Every March in college basketball a new team is dubbed “Cinderella” for their improbable run towards the sport's crowning achievement, a national championship. In 2009, the NAIA's Biola University Women's basketball team lasted just two rounds but the fact that their run took them to the national tournament opened the eyes of NAIA teams throughout the nation, earning the distinction from commentators after nobody expected them to be there.
That is, except for them.
The program's sudden emergence as a credible opponent caught many of the nation's top teams off guard at the beginning of the season as Biola upset the then fifth-ranked Lewis-Clark State and 16th-ranked Westminster University. However, the wins only confirmed what the Eagles already knew about themselves. Actually, Biola head coach Ken Crawford expected the Eagles to play that way a year earlier yet instead of being disappointed, Crawford pushed his team harder.
The 55-year-old former high school football coach knows that his thick silver mustache mixed with his thunderous voice and receding hairline gives off the impression that he is even older. For some coaches that could be an obstacle in relating to young women, but during practices he furrows his brows, even turning a bright shade of pink that stretches from his cheeks to the top of his uncovered head, to let his players know that he demands perfection. To counterbalance his intensity, his fatherly side emerges during one-on-one meetings with his players to make sure players are eating healthy and spending enough time on their studies.
While reports of recruiting violations have stalled various collegiate programs, Crawford commits himself to honesty. With transfer students who are interested in Biola, Crawford tries to quickly reach a point in a conversation about Biola's requirement of 30 units of Bible to graduate. Odds are that it would not be a desired situation for the transfer, but he feels that it would be unfair to the student who is attempting to simultaneously meet his high standards while trying to make up units that most of his team chips away at each semester.
Yet players like junior Richae Kater, who was a part of Crawford's first recruiting class at Biola, value his honesty about the challenges that face them and take them to heart, to the court, and to the weight room so that they can improve. Kater says that Crawford's optimistic honesty was the biggest draw for her because he never gave the illusion that winning would be easy.
When Crawford took over as the head coach in 2005, he inherited a program that was in disarray. Despite an at-large appearance in the 2004 National Tournament, the Eagles had gone through three coaches in the previous three seasons and had never been ranked in the NAIA top 25.
Crawford says for the first three seasons the goal was often to just be competitive against teams who often came in with athletes who had been a part of the opposition's programs for twice as long as many of Biola's young squad had been in La Mirada. By 2009, Crawford's team was assembled almost entirely of his own recruiting with the exception of his leading scorer, senior Megann Alberts.
"With any new coach there is a learning curve to becoming really aware of the new atmosphere," Alberts said of Crawford's adjustment to the team in both of their first seasons at Biola. "As the team became more his rather than what he inherited, his coaching became specific to what he wanted. He expected us to know what he wanted as we became veterans. It quickly got to the point that we all knew at all times what we were supposed to do, even if we didn't quite succeed."
As the lone senior on the 2009 Eagles' squad, Alberts was the only player that was not brought to Biola by Crawford. But that did not prevent the two from forming a close bond in the same way he has bonded with each member of his team individually.
"He prides himself on his relationship with us. He knows a lot about our personalities," Alberts said. "He rarely addresses us on a general basis. He is very intentional about each of our personalities. As a senior walking away, being able to leave with a good relationship with your coach is an opportunity that not everyone gets. We are very blessed and I don't take it lightly. He made me the best player I could possibly be."
In order to succeed completely, Crawford has used recruiting as a tool to transform a team that was at the bottom of the conference to a formidable foe.
"We try to recruit a certain type of player," Crawford explains. "We look for a certain type of athletes who can do a variety of things, but we have a prerequisite of getting girls who are used to winning."
Crawford's recruiting methods are manifested in a few ways. The Bellingham Herald covered his coaching career at Bellingham High School in the state of Washington, the same area that Crawford recruited guard Lauren Gustafson from. A February 8th article from the Herald points out that Crawford's reputation as a good high school coach in the state of Washington is a major draw for students like Gustafson.
He also values Biola as a recruiting tool, in itself, as he finds the school draws the type of student athletes Crawford is looking for. Freshmen are quickly introduced to his expectations as each member of his roster signs a contract the beginning of every season promising that they will hold to disciplines like sprinting off of the court to the bench after a time out is called and acknowledging a teammate after a good pass with a point or, if possible, a high five. While those points are listed to help foster community between his players, another area of focus on the contract stresses not reacting to a disputable call made by an official. A discipline that proved invaluable in 2009.
