Albany Herald

New SGT women's hoops coach James Frey becomes the team's second coach since the program was started eight years ago.

AMERICUS --- South Georgia Technical College President Sparky Reeves announced Wednesday that former College of Coastal Georgia associate basketball Coach James David Frey of Brunswick has been named the new head coach for the Lady Jets women’s basketball team.

Frey becomes just the second head basketball coach of the Lady Jets in the eight-year history of the program. He replaces Brandan Harrell, who was named head coach of the new Georgia Highlands College women’s basketball team in Rome, where he plans to start the program just like he did in Americus nearly a decade ago.

Frey served as the associate coach of the College of Coastal Georgia Mariners for the past 17 years under head coach Gerald Cox, and last season he also worked as the assistant women’s coach at Coastal for their inaugural Lady Mariners team. He had been with the College of Coastal Georgia for a total of 20 years. He served as a recruiter for the men’s team for three years prior to being named an assistant coach for the men’s team.

“We are very fortunate to have an individual like James Frey to lead our Lady Jets basketball team this fall,” Reeves said. “Frey is a real student of the game and has been very successful in all aspects of the sport as an assistant coach and we are looking forward to great things from him as our new Lady Jets head basketball coach.”

Frey has a Bachelor's degree in sports/fitness management from Troy University and is currently completing his Masters in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University. He will be serving as the Lady Jets Head basketball coach and also serving as a recreation and leisure management instructor for South Georgia Tech.

“I am very excited about the opportunity to lead the Lady Jets as their head coach,” Frey said. “It was a very difficult decision to leave Coastal Georgia after working there for 20 years, but I am excited about moving into a head coach position.”

As an associate coach at Coastal, Frey was in charge of the daily operations of the Mariners basketball squad, scheduled all games, oversaw individual workouts, tracked academic progress of players, was in charge of post player development and served as the recruiting coordinator. During the Lady Mariners' initial season, his team posted a 19–10 overall record.

Frey is very familiar with the South Georgia Technical College athletic program. He has been coaching against SGT since the men's and women's programs were started.

“I have always been very impressed with the situation here. The facilities here are as good as or better than most of the colleges in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association," he said. "The teams have always been competitive and that is a tradition that I plan to continue.”

The new Lady Jets head coach has already been recruiting and he said that he wants to continue the winning tradition Harrell started.

“I didn’t come here for the program to take a step backwards. There are no excuses for losing. I was able to help take the Lady Mariners to a 19–10 season their first year and I plan to give it everything I’ve got to make the 2012–2013 season a winning year for the Lady Jets,” Frey added.

The Lady Jets finished the 2011–2012 season with it first regular-season undefeated conference record and were the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association regular-season champions. They advanced to the GCAA finals, but were upset and didn't reach nationals in what would've been the program's third trip.

“We are basically starting from scratch this year. We only have one player right now returning from last season, but I hope to have 10 players on scholarship and then pick up one or two walk-ons this season,” Frey said.

When asked if he was hesitant about switching from coaching men to the women, Frey didn't hesitate in his reply.

“Basketball is basketball whether it is men or women. The court is the same size, it is five on five, and whoever scores the most points wins," he said. "I look forward to the challenge and I plan to put a very competitive team on the court.”