Gary Edwards of Indiana, Pa., took over the reigns of the Francis Marion University men's basketball program on April 26, 2006.

Edwards, 48, is a native of Virginia Beach, Va., and comes to Francis Marion after 10 seasons as head coach at NCAA Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He guided the Indians to a 206-88 mark, including five 20-win campaigns, and four trips to the Division II national tournament. Under his guidance, IUP advanced to the Elite Eight twice (2000 and 2002) and participated in the 2002 Final Four. He is the winningest coach in the program's long history.

His career coaching mark stands at 389-256 in 22 seasons on the bench.

Edwards returns to South Carolina, where he still ranks as the winningest coach at Division I Charleston Southern University. In nine seasons, he guided the Buccaneers to 121 wins. His 1995 CSU squad won the Big South Conference title, and he twice earned Big South Conference "Coach of the Year" honors.

He also previously coached at Barton College (then Atlantic Christian College), compiling a 62-35 mark in three seasons and leading the Bulldogs to two NAIA national tournament appearances. Prior to his arrival, the Bulldogs had recorded only one winning season in the previous 17 years.

Edwards received a B.A. degree in English (magna cum laude) from Virginia Wesleyan College, where he was recognized as an academic All-American on the basketball court in 1979. He later earned a master’s degree from Old Dominion University.

His coaching career began in 1979 as an assistant varsity coach and head junior varsity coach at his alma mater, Virginia Wesleyan. He then served as an assistant coach at Hofstra University for two years before taking over the Barton program.

Edwards, who has two teenage children, becomes the sixth head coach in the 36-year history of the FMU men's basketball program.

Jonathan Holmes, of Bloomington, Ind., begins his first year as an assistant on the Patriot staff.

Holmes, 26, replaces Adam Collins, who left after only one month on the job to accept an assistant’s position at NCAA Division I UNC Wilmington. Holmes’ primary responsibilities will include recruiting, on-floor coaching, individual player workouts, pre- and post-season workouts, and helping in the area of academic support for team members.

Holmes comes to FMU after spending one year as an assistant coach at Montreat College, during which the Cavaliers compiled a 22-10 mark, won the Appalachian Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles, and reached the second round of the NAIA Division II national tournament.

Holmes is a 2003 graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, where he was a four-year member of the Tar Heel basketball squad. He played in 76 career games and recorded a nearly two-to-one assists to turnovers ratio. He appeared in the 2000 Final Four against the University of Florida and in the 2003 NIT post-season tournament. He was named to the 2003 ACC All-Academic Team.

He earned a B.A. degree in communications from UNC.  After graduating from UNC, he played professional basketball for two seasons: 2003-04 with the Leicester (England) Riders and 2004-05 with the IC Horsens (Denmark) squad.

He has worked as a counselor at each of the past seven North Carolina Men’s Basketball Camps, as well as at his own Jonathan Holmes Basketball Camp in Bloomington, which started in 2002.

Holmes was co-valedictorian at Bloomington South High School, and was the runner-up for Indiana Mr. Basketball in 1999. He left as that school’s all-time leader in points, assists, games started, and free throw percentage. He was also the recipient of the John Wooden Citizenship Award in 1999 and was named a Nike High School All-American in the summer of 1998.

Hinton begins his first season as an assistant on the Francis Marion bench.

He played for the Patriots during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons. From the point guard spot, he averaged 7.1 points and 5.3 assists per game with a school-record 66 steals as a senior, while helping lead FMU to a 27-4 record and an appearance in the round of Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Division II National Tournament. His senior season assists total of 164 was the third-highest tally in the program's history.  His two-year total of 309 assists stands fourth on the FMU career list, and he owned a career assists-to-turnovers ratio of 1.5.  As a junior, he ranked 23rd in NCAA Division II in assists per game.

Prior to coming to Francis Marion, the Lima, Ohio, native played two seasons at Mercyhurst College.