Former No. 1 High School Athlete Seeks Redemption During a Historic Run for JCSU Football

The Johnson C. Smith University football program is in the middle of the best season they have had since the sixties. One of the teams top players had nearly given up on football before joining the Golden Bulls.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Johnson C. Smith University football program is in the middle of the best season they have had since the sixties. One of the teams top players had nearly given up on football before joining the Golden Bulls.

When Quavaris Crouch walked on to the Harding University High School football field in 2015, head coach Sam Greiner asked where he had transferred from.

“I didn’t know he was a freshman. He came in there and he was probably 190 something pounds put together, you know, about close to six foot, if not six foot,” said Greiner.

Crouch played on both sides of the ball as a running back and linebacker,  and was a key piece to Harding’s cinderella state championship run.

“It was like a relief when he won the state championship. It was almost hard for him to smile because he’s put so much on his shoulders,” said Greiner.

For Crouch, football was more than a game.

“I feel like i’ll actually be able to release through football, and it helped me be happy,” said Crouch.

Crouch was named the number one player on Rivals.com his junior year. With offers from Clemson, Michigan and Florida State, Crouch felt overwhelmed by the future he could have, and it was Greiner who helped him see it through.

“I ain’t had nobody really going to take me to a recruit visits or nothing like that. Coach Greiner was the guy who took me to Clemson. Took me all those places to be able to see the world and see football. You know, I never probably wouldn’t have made it out of Exit 4, Nation Ford Road,” said Crouch.

Crouch played for the University of Tennessee for two years, transferred to Michigan State after the pandemic. There he was sidelined due to injuries in 2022, lost his academic eligibility, and with that his room and board.

In the blink of an eye, Crouch went from being NFL bound to sleeping in a barn.

“But I feel like that, it gave me the isolation that I needed. Because honestly, for me, my world always moved super, super fast. So once I got that chance, I was scared because I never had that before, time away from football,” said Crouch.

He spent that time in isolation thinking about his faith, and something Greiner told him long ago.

“Make him stand up,” Greiner would often tell his players. “And I think he really took that to heart. You go from being one of the top guys and then you hit rock bottom and then you’re climbing back the ladder.”

“Whatever we do in life, be the best husband, the best cameraman, the best football player,” said Crouch. “Just make [God] stand up and say, ‘Look what I created.'”

It is safe to say his creator is pleased with where Crouch is now – at running back, leading the charge for JCSU during one of the most successful stretches the Golden Bulls have ever seen.

“I just think that’s the most special thing,” said Greiner. “So no matter what, I don’t think he would change anything.”

“Third time’s the charm, right? And I just say it’s special. Like I couldn’t have wrote it,” Crouch said when thinking about ending up at JCSU. “I wouldn’t have put myself here. None of that. I’m living in an answered prayer each and every day.”