By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Dwight Phillips thought he would be running the 400 meters at Arizona State, just like he did at Kentucky before transferring to Tempe in 2000.
"It was Day 1 and I showed up to start training and I noticed I was separated to train with the jumpers," said Phillips, who had competed in the triple jump at Kentucky. "I went up to coach (Greg) Kraft and said, 'I noticed you have me training with the jumpers but I'm a 400 meter guy.' He says, 'well, you can either train with the jumpers or go home.'"
Phillips was stunned.
"I went to practice every day dreading jumping. I thought it was so stupid to be doing this because I was a 400-meter runner," he said. "That very year, I went from being a mediocre 400-meter runner to one of the top jumpers in the world. Greg saw something in me I didn't even see in myself."
Phillips won the gold medal in the long jump at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. He also won five world championships in the event; four outdoors and one indoor. As he looks back upon that pivotal point in his life 16 years ago in Tempe, he wonders where he'd be without Kraft's vision, guidance and expertise.
"Greg Kraft isn't just a coach; he's a teacher who taught me all the nuances of being a good jumper," Phillips said. "A lot of times when someone tries to teach you something, they make it complex and use all this wordy jargon. He simplified every thing and to this day, I use the same techniques he taught me to teach the next generation of jumpers."
As he nears the finish of his landmark 20th season at the helm of Sun Devil track and field, Kraft's list of achievements is lengthy. His teams have won four NCAA team championships and have placed in the top four 12 times since 2005. He has coached 32 NCAA individual champions and the Sun Devils have produced 13 Olympians. The United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association has recognized ASU six times as the nation’s top academic team and seven Sun Devils have been selected as the USTFCCCA National Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Kraft admits the success of former Sun Devils like Phillips, Olympic shot putter Ryan Whiting, eight-time All-American shot putter Jordan Clarke and Olympic marathoners Amy Cragg and Desiree Linden has been reward enough, but the benefits run far deeper.
"There are so many neat memories and so many incredible achievements, but you do this because of the relationships you develop with the student-athletes," Kraft said. "You hope that what you do has an impact and then when you read Amy's blog about participating in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics with Desi (Linden), her roommate at ASU, that's what keeps coaches engaged. That's what keeps you coming back for more."
Kraft keeps a litany of memories in his mental scrapbook from his two decades in Tempe, but his favorite one may be the time Whiting decided to satisfy his hunger pangs at a practice during his freshman year.
"The pizza delivery guy shows up to the track and says 'did somebody order a pizza?'" Kraft recalled. "You've got this big freshman in the shot put circle who raises his hand, trots over and says very casually, 'over here.'"
"I thought it was hilarious. It's always good when you can come to work and share a heartfelt laugh."
Whiting didn't have chance to eat prior to practice so he never thought twice about the appropriateness of ordering a sausage pizza at practice.
"It was more of a need thing," he said. "I guess I was a problem solver. I've done it quite a few more time since then and I can tell you Jimmy Johns also delivers to the track."
Many coaches would have reacted negatively to such a move, but Whiting said he already sensed Kraft's personality despite his no-nonsense approach to coaching.
"You could kind of tell he was a fun guy and when Jordan got to school he really opened up even more," Whiting said. "Jordan used to give Kraft these big bear hugs where he'd literally pick him up off his feet and set him on something. I think being so successful gives you some leeway to have fun."
When Kraft arrived in Tempe in 1996, the school was dealing with NCAA sanctions and he sensed the need to alter the culture.
"When I came here the program was really fragmented and you can't be successful if you have people disenfranchised," he said. "The most important thing I tried to do was to make everybody relevant to the process. Arizona State was known primarily as a sprint school and it still is to some extent, but we wanted everybody to feel like they were relevant and we wanted to give everyone a chance to reach the top.
"You can see the fruits of our labor with athletes like Amy and Desi and Dwight and Ryan."
Kraft admits age and the changing needs of a new generation have mellowed his approach and made him more "tone sensitive."
"He was a lot more business like and to the point when I was there," Cragg said. "He like treated us all like adults unless we didn't act like adults.
"Maybe it's just because I'm no longer a student-athlete, but I've seen him since I graduated at various meets, and he is this incredibly friendly, warm guy now."
Kraft doesn't romanticize the passage of time when asked if it feels like he's been in Tempe for 20 years.
"Yeah, it does," he said, laughing. "It's been more than a few yesterdays, but it depends on how you look at it. When I came here, my boys (Cory and Kyle) were in first and fourth grade and now they've both graduated from Arizona State so there are definitely benchmarks to measure the passage of time.
"There will come a day when this is all, when it's time to move on and I just think I’ll know it. When that happens my wife (Maggie) and I will be on the Central Coast in San Luis Obispo enjoying the sweet life, but right now that's far from my mind. We're still very engaged in what we do."