By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CEDAR BLUFF – From adolescence to adulthood, Garrett Crane has been molded by the Cedar Bluff community. The past five years he’s gotten the experience of being a head softball coach, where he turned that program into one of Class 1A’s best in the state.
Now school officials are turning to him to lead their football program back to prominence.
Crane was officially given the reins on Monday evening. He’s been an assistant on the football staff for the past several years in a variety of duties, including keeping stats to coaching the lines to being offensive coordinator the past two years under former head coach Alan Beckett.
A 2010 graduate of Cedar Bluff, Crane played for and coached with longtime head coach Jonathan McWhorter. He also coached alongside current principal Torey McDaniel.
Crane cites the duo, along with Beckett, for helping him earn the position he’s in today.
“I’m extremely excited,” he said. “Being a part of this program and playing here was a big deal, and on top of that, being under the leadership under Coach McWhorter for all these years and Coach Beckett for the last two. For them to have the confidence in me for my leadership means the absolute world to me.
“Having a relationship from Coach McWhorter and Coach McDaniel, from coaching with them to teaching with them, I think we’re on the same page from what we believe Cedar Bluff represents: the toughness and integrity of being a great team, effort, responsibility and service, which is our core covenants. For us to implement that from top to bottom has been really exciting. I’m so thankful for the relationship with them. The football relationship is amazing in itself, but learning from them as men of character is probably the greatest thing I’ve learned from them.
“This program means a lot to us in the community. I know it holds a special place in my heart. I’m excited about the tradition we’ve had and I’m looking forward to carrying on that same tradition moving forward.”
The move is bittersweet for the 31-year-old Crane. By accepting the head football position, Crane said he will no longer be head coach of the Lady Tiger softball program.
Cedar Bluff just finished a 26-19 season. The Lady Tigers won their third straight area championship and secured a spot in the Albertville regional, where they finished a win shy of the state tournament.
“I hope our girls understand that I will be stepping away from that. It will give me a little more time to be a family man in the spring,” Crane said. “I’m really proud of the (softball) group’s buy-in from the beginning. We started off with one senior when I first got here. Mattie Payne was only in eighth grade. There was never a question that they weren’t going to buy in when they came into the program. Now, there are things people wish and aspire to do that they’ve kind of made the norm.”
Crane credits his assistant softball coaches for much of their recent success.
“I’d put our coaching staff against anybody in the state,” he said. “Coach (Katie) McGinnis, Coach (Mandy) Walker and Coach (Mikenzie) Gossett, they bought into the vision. We preached the same things and repped them over and over.
“Our kids understood what we wanted to do from a discipline side of it, the culture side of it and the things we thought were important. We put those at the forefront of our program. The girls received it with open arms. I really couldn’t be more proud of where the program is. I know they’ll continue that success. It’s a well-established program and it’s going to continue to grow.”
Crane is hoping for similar success with the football team, which went 4-7 last season.
“I’m really excited to lay out the vision for this group,” Crane said. “They’re very familiar with me, and that helps out a lot.
“Our goal for any sport or anything we do here is to be a champion, on the field and in the classroom. We want to establish routines in order to be a champion. We coach them up hard, but at the same time, they’ve got to know that you love them. As coaches, we get to know them for who they are and the things that interest them, and we build that relationship with them.”
Crane has been married to his wife Vanessa for the past three years. The couple has a near-two-year-old son, Stetson Lee.
The Tigers open the 2023 football season at Winterboro on Aug. 24.