Soccer, Basketball, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Cole Hamels
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating North Penn in lacrosse when we were not expected to win and we were missing two key players because of injury and we won in the final eight seconds of the game!
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: In soccer, I was finally cleared after I broke my nose, and I had to wear this awful facemask at practice, and I had to look straight down at the ball because it was hard to see. Every time I dribbled, someone took it from me because I couldn’t see a single thing…I think my teammates kept passing to me because they thought it was funny to see my struggle.
Music on my iPod: Hannah Montana and Country
Future plans: Hopefully win a National Championship at Syracuse and become an elementary school teacher.
Words to live by: “Clear eyes full hearts can’t lose.”
One goal before reaching 30: Live in the suburbs in a cul-de-sac with all three of my sisters and their families in the other houses.
One thing people don’t know about me: I ask my friends if I can clean and organize their rooms because I believe everyone should be as neat as I am.
By Mary Jane Souder
Julie Cross was born to play lacrosse.
And it was hardly a surprise when the Upper Dublin senior – the last in a line of four sisters – committed to play the sport at Division One powerhouse Syracuse University in February of her sophomore year.
Basketball was the last thing on her mind.
Until one summer day before her sophomore year when – while playing with her club lacrosse team – she received an unexpected e-mail from Morgan Funsten, who had just taken over the helm of the Upper Dublin girls’ basketball program.
“I didn’t even know who he was,” Cross said. “He was like, ‘Hi, I’m the new basketball coach and wanted to know if you’d play this year.’ I thought about it for a second and I was like, ‘He probably only wants me to play because I’m tall.’”
The 6-2 Cross, who’s also blessed with speed and athleticism, was at the top of Funsten’s wish list when he took over the program. It didn’t matter to the new coach that she hadn’t played in quite some time.
“Just knowing the importance of getting the best athletes in your school to play your sport – I called Dee (Julie’s mother) because I work with Dee and basically said, ‘Do I have permission to ask Julie to play basketball?’ because I knew Julie was such a great lacrosse player,” Funsten recalled. “I felt like I was almost asking for permission to marry the daughter. I was expecting Dee to be a little hesitant about it, but Dee couldn’t have been more supportive.”
It turned out the varsity lacrosse coach at Upper Dublin and former member of the U.S. National Team has a soft spot for basketball. She herself had played basketball at Norristown High School and Shippensburg University and had always hoped one of her four daughters would be a basketball player.
Still, she wasn’t optimistic.
“Morgan probably doesn’t remember, but I was like, ‘Good luck with that one because she has no desire to play basketball,’” Dee said. “I said, ‘I would love if she played, but that’s on you, Morgan. Go for it.’”
Julie shocked everyone when – after talking to several lacrosse teammates who played basketball – she opted to give it a try.
“I started going to open gyms in the summer and fall, and I was like, ‘There’s no way I can do this. I’m not coordinated enough,’” Julie said.
Cross took some good-natured ribbing from her teammates for wearing running shorts and running shoes since basketball attire had not been part of her wardrobe since she walked away from the sport after eighth grade.
“Freshman year I had decided not to play because I wanted to focus on lacrosse,” she said. “Basketball wasn’t my thing.”
But basketball has certainly become her thing. Cross is excelling for a Flying Cardinal squad that is undefeated in conference play and captured the program’s third consecutive American Conference crown. This one was by far the most unexpected, and Cross was the undeniable catalyst.
“What’s so scary about her is her ceiling is unlimited,” Funsten said. “You have some girls you coach at the high school level who have been playing their whole lives, play all year round and everything like that. Julie didn’t play basketball her freshman year.”
Success didn’t happen immediately for Cross.
“Her sophomore year, it was new for her,” Funsten said. “It was uncomfortable for her, and she’s used to being good at stuff.
