BOISE – Genevieve Crenshaw goes by many names.
“Gen.”
“Peanut.”
And the one she goes by the most, “Birdie.”
But to the Boise State women’s soccer team, she’s now simply known as: “the GOAT.”
The senior goalkeeper is the program’s all-time career shutouts leader at 19 and counting. Crenshaw wasn’t able to extend her own record in a 1-0 loss to Utah State Thursday on senior night at the Boas Soccer Complex. However, she did rack up seven saves and hasn’t given up more than 1 goal in 13 straight matches.
“When she finally graduates and we get to reflect upon the whole career, it wouldn’t surprise me if in the next 12 to 14 months of her career, just completely wipe out everything that she’s already achieved,” Boise State coach Jim Thomas said. “I really feel like she’s only now just truly coming into the goalkeeper that she’s been capable of being.”
Her record-setting journey began nearly 900 miles south in Cypress, California.
Crenshaw didn’t become a goalie by choice. She was put there at the age of 10 because of one simple fact.
“I didn’t like running,” Crenshaw said with a laugh. “I remember every practice we would run, I would literally cry. I hated it so much. I was a little bit chunky as a kid, so my coach was like, ‘OK, you’re gonna play goalie because you won’t run.’”
She found the position rather “boring” at first and breaking her pinkie on one of the first shots she faced didn’t exactly help. Crenshaw was splitting time in goal with University of Colorado defender Jayden Newkirk. She is the older sister of Boise State sophomore midfielder Teryn Newkirk.
But everything changed when Crenshaw became the only keeper later on that season.
“I was like, ‘OK, I should probably get good at this,” Crenshaw said. “And then I kind of just fell into it.”
So much so that she became a league MVP and spent most weekends at showcases in Arizona. It was there that Boise State discovered her.
Former Boise State assistant coach Ed Moore was the one who originally recruited her. He went all the way across the country to New Jersey just to see Crenshaw play. She was also recruited by Boise State associate head coach Max Weber, who was an assistant at Eastern Washington at the time.
Cal State Fullerton, UNLV and Utah were also all interested in Crenshaw. But she still chose the Broncos.
Boise State senior goalkeeper Genevieve Crenshaw is the program’s all-time career shutouts leader at 19 and counting. (Photo by Boise State Athletics)
“I talked to a few schools that were like, ‘You can come here if you want or we’ll see.’ They weren’t very transparent,” Crenshaw said. “But the thing about Boise that really stood out to me is they really wanted me. They were super keen on, ‘This is gonna be your home and this is what we’re going to do.’”
Crenshaw graduated early to early enroll at Boise State for the spring.. But then the world shutdown.
She practiced for two months before the coronavirus canceled the rest of the preseason and the entire 2020 campaign.
It marked the start of the hardest chapter of her life.
She contracted COVID-19 not once, but twice. And the stress that already comes with being a student-athlete coupled with the self-isolation, all took a toll on her.
It reached a breaking point when a friend committed suicide on her birthday.
“Jim and I had a talk and he looks at me and goes, ‘You’re going to have to start talking to me about stuff because I need to know where you’re at mentally, so I can help and I can understand and we can work through it.’
“Without him doing that, I don’t even know if I would have made it my four years. I was so down.”
Limited playing time also wasn’t helping.
The Broncos had Sydney Smith on the roster, too. She was coming off a year where she set program records for wins, shutouts, and fewest goals allowed in a single season. And Crenshaw admitted to not exactly handling that in the most mature way.
“She forced our hand right away,” Thomas said. “You can go back decades until essentially the start of the program and every cycle regardless, we’ve had elite goalkeeping. And within that, we very seldom shared minutes. And she required us to share minutes. She was so good and she was going up against the then greatest of all time in Sydney Smith.
“That’s a difficult thing for any player at any level to manage, let alone a kid that’s just gone through COVID, and is essentially a freshman and she’s still trying to manage that. She needed to grow and learn what it means to lead a group from that position.
“The growing up part is to be comfortable within your own skin and your own form of leadership, your personality and allow that to be the vantage point from which you lead. She learned that pretty quickly. She’s been a guiding light for us for years now.”
Crenshaw and Smith, who ended up splitting time for two seasons, became friends and still are. She credits Smith in turning her into the player she is today.
Smith witnessed Crenshaw tie her career shutout record (18) during a 1-0 win at home over San Jose State on Oct. 12.
“Even when we were splitting time, she was my biggest fan. To this day, she’s still my biggest fan,” Crenshaw said. “So whenever I’m having an issue with anything or maybe I’m just blowing things super out of proportion, it’s like, ‘Sydney, I need you to give it to me straight.’”
And in turn, Crenshaw has paid it forward to her current teammates.
“Especially in my first semester when I would get homesick or just want to get away for a little bit, I’d go over to her house,” Teryn Newkirk said. “We’d cook dinner together. She was my lifeline throughout that first semester.”
Crenshaw put together a record-breaking season of her own in her first year all alone in the net last season. She shattered the program record for most consecutive shutouts, which was five. Crenshaw posted nine in a row, which equated to not allowing a goal for 927 minutes and.six seconds – another school record.
She finished the year with 10 total shutouts, which led the Mountain West and was 13th in the country. And in 11 league games, the Broncos gave up just five total goals – tied for the most in Mountain West history. It all garnered her All-Mountain West First-Team honors.
But her crowning achievement to date came Sunday. After seeing the record just slip from her grasp in back-to-back home games against Fresno State and Nevada, Crenshaw finally took her place in Boise State history. She logged two saves in a 1-0 win at UNLV for career clean sheet No. 19. It eclipsed both Smith and Janelle Flores for the most ever in a blue and orange uniform.
Crenshaw was immediately swarmed by her teammates. She also received both a water bath and hugs from both players and coaches alike. Her phone blew up for the rest of the day, as well.
“I always wanted to make the people that recruited me really proud and show them that you brought me here for a reason,” Crenshaw said. “So it was really exciting to see that actually happen. And actually feel like, ‘OK, I’m on track and even if sometimes I feel a little bit down about it, this shows me otherwise. I am doing it and that it is happening.’”
While Crenshaw graduates in December, she didn’t go through the senior ceremony Thursday. She’ll come back next season with her optional COVID year.
So more records may fall. Crenshaw already sits fourth on the all-time career wins list 25. She only needs six more to surpass Flores for the most in Bronco history.
“I’ve never been so thankful for a fifth year,” Newkirk said. “I love playing with her and I’m so excited that we get another year to go back at it. And I think that it’s just overall beneficial to have her keep expanding on her record. Keep showing how good she can truly be.”
The Aggies scored the lone goal of the game off the foot of Kate Christian with just three seconds remaining in the first half. It ended up being the difference and denying the Broncos (10-3-6 overall, 8-2-1 MW) a share of the Mountain West regular season title and a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
So Boise State dropped to the three seed and will play No. 6 Nevada (6-9-5, 4-6-1) in the opening round at 11 a.m. Sunday in Laramie, Wyoming.
“We learned a lot about how we’re going to be managing these moments in Laramie,” Thomas said. “There were some wonderful performances, wonderful effort. But I think collectively, we have more to offer than that.”
In Laramie the Broncos will no-doubt lean on Crenshaw – and ‘The GOAT’ will no-doubt be ready.
