Former Gulf Coast State Head coach named to Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
Knoxville, TN - Former Gulf Coast State (FL) head women's basketball coach Mary "Roonie" Scovel was named to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame - Class of 2024.
Scovel was the head coach of the Lady Commodores for 22 seasons and retired in 2020. Before Gulf Coast State, Scovel played college basketball at the University of Florida and began her NJCAA coaching career at Gordon State (GA). She was named the head women's basketball coach at Gulf Coast State in 1996 and put together a legendary career at the helm of the program. Scovel was the head coach for the Lady Commodores from 1996-2012 and then re-joined the program from 2014 to 2020. Scovel has won six NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball National Championships (2003, 2008, 2010, 2016, 2017, 2019), 18 Panhandle Conference championships, 13 region championships, six NJCAA National Coach of the Year honors, and accumulated a record of 646-91.
In 2019, Scovel was named the 2019 Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Two-Yeam College National Coach of the Year and presented the Pat Summit Trophy. Over her career, Scovel coached six NJCAA Women's Basketball Championship Most Valuable Players and eight NJCAA Women's Basketball All-Americans. Her six NJCAA Women's Basketball national titles are the second most of any NJCAA DI Women's Basketball Program.
Scovel is the 14th NJCAA affiliate to be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and the first since Paul Sanderford and Alice "Cookie" Barron were in the class of 2022.
The induction ceremony for the 2023 Hall of Fame class will take place on April 27th at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee.
