Eastside Catholic’s Will Crain does a lot. Along with captaining the varsity baseball team, the University of Washington commit maintains a high academic standard and will also serve as the ASB president for senior year. With this new wave of responsibility coming, what brought Crain to where he is today?
Crain started his youth success at a young age. At 13, he was invited to a National Tournament consisting of the 30 best players from each region. The experience opened his eyes to the levels of baseball and how good kids really were.
“It was really cool seeing all those guys and kind of put the whole baseball world into perspective for me, and I think that was kind of a cool moment to just see all the other big guys that were there. I was 13, and there were guys who were 65 lbs and throwing 90 mph — which is just absurd.”
But, with success, especially at a young age, comes a sense of easygoing. When you’re going to these tournaments and things are looking bright for your future, it’s easy to just let off the gas. When you’re doing so well in your sport, do you lose a little motivation to go out and train? How does Crain keep pushing himself to improve?
“Don’t coast. It’s easy when you start succeeding in the game of baseball to be kind of happy where you’re at, and you’re like ‘Dang, I’m doing good’. But there’s always going to be other people who are working harder and kind of just want it. If you let the chance pass you up, you’re not going to have another time to play again at the level you want to.”
Crain himself has experienced this first hand and had to dig himself out in order to continue his success on the field.
“When I was 13, I was doing good. I was kind of like ‘You know what? I’m good.’ I didn’t really start working out then when other people were working out around me, and it put me behind a little bit for about a year. I got in my head about it — like “Why am I not succeeding as much?” and then I kind of figured out like you need to put in work outside of the sport; otherwise it’s just going to catch up to you.”
It seems like the lesson was learned. Fast forward to now, and Crain is doing it all.
He is committed to UW this year and is loving the coach, the atmosphere of the team, its ability to prepare him for his next step in baseball. He will be working under Jason Kelly, who is the recently appointed head coach of UW as of June 24, 2022. Kelly also doubles as a pitching coach, a nice fit for the blossoming star in Crain.
“I’m a pitcher, and he’s a pitching coach who’s now also the head coach. So I think he’ll put a really big emphasis on the pitchers within their program. This will really help me develop and further my dreams and aspirations of playing at a higher level within baseball.”
But, with all the success in sports, academics, and leadership, how do you not get overwhelmed? Baseball is year round, academics take up a lot of time in terms of studying and homework, and being future ASB president is no side hustle. How do you do it?
“I play the guitar. It’s something I picked up probably a year and a half ago and the reason why I say that is because there’s some things you need to be able to have that you can just fall back on and kind of disconnect from reality and do a true brain reset where there’s nothing else you’re thinking about.”
Playing guitar is cool, especially in addition to you other extracurriculars. But playing the guitar isn’t a magic spell. You still have to get stuff done, so how do you manage your time? With baseball you get home at around 10:30 pm every night, and that doesn’t leave much time to do homework, especially if you have some for multiple, advanced-level classes.
“So, a big part is time management and being able to get your work done before it’s actually due; otherwise it’s going to pile up, and you’re going to be screwed”.
Despite that, no matter how well you manage them, these activities take up a lot of time. Do you still have room for other things? How does it affect life at home?
“I don’t think I get enough time to hang out with [my family]. It’s something I wish I could do more. They’re my biggest supporters and are pretty much there for me in every way that they can be, and I absolutely love them for that. But, as I’ve grown up in sports, school, and other things, have come into my life. It’s just not as easy to be home as it was, and it’s just starting to kind of separate us more and more, so I don’t think there’s enough family time in there”
On the surface, Crain seems to be crushing it in nearly every regard. But what got him here? What drives him to get out of bed and work hard every day?
“I just love to compete. I always want to do better than the person who I’m up against and the people around me. I won’t always like show it, but it’s something that I do and pretty much everything that I do in life whether it’s grades to the baseball field. I always want to do better than my friend or the person I’m going against.”
Having a competitive edge is vital for doing well in sports. It helps drive you to always outwork your opponent, and it’s the source for a lit of Crain’s success. In school it’s the same way. Crain’s willing to compete makes him want to do better than his peers. But what about in the social ring? Do you need to turn it off sometimes?
“When I’m around my family or people who are close to me, not in like a baseball regard. Because if you go and try to compete at everything you do against the people who are closest to you. It can create a divide if you’re not careful. I would say people will kind of start getting upset at you if you want to compete over the littlest things and I think you need to tone it down sometimes.”
At the end of the day, Crain is a regular guy — with a lot of responsibilities coming his way. But with a little competitive edge, time management, and a great support system surrounding him, it’s hard to see anything other than more success coming his way.
