WELCOME BACK EVERYONE. AFTER SPENDING THE LAST FEW YEARS LEADING SPRING GARDENS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM TO SUCCESS ON THE COURT, RICKY AUSTIN IS MOVING UP. HE’S NOW BEING FORMALLY INTRODUCED AS JACKSONVILLE STATE’S NEW HEAD COACH. SHARES HOW HE’S PREPARING FOR THE NEW CHALLENGE AHEAD. IT WAS A FULL CIRCLE MOMENT HERE AT PETE MATHEWS COLISEUM. AUSTIN WAS JUST 12. HE’D SIT IN THE STANDS AND CATCH A GAME AS A COACH. HE’S WON A NUMBER OF REGION TITLES HERE ON THIS FLOOR. HIS WIFE AND SISTER IN LAW HAVE THEIR JERSEYS IN THE RAFTERS. NOW. HE’S THE NEXT HEAD COACH OF THE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM. AUSTIN SPENT NEARLY THREE DECADES AT SPRING GARDEN, LEADING THE GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM TO NINE STATE TITLES. AS FOR WHAT LED TO THIS MOVE, A PHONE CALL WITH HIS DAUGHTER AYSE WAS BIG. SHE SAID, WELL, YOU KNOW, I GUESS YOU’RE ABOUT TO CALL GREG SITES. AND I SAID, I AM. SHE SAID, WELL, I KNOW WHAT THE ANSWER BETTER BE. THIS IS YOUR TIME. HE TAKES OVER A PROGRAM THAT’S BEEN SHAPED BY HIS WIFE, DANA, AND SISTER IN LAW, GIANNA MCGINNIS MCGINNIS, THE ALL TIME WINNINGEST COACH AT THE UNIVERSITY. KIND OF THE SAME FEELING. IT WAS SPRING GARDEN. I MEAN, THEY WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP 87, OUR FIRST STATE CHAMPIONSHIP. AND EVERY DAY THAT I WENT IN THAT GYM, I LOOKED UP AT THAT BANNER AND IT MOTIVATED ME. SO SAME THING. I THINK, AS JUST MOTIVATION. FAMILY PLAYED A BIG ROLE IN THE DECISION, AND IT WILL BE VITAL TO WHAT HE BUILDS IN JACKSONVILLE. HIS SON COOPER SAID TO BE ON STAFF AT GEORGIANA, WILL BE AN ADVISOR. AS FOR ACE, THAT’S NOT BEEN A CONVERSATION. A BASE IN MYSELF. ACE IS RIGHT WHERE SHE NEEDS TO BE. SHE LOVED COACH CURRY. SHE LOVES THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA. SHE WOULD LOVE TO STAY THERE. EITHER WAY, HIS FAMILY WILL BE THERE AS HE GETS SET TO TAKE ON THIS NEW CHALLENGE. I’M GOING TO DO MY BEST TO GIVE YOU MY BEST BECAUSE THAT’S ALL I CAN EVER PROMISE. SPRING GARDEN I NEVER PROMISED THEM A CHAMPIONSHIP, BUT I PROMISED THEM MY BEST EVERY DAY. AND THAT’S WHAT I’M GOING TO PROMISE. JACKSONVILLE STATE A BIG DAY FOR AUSTIN AND HIS FAMILY A D GREG SEITZ PUT IT BEST NOT JUST TO HIRE, BU
Ricky Austin named head coach of Jax State women’s basketball
Updated: 11:55 PM CDT Mar 31, 2026
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A new era begins in Jacksonville, as Ricky Austin has been named the head women’s basketball coach at Jax State. Austin comes to Jacksonville after nearly three decades at Spring Garden, where he led the girls’ basketball team to nine state championships. Austin called the move from Spring Garden ‘bittersweet’ and shared what led to the decision to move on.”There was a level of sense that I don’t know what else I can accomplish at Spring Garden. It felt like I was just trying to maintain something and not accomplish anything else. It felt like I just got into an area where it was time to maintain, and I didn’t really like that feeling, and then this opportunity came along, and it felt like another challenge,” Austin said. That didn’t make the decision easy, but to his family it was a no-brainer. He remembers a phone call with his daughter Ace just ten minutes before he accepted the job.”She said, ‘Well, I guess you’re about to call Mr. Greg Seitz,’ and I said I am, she said, ‘Well, I know what the answer better be, this is your time,'” Austin said. So he took the job at a place that’s meant so much to his family. Austin’s wife Dana and sister-in-law Jana McGinnis have their jerseys in the rafters at Pete Matthew Colosseum. Dana went on to be the head coach of the women’s basketball team from 1993-2003, while Jana coached softball and became the all-time winningest coach in Jax State history. “Kind of the same feeling that was at Spring Garden. I mean, they won the championship in ’87, our first state championship, and every day that I went in that gym, I looked up at that banner, and it motivated me. So, same thing, I think it’s just motivation,” Austin said. At his introductory press conference, Austin revealed that his son Cooper will be on his staff and Jana will serve as an advisor to the program. He was also asked whether Ace would follow him, as she just finished her freshman season at Alabama. “That’s not been a conversation of Ace and myself, Ace is right where she needs to be. She loved Coach Curry, she loves the state of Alabama, she loves the University of Alabama, she would love to stay there,” Austin said. Either way, Austin says his family is all in and will be there to support him as he begins this next chapter. “I’m going to do my best to give you my best because that’s all I could ever promise Spring Garden. I never promised them a championship, but I promised them my best every day, and that’s what I’m going to promise Jacksonville State,” Austin said.
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. —
A new era begins in Jacksonville, as Ricky Austin has been named the head women’s basketball coach at Jax State.
Austin comes to Jacksonville after nearly three decades at Spring Garden, where he led the girls’ basketball team to nine state championships. Austin called the move from Spring Garden ‘bittersweet’ and shared what led to the decision to move on.
“There was a level of sense that I don’t know what else I can accomplish at Spring Garden. It felt like I was just trying to maintain something and not accomplish anything else. It felt like I just got into an area where it was time to maintain, and I didn’t really like that feeling, and then this opportunity came along, and it felt like another challenge,” Austin said.
That didn’t make the decision easy, but to his family it was a no-brainer. He remembers a phone call with his daughter Ace just ten minutes before he accepted the job.
“She said, ‘Well, I guess you’re about to call Mr. Greg Seitz,’ and I said I am, she said, ‘Well, I know what the answer better be, this is your time,'” Austin said.
So he took the job at a place that’s meant so much to his family. Austin’s wife Dana and sister-in-law Jana McGinnis have their jerseys in the rafters at Pete Matthew Colosseum. Dana went on to be the head coach of the women’s basketball team from 1993-2003, while Jana coached softball and became the all-time winningest coach in Jax State history.
“Kind of the same feeling that was at Spring Garden. I mean, they won the championship in ’87, our first state championship, and every day that I went in that gym, I looked up at that banner, and it motivated me. So, same thing, I think it’s just motivation,” Austin said.
At his introductory press conference, Austin revealed that his son Cooper will be on his staff and Jana will serve as an advisor to the program. He was also asked whether Ace would follow him, as she just finished her freshman season at Alabama.
“That’s not been a conversation of Ace and myself, Ace is right where she needs to be. She loved Coach Curry, she loves the state of Alabama, she loves the University of Alabama, she would love to stay there,” Austin said.
Either way, Austin says his family is all in and will be there to support him as he begins this next chapter.
“I’m going to do my best to give you my best because that’s all I could ever promise Spring Garden. I never promised them a championship, but I promised them my best every day, and that’s what I’m going to promise Jacksonville State,” Austin said.
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