‘It gives me an escape’: Basketball has major impact on Scott Collegiate student

For David Crowe, basketball has been a way to heal.

“It wasn’t really the sport but just needing an escape from all the past traumas I carry,” the Grade 12 Scott Collegiate student said.

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Crowe grew up in the foster care system in B.C. after his parents felt they couldn’t take care of him.

“They didn’t let any of my other family members know, and then my dad put me in foster care,” Crowe said.

Crowe said he was sexually assaulted multiple times while he was in foster care.

“Having to deal with that and learning how to grow from that into the person I am today took a lot of help from a lot of people and a lot of refinding my self-worth,” Crowe said.

Crowe came to Saskatchewan when he was 11 after his grandmother took him out of the foster care system.

“I’m extremely grateful for her. She has helped me so much. She took me out of that place and took a chance on me, because she never met me prior to that,” Crowe said.

“Just her being willing to, just because we are family, means the world to me. I view her kind of like my saviour because she saved me from that terrible place. She gave me a home and gave me a chance to do something with my life.”

He said only met his dad once and his mother a couple of times, and both of them died when he was in Grade 9.

“I take some blame in that, because I had a lot of anger and stuff towards her, because in my mind she gave up on me and that’s why I was in foster care. Then I learned the truth, which is not the truth at all. They weren’t really able to, and that’s just because of their own upbringing as well,” Crowe said.

For a long time, Crowe said he didn’t know how to deal with the trauma, often turning to food. He weighed nearly 300 pounds in Grade 8.

“For the longest time I hated myself and I hated how I looked,” Crowe said.

Then, in high school, he found basketball, and the sport has helped him drop to 190 pounds. It’s also turned him into a leader on the team. He said he’s still working to improve every day.

“This year I’ve developed more of an urgency and just holding myself to a new standard and learning how to navigate through that,” Crowe said.

“I do daily affirmations. I write in my journal daily and I’ve learned healthier ways to cope with it, but it will always be there. With basketball, it makes me feel good and it takes my brain away from that. It gives me a place where I can just focus fully on something without having those thoughts lingering. It gives me a relief and a break, and it gives me a place to get out that anger as well and use it on the court. In that sort of sense, that’s how basketball has helped me.”

On his journey, he has had his cousin D’Kin Crowe by his side, who has also used basketball to help him overcome trauma.

David Crowe and his cousin D’Kin have both used basketball to heal from the hardships in their lives. (Britton Gray/980 CJME)

“It gets me emotional to think about just seeing the man D’Kin has grown himself into over these years,” Crowe said.

“It makes me really proud, because we’re always together and just seeing that firsthand. I know he feels the same way about me. Just being there for each other, because we were both growing up and learning how to navigate with losing a parent… it just brought us closer,” Crowe said.

Crowe said he’s realized that what he went through wasn’t his fault, and he can control how it affects him. He said basketball has helped a lot along the way.

“I guess basketball was always my escape,” Crowe said. “I love the game so much. I love the way the shoes squeak on the floor, the way the ball smells, the sound of the net. It gives me an escape, because it gives me an area where I don’t have to think about those things, and it’s something I can give my undivided attention to and it makes me happy while doing it.

“It is really important. It is the most important thing in my life.”

Travis Goodman, the athletic director at Scott Collegiate, said he’s proud of the person Crowe has become.

“David’s more of a vocal leader. If he sees a teammate struggling or a teammate who needs encouragement or whatever it may be, he will be that voice in their ear that they need,” Goodman said.

Goodman said he’s looking for opportunities for both David and D’Kin to play basketball at the next level.

“We have reached out to a few schools in Alberta mostly, and just hoping to get some eyes on them. (We’re) in the lower division – 4A – so we don’t get as much eyes on us. These guys have done a lot,” Goodman said.

“We’re a small-number school, but what these guys have done has not only made us competitive against larger schools within the city, but (we’re) actually beating some of the larger schools within the city, so they deserve some recognition and I hope we can get some eyes on them here to maybe play basketball at the next level.”

Crowe said that opportunity would mean everything.

“One of the last things I ever told my mom was I would play college basketball. In order to accomplish these things, I need to work really hard and I need a team that’s willing to take a chance on me. I just hope that I will be able to keep my promise to my mom,” Crowe said.