TCU Coach Craig: A Journey of Resilience

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Jessie Craig, a phenomenal coach from the TCU Women's Basketball staff. She played a pivotal role in steering 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, her story is remarkable.

Overcoming Adversity

Hear how a series of career-ending injuries became a pivotal moment in Coach Craig's life. These challenges forced her to rely on her faith and unexpectedly launched her coaching career. She started as a high school JV assistant at just 17. Her journey is a testament to how God can turn setbacks into opportunities. It shaped 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. This includes their first Big 12 championships and Sweet 16 appearance. She highlights 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." This mantra has significantly impacted her coaching style and spiritual walk.

The Unique Environment at TCU

Learn about the unique environment at TCU that allows Christian principles to integrate with elite athletics. Coach Craig shares 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.

Building a Strong Team Culture

Creating a strong team culture is essential for success in sports. Coach Craig emphasizes the importance of character in recruiting. She believes that a team's success is not just about talent but also about the values and principles each player brings. This approach fosters unity and resilience among the players.

The Role of Mentorship

Mentorship plays a crucial role in Coach Craig's journey. She reflects on the impact of her mentors, particularly Fred Crowell. His teachings have shaped her coaching philosophy and personal growth. The lessons learned from her mentors continue to guide her as she leads her team.

The Power of Faith in Coaching

Faith is a central theme in Coach Craig's life and coaching career. She discusses how her beliefs influence her decisions and interactions with players. By integrating her faith into her coaching, she creates a supportive environment that encourages personal and athletic growth.

The Future of TCU Women's Basketball

As TCU Women's Basketball continues to evolve, Coach Craig is excited about the future. She envisions a program that not only competes at a high level but also develops young women of character. Her commitment to excellence and faith will undoubtedly shape the next generation of players.

Listen right here, right now!

Watch right here, right now!

JESSE CRAIG AT A GLANCE

TCU Women’s Basketball Coach • Former College Basketball Player • Christian Leader • Christian Testimony

Topics: Christian faith • Basketball • TCU • Coaching • Faith and sports • Injuries • Adversity • Purpose • Calling • Discipleship • Leadership • Youth • Character • Mentoring • Fred Kroll • Faith in action

Her Faith Journey: Christian upbringing → Personal faith in Jesus as a child → Basketball becomes a major part of her identity → Repeated injuries and loss of the ability to play → Trusting God through disappointment → Unexpected opportunity to coach → Mentorship under Fred Kroll → Seeing God's faithfulness in hindsight → Using coaching as a mission field

This Episode Explores:

• How a homeschooled girl from Alaska found her way into college basketball and coaching

• How repeated injuries ended Jesse's playing career and changed the direction of her life

• Why she believes God used what felt like a setback to open the door to coaching

• The profound influence of legendary coach and mentor Fred Kroll

• How Jesse integrates Christian faith, character and leadership into coaching young women

• Why she sees a college basketball program as a mission field

• What she means by “raising your Ebenezer” and remembering God's faithfulness

Questions Answered:

• What is Jesse Craig's Christian testimony?

• How did Jesse Craig become a basketball coach?

• Why did Jesse Craig stop playing basketball?

• How did Fred Kroll influence Jesse Craig?

• How does Jesse integrate Christian faith into coaching?

• What does “raising your Ebenezer” mean?

• How does Jesse Craig see God working through adversity?

• What advice does she give young Christian women in sports?

  
  

Podcast Transcript:

Amazing Greats with Ric Hansen

Running for a Higher Purpose: Coach Jesse Craig on Faith, Basketball and God’s Unexpected Plan

Featuring Jesse Craig — TCU Women’s Basketball Coach

From Alaska to Texas

Ric Hansen:Hey, Ric 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 and 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 of basketball, Fred Kroll. We've had the opportunity to talk to a few of his success stories. Fred has passed, but his legend lives on. And so we get a chance today to invite you to this conversation with a powerful coaching giant.

Can we say that?

Jesse Craig:No, no.

Ric Hansen:This is going to be the story not only of her coaching career, but her personal journey as well. She is part of the coaching staff at Texas Christian University, a women's basketball team that set all kinds of records in this last year—an amazing season that you've had.

We're going to track 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.

