Amazing Greats
Interviews with well known actors, authors, artists, athletes, musicians, and business leaders. Authentic conversations about their lives, careers, and how their faith played an important part. Inspiring and uplifting stories of hope, transformation, and triumph. We dig deep for the powerful life stories from some very amazing guests...truly "souls on fire".
Amazing Greats
Faith, Injuries, and a Cinderella Season: Inside the heart of TCU Coach Jessie Craig
The Coach's Calling
Join us for an inspiring conversation with Jessie Craig, a phenomenal coach from the TCU Women's Basketball staff who helped steer the team to a historic "Cinderella" season. This episode goes beyond the court, charting Coach Craig's incredible 4,000-mile personal and professional journey from her homeschooled, Christian roots in Fairbanks, Alaska, to the high-stakes world of Division I basketball in Texas. Hear how a series of career-ending injuries became a pivotal moment, forcing her to rely on her faith and unexpectedly launching her coaching career—starting as a high school JV assistant at just 17. Her story is a testament to how God can turn setbacks into opportunities, shaping her into the faithful, driven leader she is today.
Faith, Mentorship, and a Historic Season
Coach Craig dives into the dramatic turnaround of the TCU team, including their first Big 12 championships and Sweet 16 appearance, highlighting how recruiting character and fostering a strong team culture are the core ingredients for success. Discover the profound influence of legendary coach Fred Crowell ("Papa Suave") and his mantra of "Relentless Pursuit of Excellence" on both her coaching style and her spiritual walk. Learn about the unique environment at TCU that allows Christian principles to integrate with elite athletics, and how her faith sustains her in the high-pressure world of collegiate sports. This is a story about trusting the process, patiently enduring affliction, and witnessing God's faithfulness at every turn of a remarkable career.
"Amazing Greats" is a library of interviews with highly successful people who have amazing career and life stories and who share how God has impacted their journey. Hosted by broadcaster Ric Hansen & produced by Klem Daniels. Available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google and our YouTube Channel.
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Hey Rick Hansen here with Texas Christian University women's basketball coach, Jesse Craig. Well, this is a great day because we have another of our special guests on Amazing Greats. Welcome to our audience, to this podcast where we celebrate stories of faith and inspiration from athletes, actors, authors, musicians, and more. One of our past guests was a man who made a huge impact on the world in the world of basketball, Fred Kroll. And we've had the opportunity to talk to a few of his success stories. Fred is past, but his legend lives on. And so we get a chance today to invite you to this conversation with a powerful coaching um giant. Can we say that? No.
unknown:No, no.
SPEAKER_05:No. I'm not going to giants.
SPEAKER_02:This is going to be the story of not only her coaching career, but her personal career. She is one of the coaching staff at Texas Christian University, a women's basketball team that has set all kinds of records just in this last year, an amazing season that you've had this last year. We're going to track uh your story from your native roots in Fairbanks, Alaska, all the way to Texas, 4,000 miles away, and how all that kind of happened. So everybody, help me welcome our coach, Jesse Craig from TCU. Welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_05:Thank you for having me. It's a very much an honor.
SPEAKER_02:All righty, good deal. So let's get started. So I want to talk about TCU and the incredible season that you've had this last year. But first to kind of build the story, let's start with you as a person. Um, you are a Christian for sure. Uh, where did that start? What did you have a Christian home that which you grew up in?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I was very fortunate. Both of my parents were um Christians, and it's kind of cool. My dad, uh, my mom grew up Catholic, Christian, and then um my dad actually wasn't a believer until after college, and he went to he got saved in a Billy Graham crusade. Oh, yeah. And so which is kind of cool. Um so so growing up, yeah, I was raised in the church from a young age and um definitely nurtured up in that and and but nurtured along to have my own faith and not just have my parents' faith.
SPEAKER_02:Is there a pivotal moment that it was like um that you found your own personal relationship with Jesus and you found your way to be a follower uh in your own way? Was there a certain time or place?
