Former Rock wrestling All-America performer
Jack Spates will coach in his final dual match Sunday when his eighth-ranked Oklahoma grapplers puts their 13-1 record on the line in a home match against intrastate rival and third-ranked Oklahoma State (13-2-1).
Spates, who is retiring after 18 seasons at Oklahoma, has had very impressive coaching career, particularly at OU. He has recorded 322 career wins as a collegiate head coach and his Sooner teams have placed in the nation's top four in six of the past nine seasons, including third-place finishes in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006.
Prior to being named as the 12th head coach in Sooners wrestling history in 1993, he served as head coach at Baptist Bible College (1975-81) and Cornell (1988-93) and as an assistant coach at Pittsburgh and Army.
As a student athlete at Slippery Rock, Spates claimed the collegiate national championship in 1973 and was an NCAA Division I runner-up the following year at 118 pounds. He compiled a 108-9 career record at The Rock, the fourth best win total in school history. For his achievements on the mat, Spates has been inducted into the SRU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992.
I salute Jack Spates for his outstanding career as a collegiate head coach and wish him well in his post-coaching life. I regret not having had the privilege of meeting him in person. People I know and whose judgement I trust tell me he is a great person as well as a super coach.
As a fellow SRU graduate, I’m proud to say “He’s one of us.”
Other notes of interest about past and future Rock student athletes:
• Rock women’s basketball recruit
Danielle Garroutte scored a season-high 25 points Thursday night to lead Northwest High School (Germantown, Md.) to its 17th straight win, a 71-42 triumph over Quince Orchard.
The win assured the Jaguars (18-4) of a top-three playoff berth and a first-round bye in the Class 4A West Regional tournament.
A six-foot center who is averaging 13.1 points per game and scored 10 or more points in 14 games this winter, Garroutte was the first student athlete to accept a scholarship offer from first-year Rock head coach #Tanya Longo# for the 2011-12 season.
She scored 10 points on her 18th birthday in December to lead Northwest to a victory over host and previously-unbeaten Poolesville in the championship game of the Sugarloaf Shootout. The Shootout title was the second straight won by the Jaguars.
• SRU graduate and Slippery Rock native
Lonnie Hazlet was named Thursday as the new head football coach at Panther Valley High School near Pottsville. Prior to accepting that position, Hazlet served two seasons as running backs coach for NCAA Division II Wilkes University and 13 seasons as a high school head coach (1995-99 at Karns City, 2000-04 at DuBois Area and 2005-08 at Pittston Area. Currently a social studies teacher at Pittston, Hazlet led Karns City to the PIAA state quarterfinals in 1997 and 1999 and guided DuBois to co-conference championships in 2000 and 2001 and the District 6/9 semifinals in 2001. He also served as the head coach for Team Pennsylvania in the Down Under Bowl in Australia as well as the head coach of the North South All Stars in 1998. He is the son of Glenn Hazlet, a longtime coach at Slippery Rock Area High School and the Rockets’ interim head coach in 2009.
• SRU graduate
Brenna Anderson was featured in a January 11, 2011, “Coach's corner” story in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. Anderson is in her fourth season as swimming coach at Grassfield High School in Chesapeake, Va. and seventh season as a coach. In addition to swimming, she coaches the Grassfield boys volleyball team and assists with both the Grassfield track and Chesapeake Serpents summer swimming teams. A native of Sharon and graduate of Sharon High School, where she was a three-sport athlete (volleyball, swimming and track), Anderson graduated from SRU in 2006 with a degree in elementary education. The daughter of the late John Anderson, longtime athletic director at Sharon, Brenna is currently employed as a health and physical education instructor at Hugo Owens Middle School in Chesapeake.
Until we talk again ...
GO ROCK!!
Bob McComas
Sports Information Director