The Eagles faced adversity as a handful of finishes against ranked teams saw losses due to questionable calls by the officials. Perhaps none was as gut-wrenching as the Eagles loss against arch-rival Azusa Pacific in a game that could have given Biola a season sweep of the Cougars for the first time in program history.
Despite leading throughout the game, Biola let Azusa back in and the two teams were tied with less than 20 seconds left. Azusa's guard drove the right side of the lane and threw a layup into the bottom of the rim with five seconds on the clock, causing the ball to roll around untouched but all ten players diving to secure the ball. Normally, officials let the game be decided in overtime as neither time had a serious chance at picking it up and scoring. But a whistle came late, and the foul was charged to Alberts. Azusa Pacific went on to hit the following free throws with under a second remaining to knock off Biola by two. Crawford and his team were in shock.
After Alberts briefly attempted to get an explanation for the inexplicable, she quickly withdrew. Crawford's method might not ever produce a more evident result. Despite obvious frustration, not one of his players acted out. And after multiple similar finishes some would have felt like the officials had personal vendettas against them.
Instead, Crawford held his team to the contract they signed at the beginning of the year. While he currently titles that contract "The Eagle Way," he has passed out those expectations every year throughout his 35 years of coaching. Truth is, "The Crawford Way" has been a perfect fit at Biola.
"He always stresses to us in those games that it was not anything the other teams did,” junior forward Richae Kater explained. “He says it is stuff that we can fix. Even good teams lose games but it's about the next game and how you respond. Losing games isn't the end all. You can lose and still be a good team."
Those games served as motivation for his team and the Eagles persevered through losses like the one at Azusa to enjoy victories against Point Loma Nazararene University and The Master's College, which were ranked 11th and 20th, respectively. He builds up the hype to his team as them “fighting history,” meaning many of the team's accomplishments, including an earlier victory at home over Azusa Pacific, were things that women's basketball teams at Biola had either seldom or never done before.
Yet, the way that Biola played in 2009 was more like conquering history. Their crowning achievement was a first-round victory at Nationals over third-seeded Trevecca Nazarene University. What makes it even more remarkable is how quickly Crawford's recruits have made an impact.
Redshirt freshman Charrise Reece seemed to be one of the biggest differences, navigating seamlessly through the opposition's defense, leading Biola offense to turn over the ball one hundred fewer times in 2009 than 2008 or 2007. Sophomore Jessilyn Conicelli emerged as a tough compliment to the finesse scoring of Alberts and helped relieve much of the burden that had been placed on Alberts the past two seasons. With Alberts the only player graduating, Crawford still has two years to make another run with a majority of his squad.
According to Crawford, the cycle of turnover in college basketball is perfect for him.
“I tend to evaluate my career every five years,” Crawford says. “Just to make sure I'm where God wants me and I'm doing what can.”
That evaluation has proven especially necessary as Crawford and his wife of 31 years, Linda, have been separated, not because of marriage difficulties, but so she could keep her teaching job in their home state of Washington while he moved down to southern California.
“One of the things it allows me to do, is immerse myself in what I'm doing,” Crawford says. “It means I can spend as much time as I need to in terms of building the program and it makes it so we really do enjoy the time we get to spend with each other. The time we spend together is quality rather than quantity. “
The end of the 2008-2009 basketball season marked the fourth year the Crawfords finished with Linda in Washington and Ken at Biola. Yet, entering the year before his routine evaluations, Ken is intent on making sure Biola is remembered for more than just the Cinderella season.
"The biggest thing is once you've gotten to the mountain top, do you have the courage to stay there?" Crawford says of his long-term plans in La Mirada. "I'm not interested in having a great team. I'm interested in having a great program. When you think Biola women's basketball, I want you thinking about a great women's program."
That's why Crawford has a difficult time identifying one of the thirty-five teams that he has coached as his favorite. Instead, he opts to say that his favorite team is whatever team he is currently working with. And that hunger may be a reason why the 2009 Eagles are the latest team he has coached which turned out surprisingly good.
“Last year we made the playoffs for the first time, this year was winning in the first round of the national tournament,” Crawford says. “It's a storybook ending because Megann Alberts, the senior, gets to go out on top. But if you ask anyone, from our juniors to our freshman, they don't expect anything less for themselves. That's what I'm interested in building.”