SPEAKER_05:Honestly, I remember at a really young age, like my parents didn't force us into like accepting Jesus. I just remember like being a young, uh probably around the age of six or seven, and and seeing my parents' faith and and wanting that relationship with Jesus. And so um I wouldn't say I would say from then on, it's just, I mean, obviously your your faith and everything else, your walk has has valleys and it has and mountaintops and and so all along, but I would say kind of all al from then on it was a relationship that was my relationship. And obviously, you know, we were required to go to church and we were required to do all of those things, um, and encouraged, you know, even as adults, encouraged to um to seek the Lord. But I think just even from that young age, it was something that really was a desire of my heart was to follow in like after Jesus.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So that's and that's always an intriguing question for me because some people, it's like uh they spin on a dime. I mean, it changes one day to the next or one moment to the next, and others are kind of grown and mature along the way and and and grow in their relationship. And that's kind of me too. That's where I was at. It wasn't like just one night it all happened. It was it was so great. So so let's um as a uh young basketball player, uh you started at your in in high school, right? Played basketball in high school?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, so I kind of have a unique story um playing with my basketball career as well, in that uh my parents homeschooled us. And so when I uh grew up originally in Idaho until about eighth grade, and there you could play on the school teams. And so um my sisters and I played on the school teams and we played as a family, you know, out in the park at the one room schoolhouse down the street, you know, after Sunday after church, we would go play as a family. Um, and then moving to Alaska, they had rules that if you're homeschooled, you couldn't play on the high school teams, you couldn't play on the school teams.
SPEAKER_04:Really?
SPEAKER_05:And so um it was a little tricky. I mean, we played, I have two sisters and we played on church league and we played pickup at the gym all the time, and we generally played with guys all the time because that's generally who plays pickup games. And so um, we did that and we played AAU, and then my AAU coach was also the coach of one of the high schools, so he brought me on as a senior to be his assistant coach so that I could practice with his team, but then they ended up not having a JV assistant coach. So the JV assistant coach talked him into letting me be her assistant coach. So I ended up not practicing with the varsity, and I started my coaching career. And so my senior year of high school, I was the JV assistant coach.
SPEAKER_02:Really? Wow. That'd be the youngest coaching career ever.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, right. So kind of unique. And then I ended up going to school outside of Alaska. Um, I got recruited by some small schools, but academics were really big for my family. And so the schools I got recruited to didn't really have the acad the degree I wanted. So I played Purdue. I went to Purdue and played rugby actually for a couple of years, just on their club team, and then transferred back to Alaska and ended up walking on the team there. And I played for UAF, and so ended up walking onto the team at UAF, um, and then earned a scholarship my next year.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. All right. And so it was there that you ran into this gentleman named Fred Kroll. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_05:No, so so this is kind of fun because so I coached there. I mean, I played there, but I ended up tearing my ACL. I broke my foot sophomore year, tore my ACL my next two years. So I ended up not actually getting to play a bunch. And so I became kind of a player coach. Um, they would travel me because we had a lot of injuries, so they'd travel me some as um a second set of eyes on the road. Um, and I really got to know, well, I got to know some people that were in the community that have been there for a long time, Milo Griffin. And he was the boys' coach at one of the high schools in town. And so I couldn't play anymore. It was my senior year. I couldn't play anymore. I had torn my ECL. I was done with like the doctor told me no more basketball playing if you want to walk by the time you're 30. So that was um a tough time in my life where definitely my relationship with the Lord got stronger because I had to rely really heavily on him of like, okay, God, you put this desire into my heart. But now what do I do? Like it's taken away. And so he opened up this door to go be an um assistant boys varsity basketball coach. And Milo Griffin happened to be the star player that played for Fred Kroll at UAF.
SPEAKER_02:This is getting so complicated.
