East Lansing senior Maggie Crowe wants to beat the odds. The acceptance rate at the United States Military Academy ranges between 10% and 14%, and she’s hoping to get the good news that she is soon a plebe.
When Crowe was 6, her father finished up his stint in the U.S. Army. She grew up surrounded by the military, but never thought it was something she could do long term.
Now, she wants to carry on that legacy. With a plan in place to join the cheer squad at the Academy, she desires to prioritize her active lifestyle, receive her education and continue to be a leader while taking things one day at a time.
“This past summer, my dad encouraged me to go to (the U.S. Military Academy’s) summer leadership experience just to see how it was, because looking for colleges is confusing. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go,” said Crowe. “I had the best week ever, and I was like, ‘Wait, if I come here, everyone is an athlete, and everyone has to play a sport.’ I got to pick one, and I play lots of sports, but I like cheer the most, and I talked to their cheer coach, and I went out for practice, and it was a really good fit.”
Being a high school athlete is tough. Tackling one sport is a difficult feat, let alone two, between practice, games, meets, and on top of it all, homework. Somehow, Crowe held a 3.9 GPA and played four sports her senior season, sideline cheerleading, gymnastics and lacrosse, and added swimming and diving, which she did with the boys team in the winter. Three sports didn’t seem hard enough to her.
Her strong mentality, passion, leadership qualities and active lifestyle has been a catalyst in her push to being accepted into the Academy.
“I need to show up early, I need to stay late to be a good leader. My coaches have seen that over the last couple years and I’ve been a captain on a couple of my teams,” said Crowe. “Yeah, I do see myself as a leader.”
Crowe is bubbly, hardworking, passionate, and certainly knows how to use her voice. It has made her who she is. Her impact on all of the teams she participates with is evident, between personal bests in her meets, multiple captaincies and MVP awards.
East Lansing - DeWitt - Lansing Catholic (ELCD) gymnastics head coach Angie Madden said she isn’t quite sure how Crowe does it and still finds time to sleep. Crowe has learned to say yes and take chances, and it has earned her opportunities to leave a lasting legacy at ELHS.
“We can't also forget that she's an absolute fireball. I think the one thing that I am not sure I know how I'm going to handle next season is how quiet the gym is going to be without Maggie (Crowe),” said Madden.
When interviewing for West Point, she had to answer the question “Do you see yourself as a leader?” Her answer was yes, and she immediately had evidence to back up her argument. She tries to use her leadership in a way that is most suitable to that specific person.
As a two-time captain on the gymnastics team, she has been observant and critiqued her own leadership style, but she also sets the standard. She looks to her teammates, who she learns from time and time again. She is a walking example of what it means to lead.
“She is one that leads by example, oh she’ll tell you too, but she truly leads by example because she comes in, she does the work,” said Madden.
In her junior year, she added more to her planner, filling in as the public address announcer for boys lacrosse games. She’s a talker, and knew that using her voice was something she could do outside of cheering on her teammates. She has since been approached by ELHS Athletic Director Nicole Norris to step back into the booth her senior year.
“(Coach) was in our group chat being like, ‘Hey, ask any of your parents if they want to announce boys lacrosse because we need an announcer for like, these two games or something.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I can do it like, I like to talk, let me do it, I know the sport, I've been watching it forever, like I play.’” said Crowe. “They were like, ‘Oh, no, actually, you did fine, so you can keep doing that I guess.’ And then I got to do MHSA playoffs because we hosted them, so I got to do girls and boys.”
Her reps paid off in her senior season when she had the opportunity to sideline report and interview different competitors on her team after a record-setting season with ELCD. They finished second in the CAAC in 2025-26, something the program had never done before, and went 2-2 in the conference after suffering two winless seasons in Crowe's freshman and sophomore year. Madden offered Crowe the opportunity to not only conduct interviews, but also step onto the headset and call the action. The opportunity showcased the trust that Madden had in her captain.
Madden said that the gymnastics squad was one that never shied away from using their voices, and Crowe has been at the leader of the pack all four years. Whether receiving positive feedback, or maybe a backhanded compliment or two about their yelling, she credits it to Crowe, the only girl on the squad she had the chance to coach for four years, and the bubbly personality she brings. Crowe graduates in May, but she will leave a legacy for years to come.
“Maggie is going to live within this team forever because of that,” said Madden. “Sure she was loud, and we could hear her coming from wherever she was coming from. But you know what, she always said the right thing. She always has her teammate’s back, she always has other athlete’s backs, and she's going to cheer for them as loudly as she can because she wants to see everyone succeed.”