Jesse Craig:Thank you for having me. It's very much an honor.

A Faith That Became Her Own

Ric Hansen:All righty, good deal. So let's get started.

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.

You are a Christian, for sure. Where did that start? Did you have a Christian home that you grew up in?

Jesse Craig:Yeah, I was very fortunate. Both of my parents were Christians, and it's kind of cool. My mom grew up Catholic, and then my dad actually wasn't a believer until after college. He got saved at a Billy Graham crusade.

So growing up, yeah, I was raised in the church from a young age and definitely nurtured up in that, but nurtured along to have my own faith and not just have my parents' faith.

Ric Hansen:Was there a pivotal moment when it was like, "Okay, this is my own personal relationship with Jesus"? Was there a certain time or place?

Jesse Craig:Honestly, I remember at a really young age. My parents didn't force us into accepting Jesus. I just remember being young, probably around the age of six or seven, and seeing my parents' faith and wanting that relationship with Jesus.

So I wouldn't say there was one moment. From then on, it was just a relationship that was my relationship.

Obviously, your faith and everything else—your walk—has valleys and mountaintops along the way. But I would say from then on, it was a relationship that was mine.

We were required to go to church and encouraged, even as adults, to seek the Lord. But I think just even from that young age, it was something that really was a desire of my heart: to follow after Jesus.

Ric Hansen:Yeah, and that's always an intriguing question for me because some people spin on a dime. I mean, it changes one day to the next or one moment to the next. Others are kind of grown and mature along the way and grow in their relationship.

And that's kind of me too. It wasn't like just one night it all happened. It was something that grew.

The Homeschooled Basketball Player

Ric Hansen:So as a young basketball player, you started in high school, right? You played basketball in high school?

Jesse Craig:Yeah, so I kind of have a unique story with my basketball career as well.

My parents homeschooled us. I grew up originally in Idaho until about eighth grade, and there you could play on the school teams. So my sisters and I played on the school teams.

We played as a family, too. We'd go out in the park or to the one-room schoolhouse down the street. After church on Sunday, we'd go play as a family.

Then moving to Alaska, they had rules that if you're homeschooled, you couldn't play on the high school teams or the school teams.

Ric Hansen:Really?

Jesse Craig:And so it was a little tricky.

I have two sisters, and we played in church leagues and played pickup at the gym all the time. We generally played with guys because that's generally who plays pickup games.

We did that, and we played AAU.

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.

My senior year of high school, I was the JV assistant coach.

Ric Hansen:Really? Wow. That might be the youngest coaching career ever.

Jesse Craig:Yeah, right.

So kind of unique.

Then I ended up going to school outside of Alaska. I got recruited by some small schools, but academics were really big for my family. The schools I got recruited to didn't really have the degree I wanted.

So I went to Purdue and played rugby, actually, for a couple of years on their club team. Then I transferred back to Alaska and ended up walking on the team there.

I played for UAF, so I ended up walking onto the team at UAF and then earned a scholarship my next year.

When Basketball Was Taken Away

Ric Hansen:Okay. All right. And so it was there that you ran into this gentleman named Fred Kroll. Is that correct?

Jesse Craig:No. So this is kind of fun because I coached there—I mean, I played there—but I ended up tearing my ACL.

I broke my foot my sophomore year and tore my ACL the next two years. So I ended up not actually getting to play a bunch.

I became kind of a player-coach. They would travel me because we had a lot of injuries, so they'd travel me sometimes as a second set of eyes on the road.

I really got to know some people in the community who had been there for a long time, including Milo Griffin. He was the boys' coach at one of the high schools in town.

I couldn't play anymore. It was my senior year. I'd torn my ACL. I was done.

The doctor told me, "No more basketball playing if you want to walk by the time you're 30."

That was a tough time in my life where definitely my relationship with the Lord got stronger because I had to rely really heavily on Him.

It was like, "Okay, God, You put this desire into my heart. But now what do I do? It's taken away."

And so He opened up this door to go be an assistant boys varsity basketball coach.

Milo Griffin happened to be the star player who played for Fred Kroll at UAF.

Ric Hansen:This is getting so complicated.

Jesse Craig:I know. We need a flowchart.

So Fred Kroll was the very first coach at the University of Alaska Fairbanks when they had scholarship money.

