For Oregon softball standout Haley Cruse, is she as authentic as she seems on social media? For someone with over 20 million likes on Tik-Tok, she has a lot of eyeballs watching her every move. How did she achieve such social media stardom? Cruse, now in her fifth year with the Ducks, has seen her career go from one roller coaster to another. In her freshman and sophomore seasons, the Ducks go to the College World Series. A coaching change in her junior season sparks a mass exodus with some of her teammates that required a total rebuild with new coaches and players. And of course, her senior season, which started 22-2, was erased because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But through adversity comes strength and endurance, and Cruse has learned a lot. And in the process, she has built a personal brand that she started and built at Oregon, and will continue to grow when she departs Eugene. But how will that look? She’s still trying to figure that out.

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