Sitting on the couch in Virginia Beach, Leah Crouse watched the 2008 Olympics with awe.
The Games in Beijing featured Opening Ceremonies that dazzled, but Crouse was more enchanted by the competition, which included the U.S. Women's Soccer Team winning gold at a time when Carli Lloyd and Hope Solo became household names.
“Maybe me one day,” the 8-year-old Crouse thought. The idea of representing her country seemed like a cool idea.
"But it didn't really feel like a remote possibility," she said.
Crouse grew up enjoying basketball, soccer and softball. She's a good skier, a top-notch golfer and even has a talent for trumpet. When she was 10, on her way to a summer recreational camp, she looked out the window on Shorehaven Drive and saw the Cox High School field hockey team practicing for its fall season.
"I wanna do that," she announced, and her father Brad Crouse obliged, signing his daughter up for a rec league. Leah couldn't get enough of the sport that rewards agility, athleticism, upper body strength and vision. She liked feeling the stick in her hand. She had the eye to see plays unfold before they happened and the fast game played to one of her chief strengths – speed.
"Field hockey is the combination of everything I was looking for in a sport," Crouse said. "Living across the street from an amazing high school program, it felt like the perfect fit for me."
Julie Swain coached Crouse in middle school before becoming her coach at Cox.
"The thing that was so amazing and beautiful about Leah was that she was such a beautiful player. She made it look effortless," Swain said. "She had so many gifts, including this tremendous work ethic to get better."
The backyard of the Crouse house overlooks a tee box at Broad Bay Country Club. Brad Crouse learned how to handle a stick so he and Leah could pass back and forth on the green after her high school practice ended. Leah used the tee box as a makeshift goal.
"Eventually it got to the point where my dad couldn't stop the ball from going through the tee box," she said.
In 2016, Leah tacked up a USA Field Hockey poster on the front of her bedroom door that is still there today. It reads "Chasing the Dream" and features the core of the 2016 team that went on to finish fifth in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
By then Leah was part of Team USA's junior national program and a key cog in the Cox field hockey machine that is nationally relevant and winner of a record 24 Virginia High School League championships. Crouse's breakaway goal secured No. 19 in that string.
"At that point, that was the pinnacle," Crouse said.
A junior then, she had already committed to Duke University, where she played in 67 games with 44 starts in the midfield. Crouse was a member of the U.S. U-21 National Team that took bronze in the Junior Pan American Championship in 2021.
She graduated from Duke with a 3.88 GPA with a major in biology and a minor in neuroscience and chemistry, setting her up to apply for medical school once her field hockey career is over.
Crouse spent a fifth collegiate year at the University of Maryland, which has won seven NCAA field hockey championships.
"At Maryland it felt almost like I was coming home," Crouse said. "My dad ran track at Maryland, and when I stepped on campus, it just felt so good."
As a Terp, she played in her first Final Four in 2022 and has since logged times in the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Pro League and the 2023 Pan Am Games.
But a spot on the 2024 National Team was no cinch, nor was it a given that Team USA would even qualify for the field of 12 in the Olympics. The Americans did not qualify in 2021 and as a 12th seed were not a favorite in an Olympic qualifier held in Ranchi, India last January.
Then they upset the sixth-seeded hosts 1-0 in their opening game. Team USA did not give up a goal in its next two games either, against Italy and No. 10 New Zealand. They needed one more victory for an Olympic bid and rallied in the final quarter to win 2-1 over ninth-seeded Japan.
"From the outside, we were definitely not expected to do well. But on the inside we had this belief amongst each other," Crouse said.
Even with the Americans earning a ticket to Paris, Crouse, 24, wasn't guaranteed a Team USA spot.
Twenty-eight athletes make up the U.S. National Team; 16 of them are named to the Olympic roster along with three alternates, but Crouse had to wait nearly five months to learn about selection.
Her work ethic led her to control the controllables while living near the National Training Center in Charlotte. Eat well – her mother, Laurie Crouse, dubs her "the nutrition police." Train hard. Hydrate always. Keep lifting. Run 3 miles a day. Don't overlook recovery, proper sleep and occasional cold plunges.
"When she's going to relax, she binges 'The Bear,'" Laurie said. "Even when she's here, she never takes a day off."
At 7:56 a.m. on June 10, Crouse was clutching her phone, awaiting the Team USA email with the roster inside.
"We were told the selection would come out at 8 a.m.," she said. "I was definitely pacing around the kitchen and my dad was pacing along with me. And then I remember the exact time. It was 7:57."
Crouse's name was on the roster. She danced with her dad. Laurie, waiting upstairs, heard the screams and knew the news was good.
"Then my dad proceeded to tell the whole neighborhood by opening up the door and screaming, 'We're going to Paris!'," Leah said. "It was special to share that moment with him."
Team USA arrived in Paris last Sunday.
No player on the field hockey team has Olympic experience. That will come when the U.S. opens against Argentina on Saturday.
Crouse is savoring all of it and is hopeful she will bump into Coco Gauff, Simone Biles and anyone from Team USA Basketball.
Preparation is so key that the team will not march in Friday's Opening Ceremonies.
"There's a watch ceremony in the village so that's where we'll be going," Crouse said. "Honestly, I'm more motivated for the next day and our game that hopefully sets the stage for the tournament."
The United States hasn't medaled in women's field hockey in 40 years. The core of the team is expected to remain together for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
"The Olympics is amazing; it's hard to put into words," Crouse said. "My parents encouraged me to dream big and not set limits for myself. I knew once I wanted that I was going to try my best to get there one day."
And now, that day is here.
