James Gravelle enters his fourth year as defensive coordinator and fifth back on staff with the Southern Oregon football team in 2019.
Of Gravelle's 22 years of coaching experience, the first chunk was accrued at SOU from 1997 to 2005 as a secondary and special teams coach. When he returned in 2015, he oversaw the Raiders' safeties, kickers and punters. Prior to the 2016 season, he was promoted to his first defensive coordinator job.
In 2017, when the Raiders went 10-0 in the Frontier Conference and advanced to the NAIA Championship Series semifinals, Gravelle's unit was one of the best in the nation. SOU led the NAIA in takeaways (39) and sacks (61), held every regular-season opponent under 30 points and allowed an average of just 21.6 overall, and produced five first-team All-Frontier selections on the defensive side of the ball. The next season, the Raiders ranked third nationally in sacks with 42.
A coastal product of Coos Bay and Marshfield High, Gravelle transferred to SOU from College of the Siskiyous and played two seasons for the Raiders before joining the staff and obtaining a degree in Health Promotion Fitness Management. While serving under head coaches Jeff Olson (for eight years) and Shay McClure (for one), he helped SOU's defensive backs land on NAIA All-America teams or receive honorable mention six times. Under Gravelle's tutelage in 2015, junior safety Julius Rucker ecame an All-American – making him the first defensive back to do so since Gravelle's first stint – and senior Thomas Gidden led the nation in yards per punt.
In 2006, he spent a season at Bethel College (Kan.) and instructed two more All-Americans while helping the Threshers to an NAIA playoff appearance. After that, he made brief stops at College of the Siskiyous (as a defensive coordinator) and Mayville State (N.D.) before settling in at Humboldt State (Calif.) from 2010 to '13 as a secondary coach and special teams coordinator. The Lumberjacks secondary ranked first in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in pass defense and pass-defense efficiency in 2010 and '11, and in four years Gravelle coached nine All-GNAC defensive backs, three All-GNAC kickers and two All-GNAC punters.
Following a year off from coaching in 2014, he was lured back to Ashland.
Then-Athletic Director Monty Cartwright tapped Gravelle to be SOU's head softball coach when the program was revived in 2001. In three years his teams went 81-43, giving him the second-highest winning percentage (.653) in team history, and SOU won its first Cascade Conference title in 2003. He led the Raiders to a No. 16 ranking in the NAIA polls -- a feat that had gone unmatched until 2016 -- and an appearance in the NAIA Western Regional tournament.