Ric Hansen:Okay.

Jesse Craig:And Milo Griffin was another really cool story. Now he's a giant. Both of those men are giants.

He was in the military, and then they saw him and brought him over. He played and set all kinds of records. He still holds a scoring record at UAF.

But he played for Fred.

Ric Hansen:Okay.

Jesse Craig:And they would go at it one-on-one. I think they were about the same age. Milo might have been a little older than Fred because Fred was really young. He was the youngest Division II college head coach at the time. He was really young.

Ric Hansen:Yeah, I remember that as part of his story.

Jesse Craig:Super cool.

When God Redirects the Plan

Ric Hansen:So this is a piece that I didn't realize—that you were sidelined based on an injury.

That's a similar story to another gentleman we talked to on this podcast, RJ Barsh. 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."

Can you give me any specifics about the kinds of prayers? How did you approach this with your Savior and Lord, who now had put you on the sidelines?

Jesse Craig:It was interesting because it was three years in a row.

It was like I would get better and I would do all the things. I was the kid who was like, "I'm going to outwork you."

If you tell me what I need to do, I'm going to do it to the T, to the max.

And then, which is almost more frustrating, because when it doesn't come to fruition, you're like, "Well, I literally did everything I was supposed to."

It's funny how sometimes God uses even non-believers to speak into your life.

I remember my coach at the time, when I broke my foot my sophomore year, he told me, "Well, Jess, you're in a bad situation. You can either make it worse with your attitude, or you can make it better with your attitude."

That's something that's stuck with me kind of forever, and especially through all of those injuries.

It was like, "Okay, God, 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 going to take that away, take the desire to play away."

And that kind of became my prayer.

Of course, you have those rough days where you're like, "Oh gosh, this is really tough. I don't understand."

But Romans 12:12 has kind of stuck with me, and that became my mantra: "Joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

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.

Patient in affliction. I'm not a very patient person. I like, "I'm going to work hard. I'm going to work really hard for it."

But being patient in the process, and then just praying continually—joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

God's gotten me through other things.

Raising Your Ebenezer

Ric Hansen:You're listening to Amazing Greats today with TCU's women's basketball coach, Jesse Craig.

Jesse Craig:Have you ever heard of raising your Ebenezer?

Ric Hansen:Oh, no. Okay. Tell me that.

Jesse Craig:So basically, when Israel was coming out of the desert, God said, "Okay, I want you to build a tower of rocks."

So when you look back, you can remember that God brought you out of all of the things He did for you.

And so it was really about raising my Ebenezer.

I look back and I see, "Okay, God's been faithful."

I was homeschooled and I got a scholarship to play college basketball when people said I never would.

He was faithful there. I trusted Him in that.

Broke my foot—God was faithful in that.

All of these things in my life, I could look back and say, "God has done all these things."

It's like just really teaching me to raise my Ebenezer and really trust in Him.

Maybe I had this idea of what my plan for me was, and God was like, "That's cute. It's not going to happen. This is actually what I'm going to do."

And yes, you had these pivotal, changing, life-changing things, but I turned beauty from ashes, and it's going to be a blessing in disguise.

Because of X, Y and Z, I became like Milo's—I started as a volunteer assistant coach for him.

Instead, I ended up being his second in command, and I was running half of his practices.

I used to think he was just busy, but really looking back, I'm like, "I think he 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 gotten that door opened for me.

Ric Hansen:Yeah, yeah.

Jesse Craig:And then, you know, it's funny because God is faithful and He doesn't—He keeps His promises.

The desire to play—it used to be hard for me to go into a gym when people were playing and watch. I couldn't watch.

Ric Hansen:Oh, I bet. Yeah.

Jesse Craig:It was rough.

And I was a gym rat. If there was a game going on, I was playing.

"Oh, there's people in at noon? I'm hooping with the old guys at noon ball. Oh, there's people after school? I'm hooping with the dropouts."

If there's a run going, I am getting in there somehow.

And it's kind of like God just changed that, where that desire wasn't there anymore.

Ric Hansen:Seriously. How amazing.

Jesse Craig:I love basketball and I love coaching basketball, but I can sit and watch them play, and there's not that deep-down, really longing to go play anymore.

