Coaching Changes Involve More Than The Coach

The Mercer Lady Bears are undergoing a reconstruction if you will. In the short span of less than 20 days, Head Coach Jannell Jones resigned (which she claims was under duress) after an underachieving 14-16 season record and a first round one and done Atlantic Sun tournament appearance on their home floor. Now enters Susie Gardner, the newly hired Mercer Women basketball coach to hopefully place the Lady Bears in contention for an A Sun title and a ticket to the big dance.

On paper this may sound like a great move for Mercer. You trade in one coach whose 3 season record was 35-56 for a more seasoned Division 1 Coach in Gardner who has been a part of 13 NCAA tournaments either as a player, head coach or an assistant.

But the game is not played on paper, it's played in real life. Many of the young women on the team selected Mercer to continue playing basketball because of the coach that they expect will be there. When that paradigm changes, it creates a shift across the mindset of the players.

I speak from experience. During the time I was a student athlete at Georgia Southern from 1994-98, I went through 3 head coaching changes. The original head coach who recruited me, Tim Stowers, was let go after my red-shirt freshman season. Then we were given the interim head Coach Frank Elwood for a season. Lastly Paul Johnson finished out my career as a GSU Eagle.

The hard thing about adjusting to a new coach is that this is the person who is going to be your leader for the duration of your time spent at college. Away from home, this figure (like it or not) will be more like a guardian. As a student athlete you spend the majority of your time, in season and off, with your coaches either practicing, training or at study hall. It's a really close working relationship which borders on family relation and professionalism.

So I can understand on one hand how the ladies of Mercer Basketball are feeling. They are sad to be losing their former mentor and friend in Coach Jannell Jones but slightly excited to receive a more decorated leader. But loyalty is loyalty. It will be a slightly painful transition, but without change there is no progress.


So it will be interesting to see how the Lady Bears buy into Gardner's system. Because as my teammates and I realized, the focus should be on completing classes for your degree and competing at the highest level.

Through it all, during my experience, I was able to graduate and be a part of an important rebuilding era in Georgia Southern's football legacy. With our new coaches we won 2 Conference titles and a National Championship runner up title before I moved on. And I still have a great relationship with all coaches involved. And all it takes is an OPEN mind.

Marvin James