Mary “Roonie” Scovel has been the head coach at Gulf Coast Community College for ten years. She led the Lady Commodores to a 35-0 record and the NJCAA National Championship in 2003, the first Florida junior college to win a national title in women’s basketball. Scovel’s career record at Gulf Coast is a sterling 327-39 (.893 %) entering the 2007-08 season. The Lady Commodores have won ten consecutive Panhandle Conference titles, 6 State Titles, and 1 National Title..

Scovel is a graduate from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in physical education and a Master’s in educational leadership from the University of West Florida. She coached at Laurel Hill High School in the Florida Panhandle winning a state title in 1995 and finishing as state runner-up in 1996 before coming to Gulf Coast to rekindle the women’s program.

Phone

850-913-3277

Grover Hicks has been with the Lady Commodores since they brought the program back in 1996-97, coaching alongside Coach Scovel. He started coaching in 1965 in Perry, GA as the assistant boys coach and head junior varsity coach, winning the state championship his first year and finishing and regional runner-up the second.

Coach Hicks moved to the Florida Panhandle in 1967, taking over as the boys coach at Ruckel Junior High School in Niceville. In three years, the team won three straight county titles and had a 35-game winning streak. In 1970, he moved to Laurel Hill as head basketball coach and assistant principal. He coached there 10 years with the boys team, winning 6 district titles, 4 regional titles and one state championship. In 1980, he became the principal of the school and moved over to coach the girls team with Betty Howard. They captured four straight titles from 1981-1984, skipped two years and then won two more. The record of 6 state titles in 8 years is the standard by which high school programs are measured in Florida. Hicks hired Scovel to become the head coach at Laurel Hill in 1990 and was an assistant coach in 1995 and 1996 when Laurel Hill finished as state champs and state runner-up, respectively.

Phone

850-873-3532