SPEAKER_05:I know, I know we need a blowchart. So Fred Kroll was the very first the coach at University of Alaska Fairbanks, the first coach that where they had scholarship money.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_05:And Milo Griffin was another really cool story. Now he's a giant, both of those men are giants. Um, but he was in the military and then they saw him brought him over and he played and set all kinds of records. He still holds a scoring record at UAF. Um, but he played for Fred.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_05:And they would go one, they would go at it one-on-one. Because I think they were about Milo might have been a little older than Fred because Fred was really young. He was the youngest um Division II, I think it might be a college head coach at the time. He was really young.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So I remember that a part as a part of his story.
SPEAKER_04:Super cool.
SPEAKER_02:So this okay, so now this is a a piece that I didn't realize that you were sidelined based on an injury. And that's a similar story. Another gentleman that we talked to on this podcast was also a Fred Kroll guy, uh, was uh R R J Barsh. Oh, yeah, it's my guy. He was set aside as well at an early age and struggled through that whole, all right, I'm injured now. What do I do? Basketball's my life, right? So, how did can you give me any specifics of the what the kinds of prayers? How did you approach this with your savior and Lord who now has put you on the sidelines?
SPEAKER_05:You know, it was and it was interesting because it was three years in a row, and it was like I would get better and I would do all the things. You know, I was like the kid that was like, I'm gonna outwork you. Like, I like if you tell me what I need to do, and I'm gonna do it to the T, to the max. And then, which is almost more frustrating because then when it doesn't come to fruition, you're like, well, I literally did everything I was supposed to. And so it's funny how sometimes God uses even non-believers to speak into your life. And I remember my coach at the time when I broke my foot the the first my sophomore year, he told me, Well, Jess, you're in a bad situation. You can either you're in the bad situation no matter what. You can either make it worse with your attitude or you can make it better with your attitude. And that's something that's like stuck with me kind of forever, and especially through all of those injuries, because it was like, Okay, God, what like you tell us in your word that you'll give us the desires of our heart. So if this desire to play and compete, if you're gonna take that away, take the desire to play away. And that kind of became my prayer of like, okay, God. And of course, you have those rough days where you're like, oh gosh, like this is really tough. Like, I don't understand. Um, but Jeremiah 20, sorry, Romans 12, 12 is kind of stuck with me and that became kind of my mantra of like joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Like hope that Jeremiah 29, 11 is true, that God has a plan for me and it's to prosper me and not to harm me. And patient in affliction, I'm not a very patient person. I like, I'm like, I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna work really hard for it, but being patient in the process and then just praying continually, like joyful in hope, patient affliction, faithful in prayer, that like God's gotten me through other things.
SPEAKER_02:You're listening to Amazing Greats today with TCU's women's basketball coach, Jesse Craig.
SPEAKER_05:Have you ever heard of raising your Ebenezer?
SPEAKER_02:Oh no, okay. Tell me that.
SPEAKER_05:So basically, when Israel, Israel was coming out um of coming out of the desert, and and God said, Okay, I want you to build your build a tower of rocks. So when you look back, you can remember that God brought you out of like all of the things He did for you. And so it was just really of that, like raising my Ebenezer, where it's like I look back and I see, okay, God's been faithful of, okay, I was homeschooled and I got a scholarship to play college basketball when people said I never would. Um, he was faithful there, uh, trusted him in that. Um, broke my foot, God was faithful in that. Like all of these things in my life, I could look back and say, God has done all these things. So it's like just really teaching me to raise my Ebenezer and and really trust it in him that maybe his like I had this idea of what my what my plan for me was. And God was like, that's cute, it's not gonna happen. Like this is actually what I'm gonna do. And and yes, you had these pivotal, changing, life-changing things, but I turned beauty from ashes, and it's gonna be a blessing in disguise. And because of X, Y, and Z, now I'm became like Milo's. I started as a volunteer assistant coach for him. And instead, I ended up being his like second in command, and I was running half of his practices, which I used to think he was just busy, but really looking back, I'm like, I think he was wanted me to get experience running practices. So for four years, it's like I got experience doing that because I was injured. But if I hadn't been injured, I wouldn't have got like that door wouldn't have been opened for me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And so it's like through that, and and then you know, it's funny because God is faithful and He doesn't He keeps His promises. And so the desire to play, like it used to be hard for me to go into a gym when people are playing and watch. I couldn't watch.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I bet, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:It was rough. And um, it's funny because like that desire, and I was like a gym rat. Like I'm hooping. Oh, there's people in at noon, I'm hooping with the old guys at noonball. Oh, there's people after school, I'm hooping with the dropouts. Like, I'm hooping. Like if there's a run going, I am getting in there somehow. And it's kind of like God just changed that, and where that desire wasn't there anymore.
