STATESBORO — Kip Drown stepped to the podium Tuesday at Bishop Field House to become the seventh head coach in the history of the Georgia Southern women’s basketball program.
In 27 previous seasons as a head coach for Southwest Baptist, Georgia Southwestern, Grand Canyon and, most recently, Colorado State-Pueblo, Drown has built quite the reputation for himself. He has a career record of 463-336 and has led his teams to five NAIA tournaments, seven Division II tournaments and four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championships.
While he now inherits a rebuilding project — GSU went 5-26 last season — he jumped at the opportunity to make Statesboro his new home.
“I’ve coached in Georgia before,” Drown said. “One of my daughters is a graduate of Georgia Southern and we have plenty of friends around Dublin.
“I’ve always said that I wanted to be a Division I coach. This is a dream come true, and it feels like coming home.”
A search committee including GSU athletic director Tom Kleinlein, Cathy Beene, Tracy Ham and Regina Days-Bryan was pointed in the direction of Drown and, after careful vetting, offered up the Eagles’ head-coaching position.
“We had a lot of interest from all levels of coaching in regards to this job,” Kleinlein said. “We wanted to focus on someone who had a history of winning. As we went through the process, coach Drown’s name stepped right up to the top.”