Now a high school senior, Desmond Crosby transferred to Beachwood in the summer from Central Catholic. The 5-foot-9 point guard is used to changes.
BEACHWOOD, Ohio – Desmond Crosby's father just received residential custody of him with a move to Beachwood in the fall of 2008.
Back then, Desmond had his mother’s last name of Abdullah.
His father, Desmond Crosby, wanted him to take the family name. The legal name change was small compared to the other adjustments in young Desmond's life.
In a new home and school, his introduction to Beachwood’s intramural sports camps began with a call to his father. The 11-year-old Crosby was about to be kicked out of a camp.
“He was playing too rough,” the father said. “We clashed a lot. Still do.”
Now a high school senior, Desmond Crosby transferred this past summer from Central Catholic back to Beachwood. The 5-foot-9 point guard on the Bison basketball team is used to changes, and his whirlwind upbringing is finally settling.
Search for stability
Crosby remembers living in about 10 different places around Cleveland as a child with his mother, Monique Abdullah.
His parents were not together. His grades suffered and his attitude wore thin.
He had one constant: his grandmother, Diana Crosby. They hung out, walked to her favorite stores. She bought him toys.
“He was kind of a little spoiled kid,” Abdullah said, “especially when his grandmother was alive.”
After she died, Abdullah and Desmond Crosby agreed their son needed a change of scenery.
“It was a lot going on with him. It came out in his school work,” Abdullah said. “He was falling behind.”
The parents decided their son needed to try living with his father, who had an apartment in Beachwood.
The move jarred young Crosby socially. His new classmates had nicer clothes, which some teased him about. Difficult schoolwork compounded Crosby’s frustration, so his father sought a tutor for help and intramural sports as an outlet.
Damion Creel and Matt Miller, now Beachwood’s varsity football and basketball coaches, respectively, served as supervisors for those sports programs.
“I remember seeing him all the time,” Miller said. “‘Des’ is coming in and going hard. I don’t remember him getting in trouble, but I could see it happening.”
Crosby’s father remembers his son’s rough edges getting him into trouble, enough that Creel had to call him about it.
“I was a Cleveland kid and not really used to the suburban kids, so I was a little more aggressive in what I did,” Crosby said.
The father did not fully know how to handle discipline with his only child. He learned with the help of other fathers, whose sons befriended young Desmond.
Those intramural games – too rough or not – led to classmate Jalen Davis nudging Crosby to play on their youth basketball team.
“The sports really helped that transition,” Crosby’s father said.
While Crosby began to fit in with Davis and Ronald Jones, both of their fathers helped his dad. Davis’ father, John Davis, coached the kids’ middle school team and Crosby’s father, too.
“He was my first mentor on how to be a father and raise my son,” Crosby’s father said. “Ron Jones was another father figure with me helping raise Desmond.”
As his parenting improved, so did young Desmond Crosby’s grades. The young basketball team at Beachwood showed promise, too, with undefeated seventh- and eighth-grade seasons.
Trust developed between the father and his son.
“I realized my dad is a bigger piece of my life,” Crosby said. “Ever since then, we’ve been fine.”
A move to Central Catholic
Before Crosby’s freshman year of high school, an urge tugged at him.
Two of his older cousins attended Central Catholic. Darren Crosby played football and came to many of Desmond’s games. Dan Crosby played basketball with Earl Boykins, who went on to Eastern Michigan and the NBA.
Darren died in 2008 of Legionnaires’ disease, so attending Central Catholic would not only keep up a family tradition, but serve as a tribute to him.
Desmond Crosby entered Central Catholic as one of two promising freshman point guards for then-coach Jonathan Harris. The other was current Warrensville Heights point guard Brandon Peters.
As sophomores, Peters won the starting varsity job. When he transferred to Warrensville for the 2014-15 season, Crosby seized the opening. He helped the Ironmen to a Division II state championship game appearance, taking the mantra of an underdog. That mindset remained with Central Catholic through a run that included a regional final win against St. Vincent-St. Mary.
Their ride lasted until an overtime loss to Defiance for the state title.
“It was tough,” Crosby said. “It would be tougher if I was a senior, but it was still tough. I knew we had that.”
Crosby thought he would come back this season to a Central Catholic team with momentum. Then, coach Jeremy Holmes departed for Cleveland Heights, his alma mater. Holmes said he considered the move a homecoming.
Another followed for Crosby.
Back to Beachwood
Desmond Crosby and his father lived in the Collinwood area while he attended Central Catholic, a private school in Slavic Village. The drives to school and extra trips for basketball practice, mixed with the father’s two jobs, were taxing during the winter months.
Crosby’s mother had since moved to Youngstown. Beachwood made sense, Crosby’s father said, so they moved back.
“I was a little more comfortable there,” said Crosby, back with a Beachwood team hoping to improve on a 19-6 run that took it to last season’s Division III district final.
The Bison already returned all starters without Crosby, so how would they welcome him back? It meant some would sacrifice playing time and maybe a starting spot.
“I honestly wasn’t worried about it,” coach Miller said. “It just worked itself out with rotation spots. We play fast, so we’re subbing a lot and guys are getting in.”
Dassan Rhodes, one of four returning guards who started last season, said he considered Crosby the missing piece.
“He’s still the same,” Rhodes said. “It’s good having him back.”
Nowhere was that more evident than Tuesday's game against St. Edward, a bigger Division I squad that beat the Bison last season by 53 points. Crosby came off the bench for the first time this season because he overslept and missed the start to practice as the school began winter break. He made up for it by sinking a jump shot with 0.6 seconds left to keep Beachwood unbeaten through its first six games.
The Bison are ranked sixth in the cleveland.com Top 25, but opposing St. Edward coach Eric Flannery said he thinks they're better.
“Talent-wise, they’re top three or four in the city of Cleveland,” he said. “I knew that coming in because I’ve seen a bunch of teams. They’re top seven players can all perform.”
Maybe six had Crosby stayed at Central Catholic, but the senior said he feels like he never left. The rough exterior he brought to Beachwood in middle school remained part of his mindset as a basketball player at Central Catholic.
“Nobody talked about me. I was under the radar,” Crosby said. “I felt like I was an afterthought.”
While last season’s experience changed that, he goes about practice as if he’s still struggling to be noticed. That might be true in terms of college recruiting. Crosby said Division II schools and junior colleges have expressed interest.
He takes it as an honest assessment of his basketball skill.
“I still feel like I can be better than where I’m at,” he said.
Wherever Crosby goes, he wants to pick a major that allows him to work with youth.
He might encounter someone like him.
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