SPEAKER_02:Seriously, how amazing.
SPEAKER_05:I love basketball and I love coaching basketball, but I can sit and watch him play, but there's not that like deep down, like really longing to go play anymore. So it's yeah, just like the faithfulness of God of like, yeah, I'm not gonna, yeah, I took that away, but yes, yes, I'll take the desire away too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and what well, I don't know where it's in the Bible, but the phrase um what the enemy meant for for uh uh evil, uh God turned into a blessing.
SPEAKER_05:So exactly.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, that's part of that story too. That's great. So all the stuff is new for me, uh because I did some research on you, and I'm like, I've got these list of questions, and this is taking me in a whole different direction, which is wonderful.
SPEAKER_05:Sorry, I'm throwing you off.
SPEAKER_02:So the so from from and you were in Fairbanks as a coach for a long time. How many years?
SPEAKER_05:So I coached boys high school for four years, and then my last year as an assistant, as my last year, I coached both, I was a head coach for girls across town and the assistant boys varsity coach. So in total, seven years in high school, and then I coached in college for five years at Division II in at University of Alaska Fairbanks.
SPEAKER_02:And how did um how did the TCU opportunity present itself?
SPEAKER_05:When I coached high school, I coached a young lady named Ruthie Heber, who was one of the best players to ever come out of Alaska, and she was heavily recruited by pretty much everybody under the sun. Um, but she got she ended up ultimately ended up going to Oregon. And so Mark Campbell, who's the head coach of TCU now, was the coach that predominantly was her point of contact at Oregon. And so I got to know him really well um over those years and he kind of became a mentor to me and somebody that um I would call about different things throughout my coaching career, and um, and so that is the connection there.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, all right. So so you sh so you just two years ago went to TCU, correct?
SPEAKER_05:Uh was it um so then I'm just starting my third year.
SPEAKER_02:Third year, yeah. You've had two seasons there. First season was a little squ questionable. Uh uh it wasn't great. Was it I I think I saw one in 17 or something.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, no, no, no. That was before we got here.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay, all right, okay.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah. So then March we did have tryouts, open tryouts our first year.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_05:We had a lot of injuries, and so we had open tryouts. Oh man. From school, we joked that they were in class with Uggs and a coffee yesterday and then playing on the basketball team with some hoop shorts today.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, wow, wow. But then the next year was this amazing year. It's the Cinderella year, uh, which was just this last season, which is an amazing season. Some of the stats I've found uh that it's a lot of firsts, including winning the first Big 12 regular season and tournament championships. Uh, you your team earned its highest ever NCAA tournament seed at number two and made it to the Sweet 16 for the first time. This is all in the same year. Uh the 2025 season is is described as the Cinderella year due to the team's dramatic turnaround. And this is where it says from a one to 17 record becoming one of the nation's top teams, which is where you're at today. Correct. How did you get there? I mean, first of all, your your head coach uh must be phenomenal. He's also a Christian gentleman, as I understand it.
SPEAKER_03:Correct.
SPEAKER_02:And uh so tell me a little bit about him and then and then how the um leadership, the Christ kind of leadership led you to kind of this dramatic, really dramatic kind of turnaround.
