(Interesting Notes about Patriot athletics)

-      Former Francis Marion University women’s volleyball coach Jerry Pruitt has been named an assistant coach for the women’s program at Gonzaga University. When Pruitt came to Florence in 1996, he quickly rebuilt the Patriot program. He inherited a squad that had finished last in the Peach Belt Conference in 1995. In his first year, he posted a 28-2 mark and won the PBC regular season title. In his three seasons on the Patriot bench, he compiled an 87-12 record and led the team to the 1998 NCAA Division II national tournament. He encountered similar success at his next stop, Radford University, guiding the Highlanders to a two-year mark of 47-18, two Big South Conference regular-season titles, and an appearance in the 2000 NCAA Division I tournament.

 

-      Two Francis Marion University graduates and former Patriot athletes recently concluded very successful seasons coaching high school baseball and girls’ softball. Former Patriot pitcher and 1984 graduate Curtis Hudson guided the Wilson High School baseball squad to a 24-9 record and the Class AAA state championship. He was also named the Class AAA Coach of the Year.………Former FMU softball and volleyball player and 1983 graduate Tracey Turner Younts recorded her 300th career coaching win at the helm of the Goose Creek High School girls’ softball program during the 2002 season. She started the Gators’ softball program 18 seasons ago, and her squads have advanced to the state playoffs 14 times.

 

-      FMU softball head coach Bill Gray is quickly building a program that is stocking local college coaching staffs. Four former Patriots spent the past year coaching on the collegiate level. Recent 2002 graduate Tracie Wondra spent this past season as a student assistant on the FMU staff, and then following her graduation, accepted the head coaching position for the first-year program at Pitt Community College in Greenville, N.C. Ginger Miller, a 2001 graduate, recently concluded her first year as assistant coach at St. Andrews College, while Mandy Harris, another 2001 graduate, is a graduate assistant coach at Wingate University. Sheryl Vyverman (class of 1999) recently finished her second and final year as a graduate assistant at the State University of West Georgia.