Bend High football coach Matt Craven was a two-sport star for Linfield College from 1992 to 1997. He was inducted into the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Matt Craven had a long drive ahead of him after coaching Bend High’s 41-0 win over Hillsboro in the first round of the Class 5A football state playoffs on Friday night.

He had to get to a hall of fame ceremony in McMinnville on Saturday.

Craven was inducted into the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday, where he was a two-sport star for the Wildcats from 1992 to 1997.

“I feel completely blessed,” Craven said. “I’ve always said this about my time at Linfield: I feel fortunate to have been surrounded by the people that I did, the coaches that I did. Nobody takes that journey alone, I was so blessed to be surrounded by the people that I was at Linfield.”

After a standout high school career at Bend, where he has been the head football coach since 2012, Craven studied mathematics and played football and was one of the country’s top NAIA pole vaulters during his time at Linfield.

His pole vault mark of 16 feet still ranks fourth on the school’s all-time list. As a sophomore in 1995, he finished fourth at the NAIA national championships, then in his junior and senior seasons, he was the national runner-up in pole vault. In total, Craven was a five-time NAIA track and field All-American.

Craven finished his college football career with 126 tackles, 16 pass breakups, five interceptions and three fumble recoveries and was a first team all-conference defensive back his senior year. Perhaps his most memorable moment on the football field came in the 1996 game against Lewis & Clark when he broke up two passes in the end zone in the closing seconds to secure not only the win, but keep Linfield’s streak of winning seasons — which is now 66 — alive.

Craven has been teaching and coaching at Bend High since the 2005-06 school year.