SPEAKER_05:Well, I think um even at Oregon, when he was at Oregon, and what drew Ruthie to go there, and what drew me to have that our connection was that he really generally cares about people. And so he's not just recruiting basketball players, he's recruiting character. And I think that um that is really huge, especially in any program, but especially in girls. Um girls, we have to like each other to play well together. And so um, if you recruit character people, then it's a lot easier to get that continuity and that great team culture there and to get that piece right. And then um obviously they're great basketball players as well. But if you miss on the culture part and and the person part and the character part, it's really hard to get the other part down. And so I think that that's something that um Coach Campbell's really great at, is he is really good at uh recruiting kids that have great character. And then he's also a phenomenal basketball coach. So you put those two together and um great success, great, great recipe for success. And you know, everybody who he brings on staff, he's not only bringing good character kids on staff, but all I mean on on the team, but also making sure his staff has good character people as well.
SPEAKER_02:Coach Jesse Craig joins us from TCU Women's Basketball on Amazing GRETES. More inspiration just ahead. TCU is a Christian university, but there's no there's uh lots of non-believers that go to school there and lots of uh non-believers who play in athletes. Are you capable of integrating Christian principles into the daily basketball team?
SPEAKER_05:I think it's really cool university to be at because a lot of schools are either completely non-faith-based and you can't really bring it up at all, and you can't talk about your faith. It's very tricky to talk about your faith, or it's the opposite where it's so faith-based that non-believers, um, there's not really a place for them to be there. And so TCU is a really cool marriage of the two where we have players from all different backgrounds, but you can be very open about your faith.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So it's really cool. But are there such things as like a team Bible study or any of that kind of stuff?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, so actually the the shirt that I have um TCA, it's from our FCA. So FCA stands for Shell of Fellowship of Christian Athletes. And so we have um, they have character coaches and they're for the whole university, and they're actually in universities across the nation. Um, and so they have character coaches for the different teams. And so two of the character coaches do a weekly Bible study with any of the girls who want to go, and then they also have a big FCA meeting uh once a week that they do with all of the athletes. So it's really cool because you get to fellowship with other athletes also, other than just yourself.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So um let's just jump back into Fred Kroll. So you uh not only you met him back in the day, but then you um were very instrumental in what was going on at the NBC camps, right? I mean, you were you traveled with the coach, and uh what was what was your relationship with him and how what what was the takeaways from that period of time with Fred?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, Fred is oh, he is one of a kind. He was one of those guys that he is he is a great and he is a giant. Um, I think when we talked previously, I said he's the kind of person that like the the analogy of throwing a pebble into water and the ripple effect is huge. That is Fred Kroll. And um he really followed his faith and did what the Lord told him to do. So he started his camps after coaching in Alaska. He started camps in villages in Alaska, across Alaska, smaller than a lot of the smaller communities up there. And so when he came back to Alaska um to visit one of his past colleagues, I reconnected with him. And um, I had quit, I have an engineering degree, I'd quit my engineering degree and was kind of just all right, God, where do you have me next? What do you want me to do? Um, and I remember I it was like on a weekend, Saturday or Sunday, that he was there and my last day of work was the next Wednesday. And I remember he said, Yeah, I really wish that I could hire you to work for me MBC camps, but you were construction in summer. And I said, Well, that's funny because that Wednesday is my last day, construction. So it's like there's again like God's faithfulness. And so with that, and he was kind of stepping out on a limb. He's like, I didn't know if I had some work for you or what I had to for you, but I just felt like God was telling me to hire you. And so um, I ended up doing 12 weeks that summer with him, uh 11 weeks that summer with him. And he, I went with him to a lot of different camps, including we would go out to some of the rural communities that he was really close to. And so I got to travel with him for the next six summers. I went to a lot of the camps that he, because he didn't, as he was got um later on in his career, he didn't always go to as many camps. And he had so many of them, he couldn't code all of them. And so a lot of the camps that he did go to, there was kind of a couple of us that would go to those camps with him. And he had uh he had kind of some some separate um a little bit more intense camps. Um, and he would run those and we would help him run those camps. So I got to know Fred really well. He became kind of my my go-to, my guy, my um, you know, kind of my grandfather um mentor figure. Um talk to him pretty much every day on the way to work.
