Valley Center’s Chase Crawford is a tackler with a purpose

It’s 6:30 a.m. and Chase Crawford is waking up his younger brothers and sisters. His Valley Center football teammates are lifting weights before school, but Crawford is at home making sure his siblings don’t fall back asleep. If they do, he turns off the fan, turns on the light and rips off the covers.

The rest of the morning is spent in family devotion, eating breakfast and helping the little ones get ready for school. Then he takes two of his sisters to school.

The third of 11 children, he’s the oldest still living at home, so family trumps football.

Crawford averages 18 tackles heading in Valley Center’s Friday game at Andover and has grabbed the attention of college coaches. Valley Center coach Caleb Smith thinks he could be a standout at a NCAA Championship Subdivision school.

But football ranks fifth behind God, family, friends and school.

“People have been telling me I have a future (in college football),” Crawford said. “I just don’t think that’s where God is calling me.

“I’m not saying I’m not open to offers. I’m open to that. But at the moment, that’s where God is calling me.”

His dad, Danny, is the pastor of Faith Church in Valley Center, and his grandpa, Dan, and uncle, Eric, are pastors.

Crawford has the qualities needed to be a pastor.

“He has a calm spirit about him, he’s not quick to judge, he has a good heart and he sees the good in most people,” said Chase’s mom, Kim. “He observes before he makes judgments and he’s very forgiving.”

Crawford has a laid-back attitude, which sticks out in a big family where noise and a level of chaos is the norm.

Yet he’s used to helping. If his parents are running late after church, he takes the younger children home and gets them settled.

On the field, his aggression is revealed in formidable fashion.

“The way we run the defense, he’s making tackles at three yards or the line of scrimmage,” Smith said. “We’re a run-aggressive defense in a league where running is the primary thing.

“He just has a knack for the ball. He flies around. He’s a great form tackler. He’s just a technician when it comes to making tackles.”

Crawford, who lived in Texas until sixth grade, loves football. But when he was younger, it took some bribery to get him to tackle.

“When he first started playing, he was scared to tackle,” Kim said. “My husband told him, ‘Every (solo) tackle you get, $5.’ Then he had to move to $1 because he kept hitting so much.”

Crawford became such a prolific tackler that his dad quit paying him.

Crawford played linebacker as a sophomore, but moved to strong safety as a junior in order to shore up the secondary.

“He’s such a good linebacker, that we worried about (the adjustment), but it fit him perfectly,” Smith said. “He was good at linebacker, but he’s more effective as a safety.”

Crawford doesn’t blow away opponents with speed, but he takes the correct angles to get there.

He thrives on the football field and plays with a deep-seated passion. But football isn’t everything.

“As dad, I’d really like to watch him on Saturdays,” Danny Crawford said. “He wants to go for his pastoral theology degree. He knows what God’s got for him. That’s Chase. He’s a great kid.”

And Crawford knows what he wants.

“I want to see people go to Jesus, lead people to Christ. Get them saved and baptized,” Crawford said.

“I’m not afraid to share my beliefs. If people want to ask me, ‘Do you love Jesus? Yes.’ I’m not afraid to tell people that. It doesn’t really bother me if people don’t want to hear it. That’s kind of their problem.”

Crawford takes his role in his family seriously. When the bulletins need to be folded for church, he helps. If he’s asked to help set up or put away something at church, he’s there.

His parents recently asked him to work with a special-needs church member.

“We were in a bind and needed another worker,” said Kim Crawford. “I said, ‘Would you be interested in helping?’ He said, ‘yeah, Mom, that’s not a problem.’ We have a lot of adults who are fearful in that area, but he cares about people around him.”

If his parents need help around the house or with his siblings, he rarely complains. When his littlest siblings want to wrestling, he’s ready.

Oh, he takes his time away. As laid back as he is, he needs some time to himself in what can be a noisy household, and that usually comes with some time spent with “Call of Duty” on Playstation 4.

He has his own room, although he has visitors at times.

“Some of the little kids will put a pallet on the ground and lay there, and sometimes some of the teenagers in the house will go to the living room, make a pallet for everyone and we’ll watch a movie and fall asleep,” he said.

“… New people are always astonished about how many kids we have. They ask how we like it. Well, it’s always an adventure with my family. You never know what’s going to happen.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 1:41 PM with the headline "Valley Center’s Chase Crawford is a tackler with a purpose."