Former Division I college coach takes reins of Saint Joseph High School girls' basketball team

Intermountain Catholic

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Joe Cravens is in his first season as coach of the Saint Joseph girls' basketball team after more than 30 years on the collegiate level.

OGDEN — After Saint Joseph Catholic High School Hall of Fame coach and alumni Rick Stockel left the school to take a position at Weber High School last year, many were wondering what would happen to the girls’ basketball program.

The answer came three months later when former college coach Joe Cravens decided to take over the girls’ program, said Alex Salvo, Saint Joseph athletic director. "To have someone of his caliber coaching is like a dream come true," said Salvo. "He has brought our girls’ basketball program to a new level of competition with his more than 30 years experience on the college level. He can share that with the girls and give them the knowledge of college sports. Our program will get better every year with him leading the way."

Cravens was originally trying to help the school find a coach while holding basketball camps for the girls during the summer. As an analyst for the Mountain West Sports Network, he wasn’t sure if he could take the job when Salvo asked him. "I checked my schedule and found there weren’t that many conflicts and decided I could," said Cravens. "I started enjoying coaching the girls even though being a girls’ high school coach never entered my mind. I am used to being a Division I college coach for men, who come with a higher level of skills. But I have a wife and two daughters who are 18 and 21, and they taught me how to be around women. I had to gear down from my 60 to 80 hours a week job on the college level and realize the girls at St. Joseph are also involved in other sports and school activities. They sometimes have to miss practice, which is something I am not used to.

"After winning our first game, I told my wife and daughter, ‘It still feels good to win,’" he said.

"Coach Cravens is an amazing coach," said Alicia Kondrick, a freshman on the basketball team. "I know sometimes it can be really hard for him because we are girls and he is used to coaching boys, but he really supports us. He plans everything out so we know what to do. I can definitely see an improvement in myself. I play junior varsity, so I hope he coaches again next year when I play varsity."

Junior Sam Bischoff also thinks it is good to have a coach with so much experience. "He helped us learn all the basics first and we’ve moved on from that," she said.

Cravens hasn’t coached since 2006, after seven seasons at Weber State University, and realized he missed the gym. "There’s nothing like having your own team," he said.

During Cravens’ career, he held head coaching positions at Weber State University, the University of Idaho and the University of Utah. He was assistant coach to Rick Majerus and then took over the program. At Weber, Cravens served as head coach from 2000-2006. There he compiled a record of 116 wins and 88 losses. He led the 2003 team to an undefeated 16-0 (26-6 overall) season in the Big Sky Conference.

Cravens is from a small town in Indiana. He graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington in education and has a degree in history, health and physical education. After college he thought he would become a teacher, but became the coach at Texas State University for three years. He returned to the University of Texas at Arlington for five years before moving on to the University of Washington and the University of Utah.

He is also a substitute teacher at St. Joseph and helps out wherever he is needed.