So it's just the faithfulness of God.

It's like, "Yeah, I'm not going to take that away."

But yes, He took the desire away too.

Ric Hansen:Yeah. And what—I don't know where it's in the Bible, but the phrase, "What the enemy meant for evil, God turned into a blessing."

Jesse Craig:Exactly.

From Alaska to TCU

Ric Hansen:All of this is new for me because I did some research on you, and I'm like, "I've got this list of questions," and this is taking me in a whole different direction—which is wonderful.

Jesse Craig:Sorry, I'm throwing you off.

Ric Hansen:So from Fairbanks, you were a coach there for a long time. How many years?

Jesse Craig:I coached boys high school for four years.

Then my last year as an assistant—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 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Ric Hansen:And how did the TCU opportunity present itself?

Jesse Craig: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.

She was heavily recruited by pretty much everybody under the sun, but she ultimately ended up going to Oregon.

Mark Campbell, who's the head coach of TCU now, was the coach who was predominantly her point of contact at Oregon.

So I got to know him really well over those years, and he kind of became a mentor to me—somebody that I would call about different things throughout my coaching career.

And so that is the connection there.

Ric Hansen:Okay. All right.

So you just two years ago went to TCU, correct?

Jesse Craig:I'm just starting my third year.

Ric Hansen:Third year, yeah. You've had two seasons there.

The first season was a little questionable. It wasn't great, was it? I think I saw one in 17 or something.

Jesse Craig:Oh, no, no, no. That was before we got here.

Ric Hansen:Oh, okay. All right.

Jesse Craig:Yeah. So then March—we did have tryouts, open tryouts, our first year.

We had a lot of injuries, and so we had open tryouts.

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.

Ric Hansen:Wow. Wow, wow.

The Cinderella Season

Ric Hansen:But then the next year was this amazing year—the Cinderella year—which was just this last season.

Some of the stats I've found: a lot of firsts, including winning the first Big 12 regular-season and tournament championships.

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.

The 2025 season is described as the Cinderella year because of the team's dramatic turnaround—from a 1–17 record to becoming one of the nation's top teams.

How did you get there?

First of all, your head coach must be phenomenal. He's also a Christian gentleman, as I understand it.

Jesse Craig:Correct.

Ric Hansen:Tell me a little bit about him, and then how that Christ-centered leadership led you to this really dramatic turnaround.

Jesse Craig:Well, I think even at Oregon, when he was at Oregon, what drew Ruthie to go there—and what drew me to have that connection—was that he genuinely cares about people.

He's not just recruiting basketball players. He's recruiting character.

I think that is really huge, especially in any program, but especially in women's basketball.

Girls, we have to like each other to play well together.

So if you recruit character people, then it's a lot easier to get that continuity and that great team culture there and get that piece right.

Obviously, they're great basketball players as well.

But if you miss on the culture part and the person part and the character part, it's really hard to get the other part down.

I think that's something Coach Campbell's really great at.

He's really good at recruiting kids that have great character, and then he's also a phenomenal basketball coach.

So you put those two together and it's a great recipe for success.

And everybody who he brings on staff—he's not only bringing good-character kids onto the team, but also making sure his staff has good-character people as well.

Faith on a Christian Campus

Ric Hansen:Coach Jesse Craig joins us from TCU Women's Basketball on Amazing Greats. More inspiration just ahead.

TCU is a Christian university, but there are lots of non-believers who go to school there and lots of non-believers who play athletics.

Are you capable of integrating Christian principles into the daily basketball team?

Jesse Craig: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 don't really have a place to be there.

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.

Ric Hansen:Okay. So it's really cool.

Are there such things as a team Bible study or any of that kind of stuff?

Jesse Craig:Yeah. So actually, the shirt that I have—TCU FCA—is from our FCA.

FCA stands for Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

They have character coaches, and they're for the whole university. They're actually at universities across the nation.

They have character coaches for the different teams.

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 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.

The Fred Kroll Connection

Ric Hansen:Yeah.

So let's just jump back into Fred Kroll.

You not only met him back in the day, but then you were very instrumental in what was going on at the NBC camps, right?

You traveled with the coach. What was your relationship with him, and what were the takeaways from that period of time with Fred?

