Dana Austin has finally decided to leave college life and join the "Rat" race.



After spending the past 15 years of her life at Jacksonville State University (four as a student-athlete, one as a graduate assistant and 10 as the school’s women’s head basketball coach), the Spring Garden alumnus returned a few miles north to teach physical education and assist her husband and girls head basketball coach Ricky “Rat” Austin at the corner of Cherokee County Roads 8 and 29.



“It’s a great feeling to come back to where I started,” said Austin. “If I was ever going to leave Jacksonville State, the perfect opportunity was to return to Spring Garden. It’s the place where I grew up and where my family is. I’d like to thank [Spring Garden Principal] Mr. Mike Welsh and [Cherokee County School Superintendent] Mrs. Kay Davis for giving me this opportunity.”

Austin certainly brings a lot to the table for the Lady Panthers. She and her twin sister Jana (who is the JSU head softball coach) formed the starting backcourt of Spring Garden’s 1986-87 Class 1A state championship team. Austin is the Lady Gamecock’s all-time leading scorer with 2,128 points and had her number retired by both schools. The Lady Gamecocks reached the postseason six times under Dana’s guidance, while she was named 1996-97 Atlantic Sun Conference Coach of the Year.



Austin, who will teach physical education at Spring Gar-den, had mixed emotions at leaving JSU.



“I was happy at Jacksonville State, but the biggest factor for leaving was my two boys [three-year old Cooper and seven-month old Riley]. Travel-ing with a college team is very tough when you have to leave two little ones at home. You can’t get a second chance at seeing your children grow up, so when the opportunity came to come back here, I took it.”



Austin points out that her husband has taken the Lady Panther program to back to prominence as it was when she was in school, and she’s looking forward to being a part of the Garden Girls’ 2003-04 championship run.



“[Reviving the Spring Garden girls basketball program] was the driving force behind Ricky’s decision to work at Spring Garden. He really helped our team the year we won state, and he knew how big the school’s girls basketball program’s reputation was. I’m really going to enjoy being around this group of girls because of their good attitudes and outlook on basketball.”



Best of all, the Austin’s won’t require a babysitting service during the hoop season.



“We’ll not only have Riley and Cooper at the home games, but we’ll take them to most of the road games, too,” points out Austin. “They’ll already little gym rats, and it will be great to have them around the team.