When Florida International University
made the decision to add softball as one of its varsity sports,
school officials knew they needed an individual who possessed
the energy and drive to start a program from scratch and build
it to be competitive at the Division I level. The individual would
have to be patient, experienced and ambitious. With these criteria
in mind, officials selected Kim Gwydir to head the program, and
Gwydir has not met expectations but has surpassed them.
Arriving at FIU's University Park campus in August of 1997, Gwydir laid down the foundation for what has become one of the athletic department's most successful programs. In her six seasons at FIU, she has compiled a 209-171 record overall while competing against some of the nation's best teams. She was named the 2003 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year and the 1998 Atlantic Sun Conference Coach of the Year. She has led her student-athletes to national recognition - coaching All-Southeast Region selections in Shannon Carey and Jennifer Owens and numerous all-conference honorees.
In 2003, Gwydir led FIU to a banner season as the Golden Panthers received an at-large bid to travel to Nebraska to compete in the Lincoln Regional. FIU ended the season with a 37-27 record as it played one of the most challenging schedules in the country. The Golden Panthers faced six of the eight teams that advanced to the Women's College World Series and came away victorious in three of those contests. The 2003 squad also set a school record with 13 consecutive wins and closed out the campaign by winning 22 of its last 30 contests.
Gwydir's best team, however, may have been the 2001 Golden Panthers. That year FIU compiled a 44-22 record and earned the program's first national ranking when the it was voted the 25th best team in the country on February 25.
Gwydir has also played a key role in laying the groundwork and helping develop the FIU Softball Field into a functional facility that has hosted the Sun Belt Conference Championship along with numerous premier regular-season tournaments.
Gwydir came to FIU from C.W. Post in Brookville, N.Y., where she headed the softball program for four seasons and left as the all-time winningest coach with a 116-69-1 record.
In her final year at C.W. Post, she helped the Pioneers set a school mark for wins in a season with a 38-11 mark as her team earned a bid to its first NCAA Division II Tournament since 1985. Gwydir led C.W. Post to back-to-back New York Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, including a 19-0 mark in league play in 1997 - the first team to ever go undefeated. She was named the NYCAC's Coach of the Year and was also selected as the NCAA Division II Northeast Region Coach of the Year.
Gwydir was the first female baseball coach in Long Island Catholic League history, coaching the St. Anthony's junior varsity baseball team to the 1989-90 regular-season league championship. She headed the Half Hollow Hills High School softball program before accepting the position at C.W. Post.
Gwydir earned her B.S. in Mathematics from Adelphi University in 1988. The Huntington, N.Y., native is an accomplished trumpet player and doubles as a math professor at FIU. She is single and lives in Pembroke Pines, Fla.
Gwydir's Coaching Honors
2003 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year
1998 Atlantic Sun Conference Coach of the Year
1997 NCAA Division II Coach of the Year
1997 N.Y. Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year
Three NCAA Southeast Region Selections
Two Sun Belt Conference Newcomers of the Year
One Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year
28 All-Conference Selections
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Marci Turso enters her first year with the Golden Panther coaching staff. She arrives at University Park after three years as the head coach at Queens University of Charlotte, N.C.
While at Queens, Turso had an extremely successful run. Her teams earned national rankings two of the seasons while putting together the second best single-season record in the school's history. Her squads were also noted for playing the best team defense in the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference and she coached seven all-conference, six all-tournament and three all-region selections.
Prior to Queens, Turso served as the graduate assistant coach at Armstrong Atlantic State in Savannah, Ga., for two years. At AASU, Turso's responsibilities included working with the infielders and hitting while also devising strength and conditioning programs for the student-athletes. In 2000 the Pirates earned their first No. 1 ranking in the nation, won a Peach Belt Conference title and finished the season as the country's eighth best program. Turso helped the Pirates finish among the top five nationally in NCAA Division II in team defense, team hitting and win/loss percentage in 2000. She and head coach Marty McDaniel were honored as the NFCA/Speedline South Atlantic Region's Coaching Staff of the Year.
In 1998, Turso headed the softball program at St. Andrew's Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, N.C.
As a player, Turso played second base at Queens for four seasons. She earned first team All-CVAC honors as a junior and senior and added All-South Atlantic Region team accolades as a senior. During her final two seasons, she led the team in on-base percentage, runs scored and fielding percentage.
The position at FIU gives Turso a chance to return to her roots as she was born and raised in Miami, just south of the University Park campus. She attended Killian Senior High School where she played softball all four years and served as team captain her final two years.
Turso earned her bachelor's degree in business administration
from Queens in 1997 and completed her master's degree in health
science at AASU in 2000. She is also a certified trainer by American
Fitness & Aerobics Association and has been training young
athletes as well as collegiate athletes for the past six years.
Bobby Hatter is in his fourth year on the Golden Panther coach staff where he works with the FIU outfield.
Hatter's experience includes a two-year stint as the assistant baseball coach at Montevallo High School in Alabama. Hatter also served as the after-school sports coach at Kendall Christian School after moving to Miami.
He is currently working full-time at FIU with Campus Outreach as the chaplain for the sports program, while instructing with the NCAA CHAMPS Life Skills program. He attended the University of Montevallo where he received his bachelor's degree in social work.
Hatter enjoys volunteering as a Little League coach for his
children. He is married to the former Amy Foster and the couple
has two daughters, Heidi and Hannah.
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