SPEAKER_02:Spiritually as well as basketball coaching. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_05:Uh always challenge you. Fred was not never afraid. They called him Papa Suave, and Suave was never afraid to challenge you to be better. Whether I was you know, call him up and be like, uh, Fred, my team isn't doing this, I don't know how to get them. And he would always flip it. Okay, Jesse, well, what do you need to do? Get better. He would always call you up. And that was the same thing with your faith. Like, if you like what whatever, what it what's your faith looking like? He all every aspect of my life, he called me up instead of just allowing. He never allowed you to stay here. He called you up in everything you did.
SPEAKER_02:And he he had some phrases that he threw out at camps and kind of became uh notable for. Was there a favorite one of yours?
SPEAKER_05:Um, well, one that he, and they actually gave at his memorial service, they gave us a little stone. It's RPE, relentless pursuit of excellence. Oh, and that's what he always, you know, don't ever settle. So that was a good one. Um, where are you right here right now? I'd done in a lot of those camps that I did. Um, we would do uh speak a lot to like um to kids with about mental health stuff and how to move on, how to how to have good, how to have confidence, how not to um have low self-esteem in games or in life. And so it was like, where are you? You're right here right now. Because if you live in the past, if you think about the past, you're gonna be depressed. If you live in the future, you're gonna be you're gonna have anxiety and worry. So you gotta be right here, right now. And that was a good one. Um, what are you? You're a miracle. Um, why has God made you? I so many, so many. So many.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. So that he was an incredible guy, and I just was so fortunate to have an opportunity to chat with him. And I didn't know anything about him until that time we were on Zoom together. And I learned so much from him, Jeefs, just in that short 40-minute segment. So it was amazing. Uh, so what is your biggest takeaway from your time in coaching? What's what's um, I guess the question is is is where do where do you see God in the day-to-day life of being a coach at a an important college program like you're with?
SPEAKER_05:I think that um, you know, a lot of times we think about mission fields as across the across the ocean or whatever. And I think that for me, I just have really been like, okay, I never thought I would live in Texas. Um I'm a I'm a I'm a mountain girl.
SPEAKER_02:I I'm it's kind of like being it's kind of like being in a different country.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, it's flat, and I live in DFW. Fort Worth is the 12th largest city, and Dallas is like number five. Like, yeah, yeah. There's some people here. And so um, but it's just it's cool because I think that for me, it's like everything in life I can see where God has opened doors. I never have a booming voice down, but he just opens the door and gives me a piece about it and kind of pushes me through the door there. And so it's just knowing that like God has me here for a purpose and using being trying to be a conduit for him every and a servant heart every day. We come into contact with so many people, and you have young women who are um really at a high, a really high level, but they're also just getting ready to be out as adults, and so and everything in between.
SPEAKER_02:Have you found that there have been like some seekers along on the team along the way that have actually become believers because of their experience with you or the or the team?
SPEAKER_05:You know, sometimes I I think in my life I have had more people that I've planted this, that I've planted seeds and not necessarily been the harvester, but then I see it down the line five, 10 years. And that's even when I was a player where I just like invite them to church randomly, you know. I definitely have some kids where, you know, they'll ask me, they know I go to church and they know that that is that I am a believer and ask me, you know, about some churches and didn't go the entire time they were here. But now, as they I see them as they're adults now, I'm like, oh, she started to go to church. Or, oh, this person is like, she's in ministry in church, and she literally never took accepted one invitation, but came back years later and said, Oh, it's because you invited me to church all those times, even though I never went then, it planted a seed.
