Jax State Hall

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: August 2, 2025

Legendary Gamecocks baseball coach Case leads a 2025 Athletics Hall of Fame class that includes Hand, Prier, Russell.

By East Alabama Sports Today

JACKSONVILLE — Former Jacksonville State baseball coach Jim Case highlights a four-member class to be inducted in the schools athletics hall of fame, the school announced Saturday.

The Class of 2025 will also include former softball player of the year and first-team all-region pick Nikki Prier, all-conference basketball star Walker D. Russell, who went on to be the first Gamecock to make an NBA debut and Donovan Hand, Jax State’s Division I leader in career wins from the mound.

The class will be formally inducted at the biennial Athletics Hall of Fame Banquet on Nov. 28 and will be honored during the Nov. 29 football game against Western Kentucky.

Case, a three-time conference coach of the year and for whom Jax State’s renovated baseball stadium is named, said he got the news directly from Jax State athletics director Greg Seitz on Thursday. Case was present when Seitz called Hand.

“I was excited. Obviously, I was,” Case said. “It’s one of the greatest honors that I could receive after working there for 20-plus years, and then I’m also excited to be going in with Donovan.

“He did so much and is so deserving, and it’s going to be a fun evening, going in with him.”

Here’s a look at the career accomplishments of Jax State’s Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2025:

Jim Case

Hired in 2002, Case guided the Gamecocks to national prominence at the Division I level during a 22-year tenure before retiring in 2023. A five-time OVC coach of the year, he retired with a 673-559 overall record.

The program’s state-of-art stadium, renovated during his tenure at Jax State, was named in his honor prior to its opening in 2019. That season, the Gamecocks went on to the OVC Tournament and advanced to NCAA regionals, where the Gamecocks eliminated Illinois and Clemson for the program’s first Division I postseason wins.

Case led Jax State to three regular-season conference titles (2005, 2008 and 2009), and his teams won OVC Tournament five times (2004, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2019). He coached 85 all-conference players, 18 All-Americans and 23 MLB Draft picks, including fellow Jax State Hall of Famer Todd Cunningham, who became the highest drafted player in the Jim Case Era when the Atlanta Braves selected him with the first pick of the second round in 2010.

Case’s Gamecocks competed in the ASUN Conference for two seasons 2002-03 and then dominated the OVC over the next 18 seasons before returning to the ASUN in 2022. In the OVC, his teams finished in the top five in 16 of the 17 seasons in which a champion was crowned.

Jax State went 272-150 (.645) in conference play under Case. His teams won more than 30 games 16 times.

Case spent 41 seasons in Division I baseball, taking over the Jax State program after a four-year run as an assistant coach at Mississippi State. That followed an 11-year stint as an assistant at UAB.

Nikki Prier

Prier had one of the most decorated careers in Jax State softball history on Hall of Fame coach Jana McGinnis’ teams from 2007-10. A three-time All-OVC honoree, Prier was tabbed the 2009 player of the year, posting a .379 batting average with 20 doubles, 12 home runs and 50 RBI.

She earned NFCA First Team All-Region honors that season and helped the Gamecocks to their first-ever Top 25 ranking.

In Jax State’s career record books, Prier still ranks second in doubles (62), third in RBI (151), fourth in home runs (38) and fifth in hits (235) and runs scored (155).

During her career, the Gamecocks won OVC regular-season crowns in 2008 and 2009, and claimed OVC Tournament titles in 2008 and 2010. She was tournament MVP as a senior.

Prier’s Gamecocks advanced to three straight NCAA Tournaments — becoming the first OVC team in history to earn an at-large bid in 2009, when they would go on to beat James Madison, Nebraska and Tennessee to win the Knoxville Regional and reach the first Super Regional in school history.

She was named the 2010 Female Eagle Owl Award winner.

Walker D, Russell

Russell, a Pontiac, Mich., native, became the first Gamecock to reach the NBA, after signing with the Detroit Pistons in 2011. This after a series of professional stops in other countries.

While at Jax State, he scored 1,182 points to originally set the school’s Division I scoring record and remains fifth on that list today, as one of 24 Gamecocks all-time to score 1,000 points.

The two-time All-OVC selection was equally skilled at distributing the ball and owns the school’s Division I career assists record with 590 from 2003-2006. He owns three of the top four single-season assist marks, including a record 211 in 2004-05.

That season, he also led the Gamecocks in points (421) and steals (64). He ranks third on the school’s Division I career list for steals (160) and made free throws (357). At the stripe, he twice went 10-for-10 in a game to tie the record for best percentage. On Feb. 5, 2005, he established the school record for most free throws made in a game when he connected on 18-straight attempts against Tennessee Tech.

Donovan Hand

Hand needed only three seasons with the Gamecocks, from 2005-2007, to cement his name atop multiple Jax State pitching marks. His 289 2/3 innings pitched stands as the most by a Jax State pitcher.

He earned first- or second-team All-OVC honors each of his three seasons while compiling a 26-16 career pitching record, which also still stands as the highest win total in the Gamecocks’ Division I era and second-most wins all-time.

Hand led the Gamecock pitching staff in wins in each of his three seasons and is the only Division I player in program history with multiple seasons of at least nine wins. He helped win the 2005 OVC regular season title and the 2006 OVC Tournament title to send Jax State to the NCAA Tournament.

His Gamecock career came to a close early, when he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 14th round of the 2007 MLB Draft. He would later make his MLB debut for the Brewers on May 26, 2013, when he pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings against the Atlanta Braves. Hand’s final MLB outing came with the Cincinnati Reds in 2015.