“She’s a fun girl, and her defense mechanism is to laugh. She’s practicing, but she’s laughing because she felt uncomfortable. Just to see her grow from that type of player she was her sophomore year where she wasn’t very comfortable on the basketball court to where she is now – she’s dominated half the games on our schedule. The numbers she’s putting up support that.
“You mix in her leadership skills. I don’t know how many conference championships she’s won, but it’s pretty remarkable the type of winning career she’s had. I am still so thankful that she decided to play.”
Although lacrosse remains her number one sport, Cross – part of seven championships at UD - has made basketball look easy. Through 21 games, she averaged a double-double – 14 points and close to 12 rebounds. Cross also averaged 3.1 blocks, 2.4 assists and 1.5 steals, putting up the kind of numbers athletes who ‘major’ in basketball can’t match.
“It started to feel more natural when Mr. Funsten would put me in when we were up by like 40 points my sophomore year,” Cross said. “I would score more points than some of the starters did, and I was like, ‘All right, maybe I can play basketball. Maybe I can do this.
“Mr Funsten having so much faith in me and helping me work on my moves and everything – that’s when it started to click. I just loved the girls on the team, and I became really good friends with Regan Gallagher who transferred her junior year. She helped me through so much. I wouldn’t have become the post player I have without those two.”
***
Cross grew up watching and playing sports.
“It was interesting, actually,” she said. “Growing up, I would get home, and my dad would be like, ‘Kelly has a game, come on,’ or ‘All right, we’re going to Ali’s game.’
“I didn’t really have time to do my own thing. I definitely got drug around a lot, but being the youngest was one of the coolest experiences because I got to see all the things my sisters went through.”
For Julie, family has always come first.
“My sisters are probably the three most influential people in my life – they’ve been there with me through everything,” she said. “The same with my parents – without this family, there’s no way I’d be going to play lacrosse at a Division One school.”
Julie – like her sisters before her – learned lacrosse under the tutelage of her mother, who is also her high school coach.
“People always think it’s weird that my mom is my coach, but having her as my coach and playing with Kelly my freshman year – that was a time where I was like, ‘I really want to do this. I definitely want to play lacrosse,’” Julie said. “My dad was a lot of help too. Making me to go their games was helpful – to watch them play and be like, ‘That’s my inspiration.’”
Julie - a captain and one of the top scorers for a soccer team that won the conference crown last fall - will be a four-year starter on the lacrosse team this spring.
“She has great speed to the midfield, and that’s just from God-given legs,” Dee said. “She has those long legs, she’s got a long reach, and just using her height and her wingspan to her advantage – she’s got a really hard shot, so offensively, she’s definitely able to score.
“Playing basketball helped her in her lacrosse defense because it’s the exact same thing. She works hard, but I still feel like there’s a lot of potential she hasn’t reached.”
Described by her mother as the most laidback of the four siblings, Cross – who is involved in student government – plans to major in elementary and special education.
“I love little kids,” she said. “Growing up I was kind of like the mother figure in the neighborhood. I was always around little kids.”
Dee Cross continues to remind her daughter she could still play basketball in college, but Julie is focused on lacrosse. She will be the third sibling to play lacrosse at Syracuse, following in the footsteps of Amy and Kelly. Her oldest sister Ali played lacrosse at Shippensburg.
“In middle school, Kelly started looking at colleges, and lacrosse became so natural to me, and I never looked back from that,” she said. “Watching Amy play at Syracuse and going to their games – I knew that’s what I wanted to do, and I didn’t really care if anyone thought that I was just following in their footsteps.
“I knew that lacrosse was what I wanted to do, and I don’t regret anything about my decision.”
Nor has she regretted her decision to return to the hardwood.
“People look at me as a lacrosse player, and for people to see I can be a basketball player too is kind of cool,” she said. “I didn’t think I would ever be in this position where little kids in my neighborhood came to my basketball games.
Mr. Funsten helped me out so much in so many ways or there’s no way I would be the player I am today. I obviously wouldn’t have been playing if he wasn’t the coach.”
