Gator's Volleyball Coach Captivates Audience at Saint Leo University's Girls & Women in Sports Event

February 05, 2010

Mary Wise, the winning head women’s volleyball coach at the University of Florida, inspired the Saint Leo audience Thursday night by recounting her early career. Everyone has to start somewhere, she told listeners. She credited an inexperienced, cigarette-smoking high school coach with forcing her to become a leader. Wise was later a setter at Purdue University, and then, at age 21, a coach with a huge learning curve at Iowa State. Over the course of a career that also brought her to Kentucky and Florida, Wise said she learned to champion volleyball and other women’s sports for even the youngest of girls. She told the crowd she intends to keep promoting women’s sports. She has now been coaching for 20 years. The banquet also provided an opportunity to formally recognize the Lions’ own 2009 Sunshine State Conference-winning volleyball team.

Pictured: Mary Wise in the Student Community Center/Photo by Mike Carlson