‘Great day’
- Updated: March 30, 2026
Hall-of-fame coach Austin sums up move from Spring Garden to Jacksonville State in Q&A with WEIS’ Shannon Fagan.
By Shannon Fagan
WEIS Sports Director
Ricky Austin said the past 24 hours have been a whirlwind for him, especially emotionally.
Spring Garden is home to him ever since he was a little boy, and it always will be. He played there, coached there, won championships there, and has been immortalized with the naming of the court in his honor at Dale Welsh Gymnasium.
But now, Austin has “graduated” to another level.
News broke late Monday morning of Austin’s decision to leave Spring Garden to take the women’s basketball job at Jacksonville State University.
That place also holds a special place in Austin’s heart.
But before tomorrow’s press conference at Pete Mathews Coliseum at 3 p.m. makes everything official, Austin took time out of his whirlwind schedule on Monday – which included talking to his now former volleyball and basketball players – to share his thoughts with WEIS Radio on making the move from high school to college.
Q: It just seems like a natural progression for you to be moving on to Jacksonville State. What led you to the decision?
A: “First of all, I’m so thankful for the opportunity and the trust that (JSU Vice President for Athletics) Greg Seitz and President (Don) Killingsworth have in me, and the opportunity I have to face another challenge. It’s a great day for Ricky Austin and the Austin family. I just couldn’t be happier for the opportunity.
“I don’t know about the progression of it. It’s just something that’s happened so fast. It’s nothing I really planned on or was striving to become a college coach. It’s just something that happened. It’s turning into a very fun opportunity for me. I’m looking forward to it.”
Q: Obviously Dana coached there for 10 years. She can give you the insides and outs of coaching in college. What was the conversation like that you had with her when making this decision?
A: “She was obviously the first person I talked to. She was in on it from the get-go. She’s just been so supportive, so excited I got this opportunity. I had great conversations with her. She’s given me a feel of what it could be like. At the same time, she’s like ‘You know I’m here to help you do anything. I’ll support you 100 percent and do anything I can do.’
“She’s not going to be on staff. She’s just going to be there for anything I do need. She had a pretty good blueprint that she used. I hope to follow her same blueprint and hope I can be as successful as she was. She had a great run down there – 10 years. They were so close to winning some conference championships, but just quite couldn’t get over the hump. She most definitely put a good product on the floor. They were competitive every year. I will be leaning on her 100 percent.”
Q: Does this change anything as far as Ace (Austin’s daughter) is concerned? I know there’s a situation at Alabama where she’ll be going through a coaching change after Kristy Curry left. Can you say anything about that?
A: “One of the first things Greg (Seitz) and President Killingsworth said, ‘This is not about Ace. We’re not trying to get Ace. This is all about you.’ They said if she wanted to come here they’d love to have her, and so would I, but that’s not been a conversation piece between Ace and myself. She loves the University of Alabama. She loves the state of Alabama. She’d love to stay in the state, and she’d love to stay at the University of Alabama. The situation going on down there is a wait-and-see process. We’re not making any decisions on her future until we see who the next coach is. She loves Coach Curry, and she was a huge reason why she went there. She had a great relationship with Coach Curry. The next person coming in, Ace has got to make some decisions, if it’s someone she wants to have that same relationship with. We’ll just go from there.
“Even if it doesn’t work out for Ace’s aspirations and dreams that she has, she’s at the level she needs to be at. She’s proven she belongs there. She’s had a great freshman year and she needs to build on that her sophomore year and see where that can take her. She knows and understands that. There’s no panic in her, but if that’s something that she wanted to do, obviously we could make that happen.”
Q: I know you follow Rick Pietri, a great coach in his own right at JSU. How does it feel following in his footsteps?
A: “He’s done a wonderful job. I’ve been down several times in his career to watch his teams play. I actually went to learn something. I always took a notebook when I watched Coach Pietri’s games and took notes – jot down in-bounds plays, or little quick hitters, whatever they were doing on defense. He’s a genius in basketball. The platform he’s left and the platform he’s established down at Jax State just excites me about being able to go in and coach right behind him. He’s done things the right way. I respect everything about him. He’s had a great career.”
Q: Of course I know it’s bittersweet for you to leave Spring Garden. That’s home to you, but it’s not like you’re going that far away. I know you’re going to have a lot of support from them at JSU, but I know it’ll still be a change. Can you put into words what the Spring Garden community has meant to you?
A: “This is home and it will always be home, but it is a bittersweet day. I did not tell my teams – volleyball and basketball – until this morning. I got to talk to them. There’s a lot of my really close friends that I’ve had the opportunity to tell today, and some of them yesterday. It’s a bittersweet feeling, but this place will always be home.
“All the decisions I’ve made, all the conversations I’ve had with Greg Seitz, the president, every decision I’ve made about this job, I’ve been sitting right here behind my desk where I’m sitting right now talking to you. This is my comfort spot, but I’ve got to get out of that comfort zone. I don’t have a problem with that. Sometimes I kind of like that feeling of I’m comfortable when I’m uncomfortable. This place is the greatest place in the world. I’ll never move anywhere better than this. The support is just unbelievable. Since the media release this morning, it’s just been unbelievable the support I’ve gotten from everybody at Spring Garden. Everybody is so proud and so happy for me. How special is a place, a little bitty 1A school, that provides an opportunity for you to go coach Division I basketball? That’s what this place can do for people. It’s special. It’s important. People need to take advantage that continue to stay here and live here because it can produce great things for you.”
Q: I know it’s going to be a transition from high school to college. Could you talk a little about that?
A:”It is. I think the basketball game will be OK. I might not win any, but basketball is basketball. I can figure that out on my own. The transition is going to be the difficult thing – running a coaching staff, having so many people working under me, keeping them busy. That’s going to be the difficult part.
“I was offered the opportunity to hire an advisor to the head coach. I’m going to hire Jana McGinnis (Ricky’s sister-in-law and former JSU basketball player and softball coach) as a working retiree. She’s not going to be an on-the-floor coach or anything like that. She’s going to be my working advisor. She’s going to be the director of ops (operations). She’s going to plan all my travel trips, arrangements, and take care of all of that, so us coaches can focus on recruiting and scouting. She’s going to work at her own pace and be there to help me navigate through all the hurdles I’m about to face in recruiting and how to handle different situations. Her success at Jax State is at the top of anybody’s success ever had there. The opportunity to have here there is unbelievable. That’s something we are going to do.”
Q: Since you brought Jana up, I know she’s another wonderful resource for you from Jacksonville State. What were the conversations like with her before this transpired?
A: “She’s all in with it. She’s given me a lot of advice. Obviously it’s different than high school. She said ‘You’ll have some of the most fun times you’ve ever had coaching down there.’ I’ve leaned on her. I was like ‘Jana, do I need to try this?’ She’s 100 percent supportive of it.
“When you’ve got Dana on one side and Jana on the other encouraging me like that, I’ve got to give it a shot.”
Q: I know tomorrow is a big day with the press conference. Have you thought about what you’re going to say to all of the Gamecock fans?
A: “I haven’t thought about it that much. My biggest concern was to get through today, how I was going to handle talking to my players. Now that that’s over with, I can focus more on that. My number one thing is to make sure I let my players know how much I care about them, and that this decision is not about them. You get opportunities like this because of your players, and they’re part of that. I just wanted to make sure I took care of that first.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login