ABAC Women's Basketball

NEWS/EVENTS

Julie Conner believes there’s no place like home. Conner resigned her position May 6 as head coach of the women’s basketball team at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College to become the head girls’ basketball coach at her alma mater, Tift County High School. Conner’s appointment as the head coach of the TCHS Lady Devils was approved in a meeting of the Tift County Board of Education on that day. The position came open in April when Michelle Caldwell resigned to take a coaching position in the Atlanta area. Conner resurrected the ABAC Fillies’ basketball program in 2000 after the college had dropped the sport 15 years earlier. In only her second year, Conner’s team won the 2002 state title with a 76-72 win over Atlanta Metro. “I have had eight wonderful years at ABAC,” Conner said. “I have certainly enjoyed every season but the state title year really stands out.” Conner was named the 2003 GJCAA Coach of the Year and the Atlanta Tipoff Club’s Naismith Award winner for 2003. She has also served as the NJCAA women’s director for Region XVII for five years. Record-wise, Conner had her best year with the 2005-2006 version of the Fillies, which rolled up a 24-9 record and lost in the state championship game to Georgia Perimeter. This year’s squad slipped to an 11-19 mark but Conner has already signed three players for next season with six other players scheduled to return. A 1988 TCHS grad, Conner returns to a program where she was the assistant coach under John O’Brien in 1994-95. She was also the eighth grade girls’ coach that year for a team that wound up 14-0 and eventually had four players sign college scholarships. Conner was the head girls’ coach at Mariner (Fla.) High School in 1995-96 and LaBelle (Fla.) High School in 1996-2000. By returning to TCHS, Conner follows a family tradition. Her dad, Johnny Rutland, was the head boys’ coach at TCHS from 1971-79. “This is a schedule that fits my family situation better right now,” Conner said. “I will not be on the road recruiting. I need to spend as much time with my children as possible.” Conner and her husband, Tom, have two children, Tye, 6, and Cali, 5. ###