Jesse Craig:Fred is—oh, he is one of a kind.

He was one of those guys that—he is a great, and he is a giant.

I think when we talked previously, I said he's the kind of person where the analogy of throwing a pebble into water and the ripple effect is huge.

That is Fred Kroll.

He really followed his faith and did what the Lord told him to do.

He started his camps in villages in Alaska after coaching in Alaska—across Alaska, in smaller communities.

When he came back to Alaska to visit one of his past colleagues, I reconnected with him.

I had quit—I have an engineering degree—and I'd quit my engineering job and was kind of just, "All right, God, where do You have me next? What do You want me to do?"

I remember—it was on a weekend, Saturday or Sunday—that he was there, and my last day of work was the next Wednesday.

I remember he said, "Yeah, I really wish that I could hire you to work for me at NBC Camps, but you're working construction in summer."

And I said, "Well, that's funny, because that Wednesday is my last day in construction."

So again, God's faithfulness.

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 for you, but I just felt like God was telling me to hire you."

So I ended up doing 11 weeks that summer with him.

I went with him to a lot of different camps, including some of the rural communities that he was really close to.

I got to travel with him for the next six summers.

I went to a lot of the camps that he had, because as he got later on in his career, he didn't always go to as many camps. He had so many of them, he couldn't cover all of them.

A lot of the camps that he did go to, there were a couple of us who would go to those camps with him.

He had some separate, a little bit more intense camps, 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 go-to, my guy, my grandfather mentor figure.

I talked to him pretty much every day on the way to work.

Ric Hansen:Spiritually as well as basketball coaching?

Jesse Craig:Always.

He would challenge you.

Fred was never afraid—they called him Papa Suave—and Suave was never afraid to challenge you to be better.

Whether I was calling him up and saying, "Fred, my team isn't doing this. I don't know how to get them there," he would always flip it.

"Okay, Jesse, well, what do you need to do to get better?"

He would always call you up.

And that was the same thing with your faith.

Whatever it was—"What's your faith looking like?"

Every aspect of my life, he called me up instead of just allowing me to stay here.

He never allowed you to stay where you were. He called you up in everything you did.

"Relentless Pursuit of Excellence"

Ric Hansen:And he had some phrases that he threw out at camps and kind of became notable for.

Was there a favorite one of yours?

Jesse Craig:Well, one that they actually gave us at his memorial service—they gave us a little stone—is RPE: Relentless Pursuit of Excellence.

That's what he always said.

Don't ever settle.

Another one was, "Where are you right here, right now?"

I'd done a lot of those camps where we would speak to kids about mental-health stuff and how to move on, how to have good confidence, how not to have low self-esteem in games or in life.

And so it was, "Where are you? You're right here, right now."

Because if you live in the past, if you think about the past, you're going to be depressed.

If you live in the future, you're going to have anxiety and worry.

So you've got to be right here, right now.

That was a good one.

"What are you? You're a miracle."

"Why has God made you?"

So many. So many.

Ric Hansen:Yeah, yeah.

When Basketball Becomes a Mission Field

Ric Hansen:He was an incredible guy, and I was so fortunate to have an opportunity to chat with him.

I didn't know anything about him until the time we were on Zoom together, and I learned so much from him in that short 40-minute segment.

So it was amazing.

What is your biggest takeaway from your time in coaching?

I guess the question is, where do you see God in the day-to-day life of being a coach at an important college program like you're with?

Jesse Craig:I think that a lot of times we think about mission fields as being across the ocean or whatever.

And I think that for me, I've really been like, "Okay, I never thought I would live in Texas."

I'm a mountain girl.

Ric Hansen:It's kind of like being in a different country.

Jesse Craig:Yeah. It's flat, and I live in DFW.

Fort Worth is the 12th-largest city, and Dallas is like number five.

Yeah, there's some people here.

But it's just cool because I think that for me, everything in life—I can see where God has opened doors.

I never have a booming voice down from heaven, but He just opens the door and gives me a peace about it and kind of pushes me through the door.

So it's just knowing that God has me here for a purpose and trying to be a conduit for Him every day, with a servant's heart.

We come into contact with so many people, and you have young women who are at a really high level, but they're also just getting ready to be out as adults, and everything in between.

