New coach hired for Chipola women’s basketball

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -The Chipola women’s basketball program has its new leader.

That new coach is John Marcum who comes down from Greenville, North Carolina, where he was in teaching on the high school level. Before that he has been both a head coach and an assistant coach in a variety of places on the collegiate level, a head coach at California Baptist, an assistant at Syracuse and Butler, among other stops. Some 18 years total in coaching in high school and college.

He replaces Greg Franklin, who was let go after a very successful 11 year run that included one national title, two conference, and three state championships. Chipola’s Athletic Director, Jeff Johnson, talked about this hire and the search involved, before introducing the new coach.

“We started this with a great pool of candidates.” said Johnson “We narrowed it down to four people. You know we were looking for someone with head coaching experience. Other coaching experience. You know the D1 thing was a big thing as well and coached at the Division One level. Also, somebody that recruited. I thought that was a big thing, we thought that was a big thing, somebody that had recruited, and recruited at a national level and also at an international level.” Johnson said.

Coach Marcum stated his appreciation for this opportunity, and talked about how he will make great use of the many tools, and people, that can help him recruit his new team.

“And so humbly I’m going to ask,” Marcum said “most of you guys know way more about it than I do, so I’m going to ask this. Coming in we’ve got to recruit a whole team. I know about that. But togethere maybe we can all come together and build something special. At the end of my time here I’d like you to look at it and go ‘that was the most positive, affirming, holistic, great experience our girls have ever had. And it was a ton of winning.”

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