Hornet freshman is creating some buzz
14-year-old Cailee Crawford already has attention of major colleges
Near the end of this particular afternoon basketball class, Albuquerque’s next girls basketball prodigy wanders out near half court inside the Highland High School gymnasium.
She launches a 40-footer. Swish. Then she drains another right on top of that. And then a third, this one off the glass.
Playfully, Cailee (pronounced KY-lee) Crawford raised her right hand to the gym roof. Life is good.
“She has the best skill set I’ve ever coached,” Hornets coach Lonnie Neal said. “A skill set that could … play at a lower Division I level right now.”
Cailee Crawford hasn’t even played a high school game yet.
It may be two-plus months before prep basketball coaches will gather their teams for the first official practice of 2017-18, but another very hot national prospect, who — much like Cibola’s Amaya Brown did before her career began — is about to become a household name around here.
That would be Crawford, a 14-year-old, 6-foot freshman point guard at Highland who already has a scholarship offer from Clemson, with others lined up to probably join that list in the weeks, months and years to come.
San Diego State is coming in to see Crawford next week. USC and UNLV are highly interested. Louisville has been courting Crawford for a couple of years already.
“I feel like I am ready,” Cailee said. “I’ve been playing basketball for quite a while, and when I
play basketball I don’t think about who’s watching. I’m focused on what I’m doing and what I need to do to get better.”
If that weren’t enough, Connecticut, the nation’s premier women’s basketball powerhouse, has made a very preliminary email inquiry with Neal, asking for Highland’s schedule. This obviously does not constitute an official recruitment, but this minor bite has not escaped Crawford’s notice.
“It’s very exciting,” said Crawford, who said she models her game after one of UConn’s all-time greats, Maya Moore. “And a little nerve-racking.”
Has all this early attention, three full months before she even plays in her first varsity game, caught Crawford by surprise? Yes, she said.
“Be honest,” her sister Brooklyn, sitting next to her, said with a smile as she looked at Cailee.
“I’m not really surprised,” Cailee said.
Highland, which won 16 games in a season that culminated with a playoff berth last season, now seems poised, sooner or later, to jump into the fray at the top of Class 6A.
“I want to make this program better,” Cailee said. “I want to change people’s minds about Highland, bring attention to Highland.”
That, she already has accomplished.
Crawford is coming off a summer with the U17 adidas New Mexico Clippers.
The trick for now with Crawford is for her support group to deflect and absorb some of this attention.
“If (she) lets me and the family take care of everything, she can just play basketball,” said Neal.
Oh yes, the basketball. In short, Crawford’s selling points are these: the ability to move off the dribble with either hand, a solid midrange game, and an unusual — practically indefensible at this level — onelegged fallaway jump shot.
“I feel like she plays like she was born to play,” Brooklyn said. “And that’s not very common.”
Brooklyn Crawford, a 6-1 Highland junior forward, started playing basketball as an eighth-grader. Cailee got started at elementary school age. Their mother, Natasha, is 6-3 and a former two-sport athlete at Highland, although neither sport was basketball. Brooklyn shot 40 percent from the arc last season and is attracting college interest of her own.
And there is another sister in the pipeline, Delani, who is in the fifth grade. She is 6 feet tall. Cailee, Neal said, is already quite the celebrity around Highland’s halls.
“She has a cult following,” Neal said, laughing.
Brooklyn said she plans to mentor Cailee the next two years at Highland before graduating. Neal speculated that there may be colleges out there who want to recruit Brooklyn in an effort to entice Cailee to join her down the road.
“Really, basketball is not what I want her No. 1 focus to be,” Brooklyn said. “I want to make sure she’s the best she can be, on the court and in the classroom.”
Neal said Cailee probably is not yet equipped emotionally to fully understand the pressures she is about to face. Consider the plight of Cibola’s Brown, who clearly was exhausted by the yearslong recruiting process before she finally, and with relief, announced her decision to play for Florida State a couple of months ago.
Brooklyn Crawford agreed with Neal about her sister.
“She’ll struggle at first,” Brooklyn said. “And that’s her way. It takes her awhile to adapt to things.”
Regardless of how that progresses, Cailee Crawford seems certain to delight Hornet fans for the next four years. The gym is obviously a second home to her, and basketball is her solace.
“It kind of takes me to a different place,” she said. “When I’m feeling sad or mad, I can always count on basketball being there for me.”