SPEAKER_02:Faith, leadership, and life on and off the court with coach Jesse Craig on Amazing Greats. And I think, yeah, I think what our job is um is sharing our testimony, share, model our testimony, and um plant the seed, and then God takes over from there. Exactly. He's he's the one that does the conversions.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So that's great. So I got the lightning round here as we kind of come to an end to our our few minutes together. Uh so we you've already answered my first lightning round question, and that is your favorite Bible vi vi uh Bible verse. You've already explained. What's your is there a favorite worship song that lifts you up during tough seasons?
SPEAKER_05:Oof man. I kind of go through cycles of songs. Um so there is um John Reddick. Pretty much anything by John Reddick has been on repeat for the last couple months. So you have to look him up. Um but I w I don't have like a one song that I'm like that's it I totally get that because I I like a lot of music. So it's changing. I'm I'm rotating.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Your most inspiring Christian athlete or coach who you look up to. Maybe you've already answered this too.
SPEAKER_05:It's probably I did. Fred Kroll, he he has shaped me in a lot of ways.
SPEAKER_02:All right. One thing you're currently learning from God, is there something right now that you're going through?
SPEAKER_05:Um, I think we're doing a series at my church right now on um being intentional living. And I think that um for me in our profession, it's a very active profession, if you can imagine as you can imagine, um, very time consuming. And so it's very easy to just get swept along. And so just like when you go to the gym, you're intentional about your workout, or it's a not a good workout, it's just being intentional about um my time with the Lord and making sure that I am not just getting swept along and just like but being very, very intentional and and choosing um choosing to dig deeper and to be intentional with interactions that I have with people during the day and um and let the Lord lead me in things. So that's the big lesson he's I'm learning right now.
SPEAKER_02:I love that. That's great. Thank you so much for sharing that. Uh then I I'm wondering if you have any advice for young Christian women who are choosing sports as their dream, as what they are wanting to do. What would you what would you say to somebody like that?
SPEAKER_05:I think the um first thing on basketball is just uh trust the process and just keep chipping away at your craft and keep perfecting that and um and be patient, but also remember that God does have a plan for you and to keep that open. You want to be the best you can be, but don't let that become an idol and end up putting that above your faith with the Lord because that's really easy to do. Um, because you're told to be great and you're told to do all these things, but at the end of the day, we're called to be the best for the Lord, not be the best for ourselves or the stats or the fans or our coach, even. Um, and so really learn how to be in the words so that you can walk that line.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Well, you have um your first game is not too far down the line, is it? Start is it?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, we have it yep, first week of November.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Uh and so where are you where is TCU looking for this coming season? Did you have a lot of people graduate and you're starting rebuilding, or are you gonna be a powerhouse like you were last year?
SPEAKER_05:The plan is to be have another great year. Um, the plan is to have another great year. We got a lot of we graduated a lot of great kids, had some ones that some players that are still here from last year that didn't graduate, and then we got a lot of really great transfers. So I think AP poll just came out. We're number 17 in the eight people.
SPEAKER_04:Really?
SPEAKER_05:Um that was the highest record, highest um preseason AP poll in school history. So that was exciting. So honestly, though, we gotta stay humble and hungry, and and that can it can say whatever it wants, but we rents due every day, you know. So we we gotta face each game and go forward with that.
SPEAKER_02:I love your smiling, uplifting attitude, and you're inspiring to not only our audience, but to me. Um, so I thank you so much.
SPEAKER_05:And you probably you came right home from practice tonight and jumped out of the couple of morning, but I'm I'm also the ops, director of ops on making sure all of our logistics are good to go for the school year.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, yeah. So I appreciate you jumping on and before dinner. Yeah, definitely with us on amazing great. It's been really nice to meet you and to have you on. So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_05:You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me. This has been awesome and a really cool podcast that you're doing.
SPEAKER_02:Coach Jesse Craig's story reminds us that God's work is in every season. From Alaska to the Big 12, shaping leaders who serve with heart and with faith. Thanks for listening to Amazing Greats, celebrating the stories behind amazing faith. See you next time.
