School: Upper Dublin
Field Hockey, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Cole Hamels
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Playing with my older sister and then my younger sister.”
Most embarrassing/funnies thing that has happened while competing in sports: “In our playoff game against Conestoga when I was a sophomore, I got a feed from Liz Wall in the middle of the eight meter and shot it so hard the ball bounced over the cage, over the fence about 20 yards behind the field and into our football stadium. It was at the buzzer and would have tied the game. For the next year, all of my ‘Lax Brah’ friends called me ‘Cross Bar.’ They still haven’t found the ball!”
Music on iPod: “Lots of country!”
Future plans: “Attending Syracuse University but am still undecided on my major, so I will do a little bit of everything for now.”
Words to live by: “Go big or go home.”
One goal before turning 30: “Go sky diving or scuba diving anywhere tropical”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I am terrified of butterflies. I had a bad experience on a field trip in elementary school…”
It's not much of a stretch to say that Amy Cross was born into lacrosse.
After all, her mother, Dee Cross was an elite lacrosse player in her day, and at the time was coaching the Abington girls' lacrosse team. And the circumstances of Amy's birth pretty much sums up the dedication and love for the game that was passed on from mother to daughter.
"I coached a game on a Saturday and Amy was born on a Monday," Dee Cross said. "And by the following Monday, I was back on the field, so she got to be around a lot of lacrosse games as a baby."
And young Amy became quite the fan of the Lady Ghosts.
"I remember always going to the games and watching," said Amy, who is now a few short weeks away from graduating Upper Dublin High School. "I never even thought about how that would be our competition later. It was a little weird, especially when we played on Abington's field because it was the same field my mom coached on."
But instead of scoring for the Ghosts -- as Amy had hoped when she was younger -- she scored on them. But there were many teams this season -- in which the Flying Cardinals dominated the competition en route to a 14-0 regular season record and American Conference Title -- on whom Cross has dented the twine.
She finished her senior lacrosse campaign with 72 goals (226 for her career). Playing from the center position, Cross also earned 71 draw controls and 16 interceptions. Her non-stop efforts and unmatched skills earned her recognition as the American Conference Player of the Year.
The four-year starter was voted Homecoming Queen by her schoolmates, was honored as Upper Dublin's Outstanding Female Athlete and was one of three female finalists for the Upper Dublin Medal for students.
"It's really humbling and amazing," said Cross. "It's nice to know that people notice my hard work because I definitely try my best. I may not necessarily be the smartest student, but I always work hard and it's just an amazing thing that I was considered for that."
That hard work has served her well, both in the classroom and on the athletic fields. Cross, who also plays field hockey for the Cardinals, enjoys nothing more than having a lacrosse stick in her hands and would willingly trade any individual honor for team success.
The team, after all, is her family. Though for Cross, it's just a little more so than for most. Her mother, who coached at Abington all those years ago, is now Amy's coach at Upper Dublin. Older sister Ali was the Cardinals' goalkeeper while Amy was a freshman and sophomore, and younger sister Kelly was a sophomore on this year's team.
And what Amy learned from her older sister, she hopes she's passed it on to her younger sister, as well as to the youngest Cross, seventh-grader Julie (also a lacrosse player).
"I truthfully think my younger sisters will be better than me," Amy said. "I hope I have pushed them to be better than me. I would love to see Kelly come to Syracuse to play with me and even Julie. I wish them the best."
But Amy's influence was not felt only by her sister, but by the entire Upper Dublin squad.
"Amy really stepped it up her junior year,” said mom and coach Dee. “She's more of a quiet leader, she leads by example. It's not like any of the coaches have to verbalize anything to her, she just knew what had to be done and just tried to bring everybody along with her."
That leadership was invaluable on a team that faced few true challenges during the regular season. While winning is fun, consistently winning big can often result in getting sloppy and losing focus. It was the job of Amy and her fellow seniors to ensure that that never happened.
"She's been a really good leader this year on a team where, a lot of games we didn't get challenged a whole lot," Dee Cross said. "And we had to keep the girls focused."
"I don't think I've tried to act any different as a senior," said Amy, who admits that for a time in seventh grade she actually thought her future would be in soccer rather than lacrosse. "I've tried to always keep the team together. I just try to do my best to be a good example and pull the team together.
“We had a young team this year, and sometimes we would roll over teams, and as exciting as it is, it doesn't help us very much because when the tough games came around we had to step up a lot more. Luckily we were able to stay focused, do what we had to do to make a statement."
And what a statement it was. And Cross is not nearly finished. Over the Memorial Day weekend, she participated in the Women's Division National Tournament in the Seniors Only Division. She'll play for the Heather Leigh Albert Lacrosse Foundation in Vail at the end of June, and will play in the inaugural National Senior Showcase in Disney World in July.
And if you think she'll ever get tired of playing, think again. Cross is excited to take her game to the next level and have a chance to see where she stands among some of the best graduating high school seniors in the country.
"I've never wanted to take a break from lacrosse," she said. "Obviously during field hockey I get a break, but it's always that much better to get back into it. I don't mind playing all the time, I enjoy it, it makes me better."
Cross' considerable talents have also earned her an athletic scholarship to Syracuse University in the fall. She's undecided as to her major, but there's little doubt that she's fully prepared to make a name for herself at the collegiate level.
"She's ready," Amy's proud coach and mother said. "After seeing Ali going on to college and seeing the fun she's had, Amy's excited to move on to the next level, to have somebody else coach her, to be taking that step and be playing on the next level. As a parent, there's nothing harder than letting your child go, but Amy's definitely ready."
