Stability.
The Oak Hill Academy football program hasn’t has a lot of it in the past seven seasons.
If there has been one constant in a coaching carousel that has included Randy Carlisle, Leroy Gregg, Benji Merchant, Daniel Merchant, and Tony Stanford, it has been the presence of Chris Craven. From working with quarterbacks or defensive backs or as an offensive or defensive coordinator, Craven has served in just about every capacity as an assistant coach.
This season, Craven will serve in a new role, one he hopes will provide the stability the football program has been missing. Last Friday, Oak Hill Academy announced Craven, 39, was replacing Stanford as its football coach.
“I think one of the key things is having someone that wants to be here and hiring a coach who is invested,” Craven said. “I have three children (Jayden and twins John Ross and Raylee) at the school. I am from West Point. I played football at West Point High School. My wife (Stephanie) graduated from Oak Hill Academy. We live here in town. I don’t have any plans to go anywhere because I am going back home or I have received a better job offer somewhere else. We were away for awhile and God blessed us to be able to come back home, and this is where we want to be.”
Craven replaces Stanford, who guided Oak Hill Academy to a 5-6 finish in 2014. Oak Hill Academy lost to Canton Academy in the first round of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AA playoffs. Stanford left Oak Hill Academy after one season to take a job as an assistant football coach at Starkville Academy, which is closer to his home in Louisville.
Stanford’s decision was a surprise to Craven, who admitted he thought it was a joke when he first heard the news. It also was surprising because Craven said a month earlier he had resigned his position as pastor at Enon Baptist Church in West Point because of the time constraints it took to be a teacher, pastor, coach, father, and husband.
But Stanford’s decision forced Craven to stop and think about the plan God had for him. Craven said he hadn’t applied for the job as head coach when any of the four previous coaches left Oak Hill Academy. This time, though, he said he prayed about whether he was going to put his name in for the job. He believed the Lord put it on his heart to leave his job as pastor after four years because he had a bigger plan, one he didn’t realize until Stanford left the school.
“I applied verbally and formally with a resume and ended up in the interview process,” Craven said. “A couple of months later, the Lord opened that door and closed it behind me and now I am the coach at Oak Hill Academy.”
This is Craven’s first job as a head coach. He will be Oak Hill Academy’s sixth football coach in the past eight years.
Yandell Harris, the school’s outgoing headmaster, served on the search committee for a new football coach. He said the school was looking for someone who planned to stay at the school for a number of years to build a program. He said Craven’s eight years as an assistant coach give him a unique perspective about the turnover the program has faced. He said it is a bonus to have found a coach who is from the community and who has worked with so many of the players for so long.
“What we were looking for is somebody we knew would be at Oak Hill for quite some time because that is the only way to build continuity,” said Harris, who will leave the school at the end of the school year to return to Heritage Academy in Columbus. Harris will be the new girls basketball at Heritage Academy. “Chris has been here and paid his dues and learned from some very good coaches. He is going to be a pretty good coach. The main thing is it was his time. He paid the price and has been an assistant coach for all of these years and he is ready to be a head coach.”
Harris said Oak Hill Academy received more than 20 resumes and interviewed three or four candidates. He said it was difficult to dismiss Craven’s background and the fact he is a teacher in the elementary school (physical education) and in the high school (Bible).
Craven said he has spent the past two-plus months running the weight room, taking care of the field house and grounds, coaching the boys track and field team, and keeping score for the baseball team during its run in the Class AA playoffs. He said he always has prided himself in trying to be the best assistant coach to every head coach at the school. He said he always has done whatever has been asked of him, and that he hopes to put the things he has learned from all of those men to good use.
Craven said he plans to run a multiple offense, much like the program has run the past few years. He understands that changes in terminology, even minor ones, contribute to the players’ thinking that they will have to start over again with a new coach. He hopes to eliminate that mind-set by continuing the hard-working approach and attitude that characterized the coaching style of Daniel Merchant, who led the team to its first back-to-back playoff appearances since 1989-90, and Stanford.
Even though there will be some change, Craven hopes to limit the transition period by earning the respect and trust of the players in his new role and showing them he will continue to lead the program in the same direction.
“I want to be someone the boys can count on and walk through life with them through junior high and high school and help them do good things in their lives and become men,” Craven said. “I am proud I have the opportunity to be that man because I am totally invested.
“My goal is to have the boys start playing for coach Craven and to be able to say they played for him all the way through and he helped change my life the better. That is what I am looking to accomplish.”
Craven said he had similar role models playing football. He played for Dennis Allen and Bubba Davis at West Point High before moving on to play for Tom Goode for two seasons at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba. He spent one year at Mississippi State and then spent four years at Blue Mountain College, where he majored in Bible and minored in business. He said he served in a variety of roles in churches in Pontotoc, Caledonia, New Albany, Ripley, and West Point up until a few months ago when he felt the Lord put it on his heart that it was time to move on.
The decision made Craven remember a time when he was at Blue Mountain College and he prayed to God about his future. He recalled telling God he didn’t know what plan He had in store for him, but if it was possible he felt it would be a good fit for him to be involved in sports, especially football.
Craven was working in churches and working in construction when he received a phone call from Oak Hill Academy asking if he would be interested in a position coaching junior high football at the school. He said Goode, his former coach at EMCC who was on staff at Oak Hill Academy at the time, recommended him for a job.
Years later, Craven admits he almost had forgotten that prayer. He realizes now God had a different plan — one that turned out to be much better. He hopes the plan helps him bring stability to the Oak Hill Academy football program.
“I don’t think it is a coincidence I decided to resign from my church because He knew I was going to be doing this, even though I didn’t know,” Craven said.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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