GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida ladies’s volleyball schoolteacher Mary Smart, who has the fourth-most wins in NCAA Section I historical past, introduced her escape Thursday.
Smart, 65, officially stepped ailing nearest a staff assembly and ended a 34-year tenure in Gainesville right through which she led the Gators to the NCAA match each and every season.
Florida made the Ultimate 4 8 occasions beneath Smart, together with two runner-up finishes and received a league-leading 25 Southeastern Convention championships.
“This is such a special place, and there was never going to be an easy time to walk away,” Wise said in a statement. “But after 43 years in the arena, the time to step away is now. … I cannot wait to see what’s next for the sport at a view from my new seat.”
Smart has a 987-150 (.868) document at Florida and a 1,068-213 (.834) mark total. She spent 4 years at Iowa Shape (1981-84) — at 21, she was the youngest head schoolteacher in Section I historical past on the future — earlier than becoming a member of Kentucky as an worker. She took over at Florida in 1991 and briefly grew to become the Gators into one of the persistently a success techniques within the nation.
“Mary Wise is an icon at the University of Florida, in college athletics and in the volleyball community,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin mentioned. “… Mary’s 43-year journey in the profession is an impressive parade of remarkable successes and accomplishments.”
Her choice comes a moment nearest Nebraska coach John Cook retired nearest 4 nationwide championships over 25 seasons.
Smart is the fourth championship-winning schoolteacher at Florida to step ailing within the era 4 years, following ladies’s football schoolteacher Becky Burleigh (2021), males’s tennis schoolteacher Bryan Shelton (2023) and girls’s tennis schoolteacher Roland Thornqvist (2024).
