Colleges

A decade and done for Tritons coach

By RODNEY PAGE
Published April 6, 2006

Eckerd College women's basketball coach Brian Shultes resigned after 10 years at the school.

Shultes was 90-160 overall, and the past two seasons have been especially difficult. Eckerd was 9-20, 5-11 in the Sunshine State Conference in 2004-05 and 4-24, 2-14 this past season.

"I had a tremendous time as Tritons head coach," Shultes said in a statement. "But I could never reach the one goal I had set when I started here and that was to raise a championship banner in the gym. We had a couple of good seasons. We knocked some hurdles down, but not enough."

Shultes was Eckerd's longest-serving women's basketball coach. Athletic director Bob Fortosis said the school has received almost 70 applicants for the position and he expects that number to perhaps double. He said he hopes to name a new coach by mid May.

"This is a huge, huge hire for us," Fortosis said. "I think this has a chance to be a very good program. We've got players to build on like (former Indian Rocks Christian player) Gabby Gattuso. The school has allocated money for scholarships. So this is something we're taking very seriously. We want to make sure we get the right person."

This is the fourth coaching change since Fortosis became athletic director in July 2003. There have been new coaches in volleyball, softball and women's basketball. Derrick Leeson resigned as the men's soccer coach in December, and Fortosis said he is close to finding a replacement.

Also, Fortosis shut down the cross country program and added women's golf, which will begin play in the 2006-07 school year.

[Last modified April 6, 2006, 02:00:13]