Rat-ical success
- Updated: February 13, 2016
Spring Garden coach Austin scores 500th girls basketball victory in area title game
Spring Garden coach Ricky Austin (R) accepts a game ball from principal Mike Welsh commemorating his 500th win with the Spring Garden girls team. On the cover, the Spring Garden fans celebrate the milestone. (Photos by Shannon Fagan)
By Shannon Fagan
Cherokee County Herald
SPRING GARDEN – Over 20 years ago, Ricky Austin was in search of his first coaching job. When he interviewed at Spring Garden he told then-principal Joan Rogers “If you cut me, I’d bleed maroon and gold.”
There’s no doubting Rogers made the right choice when it came to choosing Austin to lead the girls basketball program. He has guided the Lady Panthers to 16 20-win seasons, 14 area championships, nine Final Fours, and three Class 1A state titles.
On Friday night, “Coach Rat” hit another important milestone by earning his 500th girls basketball win with a convincing a 67-22 victory over longtime rival Cedar Bluff in the Class 1A, Area 13 tournament championship game.
“I’m very proud of being able to share that with so many people,” Austin said. “There’s so many people connected to these 500 wins. There’s some great players, great parents, great fans, great assistant coaches, some great competition, great coaches and great players we’ve played against. I just appreciate all of them.
“I’m glad to do it here. All 500 of them are here at Spring Garden, and I’m just blessed to be able to do this in such a community where winning basketball games is special.”
Seniors Tykeah Rogers and Madison Sides made sure the night was going to be special for Austin and the Spring Garden community. Rogers scored a game-high 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Sides, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, connected on three 3-pointers and finished with 11 points, three boards and an assist.
“He’s a father figure to me,” Rogers said. “For us to play like we did tonight makes it a lot better. I’m just glad we’re the team that could do that for him. We’re glad to be part of history.”
Sides said words can’t describe how excited she is for Austin’s latest milestone.
“He’s had a lot of great teams to work hard to get him to 500 wins, and I think our team as a whole is trying to work hard to continue the tradition that Spring Garden has built,” she said. “I know he coaches us hard, but he does it because he knows we can be better. He knows we can have better things ahead of us. Knowing we were the team he’ll remember to get him that win, I think that makes it that much more special.”
Cedar Bluff coach Joe Carpenter, who earned his 600th coaching win last month, has battled Austin and his teams a lot times throughout their coaching careers. He simply calls Austin ‘The Legend.’
“That’s huge,” Carpenter said of Austin’s milestone. “He does an outstanding job and he’s got an outstanding program. He’s a great guy, and he works hard, but he’ll be the first to tell you it’s not all about him.”
Austin also coaches the Spring Garden boys team; he has 88 career victories with them. He goes after No. 501 with the girls Monday in a subregional home game against No. 8 Skyline.
“We’ve got a tough team coming in here on Monday,” he said. “This year and last year have been some of the toughest sub-region games we’ve had. We’ve got to be on guard and we’ve got to bring this (kind of effort) again. If you’re that kind of team, then it’s easy to bring this again. That’s what I want to see.”
Shannon Fagan is sports editor of the Cherokee County Herald.
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