Brandy Crawford has been a coach since she was just 14 years old. Through many seasons and different sports, she has lived a life dedicated to kids, and stacked up wins year after year. She has well over 300 wins as a volleyball coach, and last year took the Maud Lady Cardinals through a historic run to the playoffs.
She knew at a very early age that she wanted to be a coach. Now, after more than 20 years of coaching high school sports, her life has changed. As with everything Brandy does, the change came because she listened to God.
She has left the sport she has loved for so long, and the excitement that it brings, and turns her attentions toward a new goal, and new excitement, as a 1st grade teacher at Hubbard.
Brandy once told the Tribune, “I like the small town communities where you know every kid’s face and you know every kid’s name and you know the parents and all the fans in the stands. There’s such a big following at small schools…it’s just a much more exciting atmosphere.”
It is safe to say she will find that same atmosphere in her new career at Hubbard, where instead of coaching the proper way to lift, spike and set, she will instead have the opportunity to teach and mold little minds.
The transition away from coaching has been a process.
Brandy says the transformation began in 2016 when her husband surrendered to the ministry and was ordained in 2016. Then from what began as a Bible study on the family owned land where now sits God’s Little Acre, God began moving her in a different direction, in a change that began in her heart and evolved as battles with cancer began.
Crawford states that she has had a calling on her life for coaching from a very early age. She tells us, “I had a call on my life for coaching. It has been an important part of my life. But I know God has a way of changing things. In February of 2019, I was taking care of my Nana, and everything just started adding up. There was the level of stress from coaching, being a pastor’s wife, taking care of a love one, and then I got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.”
