On Feb. 3rd, Georgia State announced that they hired former Townson University assistant coach Terry Hutchinson as the new volleyball head coach.
This hire comes after former head coach Sally Polhamus did not renew her contract back in December.
Polhamus was the head coach of the Panthers volleyball team for eight seasons and accumulated a win-loss record of 71-143.
Here is some background information on the new Panther family member.
Before he arrived in Atlanta, Hutchinson made several pitstops.
Hutchinson was a former collegiate athlete in the 90s spending time at Juniata College before transferring to East Stroudsburg University.
At East Stroudsburg, he helped the Warriors make the EIVA Division I national semifinals twice. He was nationally ranked in blocks in 1995 and 1996, on his way to earning All-EIVA Division I Honors in 1996.
In 2003, he became the head coach of Norlanco Girls’ Volleyball club and the Yorktown and Spooky Nook Volleyball Clubs in Pennsylvania.
He moved up the ranks and became an assistant for two years at Elizabethtown College and spent a year at Franklin & Marshall College.
Then he spent some time as a recruiter and player development coach for Sun Belt Conference, rival Georgia Southern University.
Over the last five years, Hutchinson has been an assistant coach at Towson University.
In those five years at Towson, he helped the Tigers appear in three straight NCAA appearances, and in one of those years, the Tigers went 16-0 in the CAA and reached the Sweet 16, where they almost beat the number 11 ranked team in the Penn State Nittany Lions.
During his years with Towson, Hutchinson helped turn them into one of the best blocking teams in the nation, and that showed with this past fall as the Tigers finished 18th in the country in blocks per set, averaging 2.64.
As well as being an excellent development coach, Hutchinson brings incredible recruiting ability.
While at Towson he recruited the CAA Rookie of the Year Lydia Wiers, who had the 29th most total blocks in the country with 138 and had one of the best blocks per set ratios with 1.20.
Some of Hutchinson’s first words as the new coach of the Panthers were those of pure excitement and being honored on being given this opportunity.
“I am truly honored, humbled and excited by this opportunity to lead the Georgia State volleyball program,” Hutchinson said.
Director of Athletics, Charlie Cobb, was excited to bring Hutchinson into the Panther family, as he described him as a leader, with high recommendations.
“Terry has an outstanding background of leading and building successful teams,” Cobb said. “He comes highly recommended, but most importantly, he made an incredible impression on our team when he interviewed on campus.”
Head Coach of Georgia State’s women basketball team Gene Hill, has already made Hutchinson feel at home by giving him an exciting welcome on Twitter.
“Welcome Terry!!!” Hill said on his Twitter.
Coach Terry Hutchinson will have his hands full as he looks to turn the Panthers into a formidable ball club in the Sun Belt.
Last season the Panthers finished fifth in the East division of the Sun Belt Conference with an 8-20 record for their 11th straight losing season.
The Panthers’ last winning season dates back to 2009 when they went 22-18-1, appearing in the Southeast College Invitational.
Coming from a winning program, Hutchinson plans to turn this program into a defensive force that’ll eventually take over the Sun Belt.
