May 3, 2006

LIVONIA, Mich. --  Madonna University Athletics Director Bryan Rizzo announced today (May 3) that Carl Graves has been named the new head women's basketball coach at Madonna University.  Graves begins his duties, effective immediately.

Graves comes to Madonna from Carleton Airport High School (Carleton, Michigan) where he has served as girls varsity coach for the past six seasons.  In his time at Airport, Graves guided his teams to a 88-39 record, including a school record for wins with 19 in 2005.

No stranger to the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference, Graves played collegiately at Concordia University under then head coach Chip Wilde.  While with the Cardinals, Graves was named a 1996 NAIA Academic All-American and Academic All-Conference honoree.

"We are very excited to bring Coach Graves on board as part of the Madonna Family," stated Rizzo.  "I think his experience, work ethic and personality are going to make him an excellent addition to our staff.  I believe he is the right person to continue building on the success of our women's basketball program.  The future of Madonna Women's basketball is in good hands."

Graves, who holds a masters degree in Social Work and is a school Social Worker in the Monroe County Intermediate School district, is also excited about his new opportunity.

"I am very excited at the opportunity that Mr. Rizzo and Madonna University has given me," Graves told players in their first team meeting Sunday. "I believe there are a lot of positive attributes to build on, and a lot of things to improve on.  I am ready for the challenge."

In addition to his time at Airport, Graves has also worked several collegiate coaching camps including; Concordia University, Eastern Michigan University, University of Cincinnati, University of Kentucky and Rutgers University.

His lone collegiate coaching experience was as an assistant under Wilde at Concordia from 1996-98 where he was responsible for post-play, practice planning, game strategies and camp direction.

Graves' mentor and former coach Chip Wilde called the appointment, "a great day for Carl Graves and even better day for Madonna University."

Graves takes over a Madonna program from Marylou Jansen who resigned March 23rd after 10 years as head coach. He inherits a program that has made two trips to the NAIA National Championships (1997, 2003), has secured three WHAC regular season championships (2001, 2002, 2005) and was the 2003 WHAC tournament champion.

Graves will make his Madonna debut with the 2006-07 Crusaders November 1, 2007 when MU hosts Rochester College.