Planting Seeds

Ric Hansen:Have you found that there have been some seekers along on the team who have actually become believers because of their experience with you or the team?

Jesse Craig:Sometimes I think in my life I've had more people where I've planted the seed and not necessarily been the harvester.

But then I see it down the line—five, ten years later.

Even when I was a player, I would just invite them to church randomly.

I definitely have some kids where they'll ask me—they know I go to church, and they know that I am a believer—and they'll ask me about some churches.

They didn't go the entire time they were here.

But now, as I see them as adults, I'm like, "Oh, she started to go to church."

Or, "Oh, this person is in ministry in church."

And she literally never 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.

Ric Hansen:Faith, leadership, and life on and off the court with Coach Jesse Craig on Amazing Greats.

And I think what our job is, is sharing our testimony, modeling our testimony, and planting the seed.

Then God takes over from there.

Exactly. He's the one who does the conversions.

Jesse Craig:Exactly.

The Lightning Round

Ric Hansen:So that's great.

I've got the lightning round here as we kind of come to an end of our few minutes together.

You've already answered my first lightning-round question, and that is your favorite Bible verse.

You've already explained that.

What's your favorite worship song that lifts you up during tough seasons?

Jesse Craig:Oof, man. I kind of go through cycles of songs.

John Reddick—pretty much anything by John Reddick has been on repeat for the last couple of months.

So you have to look him up.

I don't have one song where I'm like, "That's it."

I totally get that because I like a lot of music. It's changing. I'm rotating.

Ric Hansen:All right.

Your most inspiring Christian athlete or coach who you look up to?

Maybe you've already answered this one too.

Jesse Craig:I probably did.

Fred Kroll. He has shaped me in a lot of ways.

Ric Hansen:All right.

One thing you're currently learning from God—is there something right now that you're going through?

Jesse Craig:I think we're doing a series at my church right now on intentional living.

And I think for me, in our profession, it's a very active profession, as you can imagine. It's very time-consuming.

So it's very easy to just get swept along.

Just like when you go to the gym, you're intentional about your workout, or it's not a good workout.

It's just being intentional about my time with the Lord and making sure that I am not just getting swept along, but being very, very intentional and choosing to dig deeper.

To be intentional with interactions that I have with people during the day, and let the Lord lead me in things.

So that's the big lesson I'm learning right now.

Ric Hansen:I love that. That's great. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Advice for Young Christian Women in Sports

Ric Hansen:I'm wondering if you have any advice for young Christian women who are choosing sports as their dream—as what they want to do.

What would you say to somebody like that?

Jesse Craig:I think the first thing in basketball is just trust the process.

Keep chipping away at your craft and keep perfecting that.

Be patient, but also remember that God does have a plan for you and 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.

That's really easy to do 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.

So really learn how to be in the Word so that you can walk that line.

Looking Ahead at TCU

Ric Hansen:All right.

Well, your first game is not too far down the line, is it?

Jesse Craig:Yeah. First week of November.

Ric Hansen:Yeah.

And so where is TCU looking for this coming season?

Did you have a lot of people graduate and you're starting to rebuild, or are you going to be a powerhouse like you were last year?

Jesse Craig:The plan is to have another great year.

We graduated a lot of great kids and had some players who are still here from last year who didn't graduate.

Then we got a lot of really great transfers.

I think the AP poll just came out. We're number 17 in the AP poll.

Ric Hansen:Really?

Jesse Craig:That was the highest preseason AP poll in school history.

So that was exciting.

Honestly, though, we've got to stay humble and hungry.

It can say whatever it wants, but rent's due every day.

We have to face each game and go forward with that.

"God Has Me Here for a Purpose"

Ric Hansen:I love your smiling, uplifting attitude, and you're inspiring not only to our audience, but to me.

So I thank you so much.

Jesse Craig:And you probably came right home from practice tonight and jumped out of the couple of morning—

I'm also the operations director, making sure all of our logistics are good to go for the school year.

Ric Hansen:Okay, yeah.

So I appreciate you jumping on before dinner.

Definitely, with us on Amazing Greats.

It's been really nice to meet you and to have you on.

So thank you so much.

Jesse Craig:You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

This has been awesome and a really cool podcast that you're doing.

Ric Hansen: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.