For leading his team to a phenomenal 29-0-0 record heading into the semifinals of the NCAA Division III championships, Joe Cranston of Wisconsin-River Falls has been chosen by his peers as the 2024 CCM/AHCA Women’s Division III coach of the year.
It is the first time that Cranston has been so honored and the first WIAC coach to win the award.
Cranston was voted the WIAC coach of the year and has guided the Falcons to a program record undefeated season at 29-0, leading the Falcons to their sixth NCAA tournament Frozen Four berth in program history.
UWRF defeated UW-Eau Claire to secure its fifth consecutive WIAC O’Brien Cup championship, earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, defeating Gustavus Adolphus in the quarterfinals.
In his 25th season leading the Falcons, Cranston is the first and only head women’s hockey coach in UWRF history and has 490 career wins, the fourth most in NCAA Division III women’s hockey history. Earning his first career national coach of the year award, he has been named the runner-up three times, and is a nine-time conference coach of the year. Under Cranston, 40 Falcons have earned All-America status, including AHCA players of the year Dani Sibley in 2017, Callie Hoff in 2022 and Maddie McCollins this year.
A 1990 graduate of UW-River Falls, Cranston began his coaching career in his hometown of Fergus Falls, Minn., and then coached the boys’ high school team in Somerset, Wis., for over a decade before starting the UWRF women’s hockey varsity program in 1999. He will receive his award at the AHCA Convention on May 2, in Naples, Fla.
Cranston was assisted this year by Jim Walsh, Amanda Ryder and Jeremy Weiss.
The runner-up for this year’s award was Greg Haney of Elmira.
