Croft brothers rack up accomplishments

Right now, brothers Blake and Sage Croft should be enjoying the spoils of their senior year at Windermere High.

Instead they, like every student in the country, are stuck at home thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

While Sage Croft wishes he were out shooting a film and Blake Croft wishes he was up on stage, the brothers have made the most out of their time at home — knowing that by the fall, they will be separated by more than 2,000 miles.

“It has been a year in which I have been able to really connect with my brother and my family,” Sage Croft said. “(My brother Blake and I) have been working together on tons of things, and we’ve worked on a play together, and we have really kind of grown so close. It’s sad to see him going off across the country, but I know he is going to do really well for himself so I’m not too worried about him.”

With their hearts in creative fields, Blake Croft will be heading to Illinois to study theater at Northwestern University, while Sage Croft heads to the West Coast to study film production at Chapman University in California. 

Although they enjoy each other’s company, the two are continuing to try and work on their respective art forms. For Blake Croft, that has been difficult because all of the school’s productions are shut down.

“There is no stage I can perform on right now, so instead of honing my performance skills, I have decided to take a different standpoint and focus on my creative skills,” Blake Croft said. “I have been writing poems, plays, songs and all that good stuff — just trying to foster my creative side while my performance side is on rest.”
 

FOR THE LOVE OF ARTS

Both Blake and Sage Croft have developed talents in their own creative fields over the course of the last several years, and it has led to numerous awards and accolades.

However, instead of intentionally choosing their paths, both got their start out of pure happenstance.

As a sixth-grader at Bridgewater Middle, Blake Croft decided to take choir on a whim because he needed an extra course. Halfway through the year, he was invited by the teacher to try out for the spring musical.

“(My brother Blake and I) have been working together on tons of things, and we’ve worked on a play together, and we have really kind of grown so close. It’s sad to see him going off across the country, but I know he is going to do really well for himself so I’m not too worried about him.”

— Sage Croft

“I did it, and I loved it,” Blake Croft said. “I had two lines, and I loved both of them — I loved getting on stage, singing the songs and saying the lines. I came back the next year and I took her musical theater class and tried out for the next show, which was “Peter Pan.” I got the lead — I was Peter Pan. Once that happened, there was really no going back.” 

Similarly, Sage Croft fell into film production — during a UFC convention.

Over the last five to six years, Sage Croft has been an incredibly talented mixed martial artist, but it was during a convention workshop dedicated to fighting on film that he realized there could be something to filmmaking. By the end of the class, the instructor asked if he would be interested in doing some acting in a small indie action film he was making.

“I ended up loving it — I was like, ‘This is really interesting,’” Sage Croft said. “It was so much fun, and it was my first exploration into film where I was able to act and do a lot of stunt work. I ended up doing a couple of actions films, feature films and short films in Florida.

“I really started to see a lot of success with it, but as I got work on bigger and bigger sets, there were always questions in the back of my mind (such as), ‘I enjoy being in front of the camera, but what is going on behind it?’” he said.
 

THE BIG TIME

As Blake Croft and Sage Croft each developed their skills, it’s no surprise that they began to see their names pop up for a variety of awards and scholarships.

In the last few years, Sage Croft has won multiple awards from the Student Television Network, while Blake Croft recently won best actor at the District 5 Thespian Festival, Florida Theatre Conference and Southeastern Theatre Conference.

Both brothers were nominated for the prestigious U.S. Presidential Scholars Program in January. The program was established in 1964 to recognize the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors.

Sage Croft was nominated for Presidential Scholar for the Arts, which is for the top-performing artists in the country across all arts, while Blake Croft was nominated for his academics because of his perfect ACT score.

“Being nominated as a Presidential Scholar is such an incredible honor, and it’s definitely an amazing feeling, but it is only exemplified by the fact that my brother was also a nominee,” Sage Croft said. “I really think it speaks volumes to how good of a job our parents did in raising us.”

In April, the program announced its semifinalists — Sage Croft was still in the running, but unfortunately, Blake Croft was not. 

Despite not making it to the semifinals, Blake Croft appreciates the chance to compete for the award. Furthermore, both earning nominations for the award in different areas is a point of pride for the Croft family, he said.

“The Croft family kind of has a well-roundedness about them that Sage got it from the artistic side and I got it from the academic side,” Blake Croft said. “I think it is nice to know we’re not one-trick ponies — one of us can get it for the arts side of things, and the other can get it for the academic side. It’s just really an honor to be recognized for both sides.”