University of Wisconsin-River Falls

Coming off back-to-back NCAA Division III national championship seasons, Joe Cranston is the first and only head coach in UW-River Falls women's hockey history and completed his 26th season at the helm in 2024-25.

The national title in 2023-24 was the first in UWRF's history during its 25th anniversary season, finishing with a 31-0 overall record, the most single season wins in NCAA Division III women's ice hockey history. The Falcons' undefeated season was the second undefeated season in DIII women's ice hockey history.

Cranston collected his 500th career win in January of 2025 and currently ranks first in the WIAC in total wins and winning percentage and third all-time in NCAA Division III, having totaled 518 career wins through the 2024-25 season.

Under Cranston, UWRF has won either the NCHA/WIAC regular season or conference tournament title, or both, each of the last 16 years, and has made the NCAA Tournament 14 of the last 15 years. UWRF has reached the 'Frozen Four' seven times (2003, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2024, 2025), including national titles in 2024 & 2025, a pair of third-place finishes (2014, 2015), and a national runner-up finish in 2016.

The 2024 National Coach of Year and four-time runner-up for the National Coach of the Year, Cranston has been named Conference Coach of the Year (NCHA/WIAC) nine times. Under Cranston, 44 Falcons have earned All-America status, including a total of four from the 2024-25 season, the 14th consecutive season in which at least one Falcon was named an All-American. Four Falcons have been named the AHCA Laura Hurd National Player of the Year, most recently Bailey Olson in 2025, who followed Maddie McCollins in 2024, Callie Hoff in 2022, and Dani Sibley in 2017, along with National Player of the Year runners-up, Chloe Kinsel and Carly Moran. In addition, Cranston has coached nine NCAA All-Tournament Team members; Bailey Olson, Madison Kadrlik Maddie McCollins, MaKenna Aure (2x), Madison Lavergne, Chloe Kinsel, Paige Johnson, and Dani Sibley, along with five WIAC Scholar-Athletes; Emily Stark, Amy Auran, Haley Nielsen, Sophia Leong, and Sami Miller, and one NCHA Scholar-Athlete; Alyssa Jackson.

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 currently resides in River Falls with his wife Sue, and has three grown children, Roy, Walter, and Irene.