Men's Basketball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
David Grace enters his fifth year as an assistant coach with the Oregon State men's basketball program.
In his first four seasons at Oregon State, Grace has helped lead the Beavers to their most wins (64) since the 1989 to 1992 seasons and three trips to the post-season College Basketball Invitational, including a 5-1 run in the tournament in 2008-09 that gave the Beavers the national tournament championship.
Last year the Beavers won 21 games for their first 20-win season in more than two decades and just their second winning season since 1989-90. Oregon State averaged a school record 78.9 points per game to lead the Pac-12 in scoring for the first time in school history and also had a player lead the conference in field goal percentage, steals and blocked shots.
In his third year in Corvallis, the Beavers had signature wins over Elite Eight team Arizona, Pac-10 Conference Champion Washington and USC, which also made the NCAA tournament. In his second year, Oregon State finished in a tie for fifth place in the Pac-10, its highest finish in more than five years, and he helped lead the Beavers to a national championship in the CBI in his first season.
Grace, who assists in all aspects of the Oregon State program under Coach Robinson's guidance, has been instrumental in bringing four nationally-ranked recruiting classes to Corvallis by relentlessly recruiting coast to coast and year round.
He was selected to attend the prestigious Villa 7 Center for Sports Leadership Conference at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia last summer with an elite group of Division I assistant basketball coaches, 54 athletic directors and 12 Conference Commissioners.
Prior to Oregon State, Grace, a decorated military veteran who served in Operation Desert Storm, rose quickly through the high school and college coaching ranks, becoming known for his tireless work ethic and inspirational leadership. He developed an intimate knowledge of the game forged over 30 years of working in all aspects of the sport after playing, coaching, and refereeing basketball games across America and on three continents.
He served as the top assistant coach at the University of San Francisco with responsibilities as head recruiting coordinator where he first recruited Jared Cunningham out of Oakland, Calif., head of scouting, academic coordinator, and assisted with fundraising.
He broke into the D1 college ranks as an assistant coach at Sacramento State University where he assisted in all aspects of the program and recruited 2006-07 Big Sky Freshman of the Year Vinnie McGhee from Oakland's McClymonds High School.
Prior to moving up to the college level Grace became a high school head coach after taking an early retirement from the military after 20 years of active duty service in the US Air Force to dedicate his career to coaching basketball and teaching.
During the 2004-05 season, Grace was hired as a business teacher and head coach at South Mountain High School in Phoenix, Ariz., where he led the Jaguars to a 5A Division II state championship in his second year with a 29-4 record.
He was honored as the 2005-06 ArizonaVarsity.com and Arizona Informant 5A Coach of the Year after turning around a struggling program that had won four games the season before he arrived. Several players from his program moved on to play college basketball and several coaches he mentored during that time became head high school coaches including two who went on to win their own state high school championships.
Prior to becoming a Head Coach Grace volunteered his time for several years as a high school and club coach while being stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Ariz. He started in the high school ranks at Phoenix Trevor Browne as an assistant coach. Their team reached the State Semi-Finals in 2003 and was ranked among the top 40 schools in the nation by The Sporting News prior to the 2003-04 season with several players advancing to D1 programs.
He started coaching basketball with Boo Williams' AAU program in Hampton, Virginia (Nike). He also co-founded the Arizona Magic AAU program. His top team finished eighth out of 337 teams in the Reebok Big Time Classic in Las Vegas, Nev., which was the best in the history of any AAU team from the state of Arizona.
Grace, who grew up in Aberdeen, Maryland, has a B.S. in Management and Human Resources from Park University, and degrees in Logistics and Social Services from the Air Force. He and his wife, Crystal, have five grown children, Troy, Terrell, Tierra, David II and Aubrey, as well as Andre who is a high school sophomore. His father Gerald was a high school basketball referee in Maryland for 35 years.
