�s soccer on the map doesn�t seem that significant. I think there�s something bigger for me out there, but I�m having a lot of fun doing what I�m doing now." They are fun times that are long overdue. Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.