Crumb big for ’Dogs on Fridays

GREENWOOD — On any given Friday night in the 6A-West, Sebastian Crumb is the smallest player on the field.

“I’ve always been little,” Crumb said. “I knew I was always going to be one of the littlest guys out there no matter what. I’ve always had to work harder than anybody else. I was raised that way.”

Crumb, at 5-8, 148 pounds, was a giant on the field for the Bulldogs on Friday in a 35-7 win over Russellville.

Crumb was in on 21 tackles from his free safety position with four solo tackles and 17 assists.

“A lot of it was my teammates doing their job and pushing the plays to me,” Crumb said. “Then I got to make the tackle.”

Against run-heavy Russellville, Crumb shifted to more of a run defender.

“The way they run their offense, I would go down to linebacker for some plays,” Crumb said. “It was definitely fun out there. I wanted more action.”

Crumb’s performance didn’t surprise Greenwood coach Chris Young.

“He’s flying around making tackles from everywhere,” Young said. “He’s a missile. He’s fun to watch. My mom’s been around football for a long time, and her favorite player to watch is Sebastian Crumb because of the way he plays the game.”

Friday’s game wasn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime performance. He leads the team in tackles with 103 behind a team-high 25 solo takedowns for Jason Gill’s defense.

“He’s undersized, but he loves football,” Young said. “He finds a way to the ball. Coach Gill and his staff do a good job of hiding him so he can make plays. The offense doesn’t account for him.”

Crumb does go overlooked at times by opposing teams, which he just uses to his advantage.

“The big linemen go after everybody else and leave me be,” Crumb said.

Crumb played on the junior varsity team as a junior last year and was expected to be in the mix to start his senior year.

“He was a JV safety for us last year, and we expected that he would be our starting safety or had a chance to contribute at safety,” Young said. “Certainly, we didn’t expect he would have had the impact that he has had.”

He was ready to help the Bulldogs this season.

“I’ve never had any doubts at all,” Crumb said. “I’ve been used to it. From seventh grade all the way up, we’ve always played bigger schools. High school, I knew everybody was going to be bigger than me.”

Greenwood plays at Benton on Friday.

“Southside passed a lot, but besides Parkview this is one of the most athletic teams we’ve seen,” Crumb said. “They have athletes everywhere. They’re a great football team. They’ve been some of our biggest competition, but we’re ready for them.”