Choate takes over Lumberjack volleyball program
Bryce Propheter - May 1st, 2008At the end of February, the NAU volleyball program hired a new head coach. After a nationwide search following the resignation of four-year head coach Chris Campbell, Craig Choate was named to the position.
“I want to congratulate the committee and chair Maria Bruggeman for running a successful search,” said athletic director Jim Fallis of the hiring process. “I am sure that others share my excitement that Craig has accepted our offer to lead the volleyball program “
Choate comes to Northern Arizona University with 17 years of head coaching experience. He believes he has been surrounded by excellent personnel, both most recently at Pepperdine University as an assistant men’s coach and at Brigham Young University as an assistant women’s coach, which has enabled him to understand what needs to happen in order to lead a successful volleyball team.
“I think what I can bring to this team is a different culture or mindset than what it’s been used to,” Choate said. “I think I know the culture that has to exist in a program for it to win.”
The NAU women’s volleyball team will lose senior 2007 All-Big Sky Conference first team Kim Babcock who ranked first in the nation in kills last season. Other senior graduates include Colleen Flooker and Kelly Verboom.
Although he has been with his team for less than a month, Choate says this spring the players seemed to be working toward getting better than they currently are.
“Change is always a strange thing,” Choate said. “They’re used to doing things one way and now I’m asking them to do it another way. But I think they’re working really hard to make that change.”
Before coaching at Pepperdine, Choate was the women’s head coach at San Jose State University for 14 years. His overall record while coaching there was 244-191 while also leading the team to five seasons with a minimum of 20 wins. He led the Spartans to three NCAA tournaments during his tenure there.
In 1999, Choate’s team at SJSU only lost six games while compiling 25 wins. That year he was named Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. His 2001 squad was the first SJSU team to be nationally ranked in more than a decade.
Choate was born in Los Angeles, Calif. on March 18, 1956. He received an undergraduate degree in physical education in 1978 and his master’s in physical education in 1982 while attending BYU. He then went back and got a bachelor of arts degree in history in 1984.
Choate’s coaching career also began at BYU where he was an assistant volleyball coach for the women’s team from 1985-88. In 1989 and 1990 he was an assistant coach at Cal Poly and then Pepperdine respectively. He was named head coach at New Mexico State in 1990 before moving to San Jose State in 1993. He also coached as an Olympic Festival assistant in 1994 and 1995.
Choate played club volleyball at BYU while earning his degrees. Since then he has participated in the USA Open Volleyball Championships where he earned silver medals in 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
“I’m just looking forward to the season. I don’t like the offseason,” Choate said.