Kevin Craig didn’t intend to coach girls basketball for more than two years. At the age of 25, and passed over for the boys basketball position in 1981, he accepted what seemed like a temporary assignment. 

• 44 years later, his name is synonymous with excellence in girls basketball, not just across Northwest Florida, but the state.

“I thought I’d do it for two years and 40 years later, I was retired from it,” Craig said, now 69 and preparing for his induction into the Fort Walton Beach High School Viking Hall of Fame.

When Craig took over the Lady Vikings in 1982, girls basketball was still finding its footing. The sport had only become FHSAA-sanctioned around 1976, and programs were building from scratch. 

What Craig built over the next 22 seasons would become the gold standard – 509 wins, 10 district championships, seven regional titles, six Final Four appearances, and two state championships in 1994 and 1999.

But the numbers only tell part of the story.

The Making of a Philosophy

Holly McDaniel arrived as a freshman in 1990, and her first impression of her new coach was less than favorable.

“I absolutely couldn’t stand him at first,” McDaniel laughed, recalling the early days. “I felt like he yelled at me all the time.”

Craig doesn’t dispute his demanding approach during that time. “I was a real a-hole during practices, at games…and a lot of other names they probably mumbled under their breath,” he acknowledged. “But off the court, I was who I was. My personality was totally different outside the lines than it was on the lines. And they knew that, and they knew that I cared for them.”

As McDaniel matured as a player, she began to understand the method behind what initially seemed like madness. “He coached us hard on the court, but when we walked off the court, he loved us. He absolutely loved us and it was a really good balance.”

That balance would prove transformational – not just for McDaniel, who would become the first female athletic director in Okaloosa County, but for an entire program learning what it meant to compete at the highest level.

Craig’s philosophy took shape in three simple words that would echo through the Viking gymnasium for decades: “Whatever It Takes.”

• “It encompassed a lot of things,” Craig said. “Whatever it takes to become a great student. Whatever it takes to become a great role model, whatever it takes to win games. People in the stands would say ‘whatever it takes‘ during games, and it just resonated through the gym and it just caught on.”

For McDaniel and her teammates, those words became a daily standard. “Every day he expected all of us to give our best. There weren’t any excuses. When you showed up and you walked on the court, you owed it to your teammates to give the best…every single day.”

The Breakthrough Years

The program’s transformation wasn’t immediate. From 1988 to 1991, the Lady Vikings suffered four consecutive district championship losses to Choctaw.

Everything changed in 1992 when Craig made a shift to man-to-man defense and intensified an already demanding practice regimen. “Really it was switching to play man-to-man defense and making practices even tougher than they were. It was building a lot of mental toughness and that group really had it.”

McDaniel was a sophomore on that breakthrough team that went 29-4 and reached the program’s first Final Four. The heartbreak of losing at the buzzer in the state semifinals only fueled their determination for what was to come.

• “My sophomore year was the first year that our girls’ basketball team made it to the Final Four, and we lost pretty much at the buzzer,” McDaniel recalled. The loss stung, but set the Lady Vikings up for future success.

Two years later, the 1994 team would embody everything Craig had been building toward. After winning their first 29 games, they stumbled in the district championship, losing to Choctaw in double overtime. In the locker room afterward, as tears flowed over their first loss, Craig said it was McDaniel who stood up with the words that would help define their championship run.

“I’ll never forget it – Holly was standing in the locker room after the game. She said, ‘that’s okay, we’re just going to have to go on the road and do it,'” Craig remembered.

They did exactly that. The Lady Vikings won the state championship entirely on the road, finishing 34-1 and earning a 15th-place national ranking. Under new playoff rules, they had become the first second-place district team allowed in the postseason – and they made the most of that opportunity.

Beyond the Court

The bond between Craig and McDaniel evolved far beyond coach and player. “By the time I left my senior year, Coach Craig had become my godfather. I was baptized and he became my godfather.”

That spiritual bond reflected something deeper in Craig’s approach to coaching. His philosophy had evolved from a single-minded focus on winning to something more.

• “When I was younger, it was all about winning games. But the older I got, it was just more about doing the right thing,” he said. “Be a good person, put your family first, your faith, and then just do the right thing.”

After playing college basketball, McDaniel returned to Fort Walton Beach as Craig’s assistant coach, spending five years learning the craft from her former mentor. “I was just really fortunate to be among not only him, but a staff that had been together for a long time and had done it for a long time.”

