RE Log Spring 2018

SPRING 2018 Ransom Everglades LOG 17 and Anatomy and Physiology classes I took was infectious, and without a doubt helped forge my career in medicine.” “He has changed so many kids’ lives for the better – including mine,” said Franchesca Burgos ’14 , who is on the women’s cross country team at Tufts and majoring in cognitive and brain sciences. “I am eternally grateful and feel incredibly blessed to have been Doc’s athlete, student and advisee.” Where it all began Crabtree’s personal journey lends insight into his profes- sional one. As a student in junior high in Wooster, Ohio, Crabtree wanted to make the track team so desperately, he spent four months training on a tiny oval (1/10th of a mile) in the basement of a local YMCA. He aspired to run the 800, a half-mile race. But the young Crabtree was a frail child who had asthma. He exhausted himself on the day of tryouts. He entered competitions for several events before the 800, then found himself too tired to perform well in that event. He failed to make the team, but salvaged the day: He asked the track coach if he could serve as the team’s manager. That small request ignited what would become a defining Doc pursuit: helping others do their best. If he couldn’t always cross the finish line himself, he could share his passion and knowledge to help others excel. In high school, he competed on the swim team and ran recreationally. He walked on to the Ohio State track and field team, then joined the team at Wooster College after he transferred as a junior. He was ineligible to compete because of transfer rules, but grew to love running. “I was never a star runner,” he said. “I ran a 52.3 [sec- onds in the 400 meters] indoor my senior year. I was decent, but I was never a star. I was a good practice athlete. I loved being part of a team, and the physical challenge.” His interest in science also grew at that time. Because he had been in advanced math since eighth grade, he fulfilled his math requirement early in high school, which gave him the freedom to take physics and a second year of biology at the same time – while putting off calculus until college. Crabtree “Doc has instilled a sense of tradition and sisu [a Finnish term that loosely translates to ‘resilience’] into each team. Doc does more than coach girls to succeed in meets. He expects his girls to have the guts, inner strength, to have sisu in their academic, athletic and personal lives. Doc is a perfect example of practicing what he preaches. His ‘100 percent in’ attitude as a coach, a teacher and a mentor is contagious to all those around him. I feel blessed to have been one of his athletes and excited to have been his assistant coach for 10 years and able to be part of the Ransom Everglades girls’ cross country tradition.” Tracy Friedlander Ley ’02 Third-grade teacher at St. Louis Covenant School in Miami