Craig recognized her natural ability immediately. “She was born to be a coach. It was a perfect time for me to retire from coaching because she was with me for five years as my assistant and she was ready.”

When McDaniel took over as head coach, she leaned heavily on everything Craig had taught her. “99% of the things I did my first year was just a complete copycat of Coach Craig. That’s the honest truth because that’s who I learned from.”

Understanding the delicate nature of coaching transitions, Craig gave his successor the space she needed to establish her own identity. “I stayed away. If she needed to talk to me, I was always there for her. But I left her on her own and she would call me sometimes.”

McDaniel’s success validated Craig’s confidence – she took the team to the state tournament in her first year as head coach.

The Sacrifices

Success came with sacrifices that Craig acknowledges with regret. The demands of building a championship program meant time away from his six children and five grandchildren.

• “I did not spend enough time with my family. I put basketball ahead of everything and I regret that,” he said of those missed moments.

There were also seasons that tested him, particularly 1989 when his two best players tore their ACLs in the first three games, resulting in an 11-19 record. “I love those kids because they played so hard,” he said about that team’s perseverance through adversity.

Craig said his motivation came not from the joy of success but from something deeper and more driving. “I was more afraid of failure than I was happy with success. That’s really what got me out of coaching after 44 years.”

The Lasting Bonds

Perhaps no moment better captured the depth of Craig’s impact than his final game when he was coaching South Walton against Fort Walton Beach in 2022. Word had spread that their former coach would be on the opposing side one last time, and the Vikings came to honor him.

40-50 former players filled the stands that night, spanning decades of Lady Vikings basketball. “It gives me goosebumps right now just talking about it,” Craig said about the gathering.

• Those former players had already established a scholarship in Craig’s name, which he was honored to present at Fort Walton Beach’s awards night. “I couldn’t be honored any better than that.”

The connections Craig made with his players continue today in ways both large and small. Every Mother’s Day, he sends personalized messages to former players who are now mothers. “I send a message to each of them and I make sure to include their name in it to make it personal.”

Last year, the 1994 championship team held their 30-year reunion, with many players having become successful professionals, including doctors. 

The Secret to Success

For all his tactical knowledge and strategic adjustments, Craig believes his success came from something simpler and more fundamental.

• “I just got the kids to play hard and they knew that I cared about them,” he said. “And that’s really the secret to my success.”

McDaniel, who witnessed that care firsthand and now leads the athletic program Craig helped build, agrees. “More than x’s and o’s, it’s really about relationships with him – with his staff, people and players. The vast number of former players that come back is a testament to who he was as a coach.”

Craig often drew inspiration from the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” frequently quoting Tom Hanks’ character to his players: “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everybody would do it.”

A Living Legacy

Today, the “Whatever It Takes” motto continues under current coach Mercedez Clayborne, maintaining the culture Craig built “from ground zero.” He takes pride in knowing the foundation he laid remains strong.

“I’ve got to give Holly all the credit. I was so happy that they hired somebody who played there and coached with me, and she’s kept it going,” Craig said.

• McDaniel credits Craig’s influence on her development as a leader. “He just taught me a lot about managing people, holding kids accountable and how much it matters every day to make the little things count.”

The two remain close, with regular phone calls maintaining their bond. “Holly called me just this morning. We talk all the time. She’s my godchild,” Craig said.

Coming Home

On October 3, Craig will be inducted into the Viking Hall of Fame alongside Barbara Britt, who spent 36 years developing leadership and physical education programs, and Randy Folsom, who directed the school’s band programs and served as president of the Florida Bandmasters Association.

For Craig, who spent 25 years at Fort Walton Beach High School, the recognition brings him back to a place that shaped him as much as he shaped it.

• “That’s my home away from home. I couldn’t explain it any better than I honestly just grew up there.”

McDaniel emphasized the significance of recognizing Craig’s contributions to the school’s culture. “He’s a person who did it every day – not to get anything back but just because he loved doing it. He loved being in a school and part of the culture, and he certainly helped build it. He just loved the kids.”

When asked what he hopes people remember most about his time as Lady Vikings coach, Craig’s response shows the passion that drove him for more than four decades.

“That I had a passion for it and that I cared about the kids. I cared about the program and still care about the program. Everything I did was for that program.”