Franklin is the new Chipola Women's Coach

Greg Franklin was introduced as the new women’s basketball coach at Chipola College during a press conference on Tuesday, May 1.

Franklin replaces Chipola coach David Lane, who recently accepted an assistant coaching position at Drake University.

Coach Franklin comes to Chipola after serving five seasons as an assistant coach in the Mississippi State University women’s basketball program. He was instrumental in helping Mississippi State claim back-to-back year wins in the NCAA Tournament, including the program's first Sweet 16 appearance.

Before Mississippi State, Franklin served in various positions at Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg, Illinois. He joined Southeastern in 1997 as assistant men's basketball coach. He was named the head women's coach prior to the start of the 2002-03 season, and also served as the school's athletic director. As head women's coach, Franklin put the SIC program on the national map. In five seasons at the helm, he posted a record of 154-25 and led the 2006-07 squad to a fourth-place finish in the NJCAA National Tournament and won the Region XXIV title. Southeastern was ranked first in the NJCAA national poll for nearly all of 2007. After the team's 33-3 overall record and 16-0 conference mark, Franklin earned Conference, Region and District Coach of the Year honors, IBCA Illinois Junior College Coach of the Year honors for the fifth time and was named the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Regional Coach of the Year for the fourth consecutive year.

During his time at Mississippi State and Southeastern Illinois, Franklin coached four players who were drafted by the WNBA, including Amber Holt, Chanel Mokongo, Armellie Lumanu and Alexis Rack.

Franklin's first coaching position was as Assistant Coach at Brewton Parker College in Georgia. Before arriving at Southeastern Illinois, he spent two years at Butler County (Ky.) High School.

Franklin is a native of Central City, Kentucky. He played college basketball at Austin Peay graduating in 1994 with a B.S. in health and physical education. He lettered for the Austin Peay in basketball from 1989-1993, earning all-Ohio Valley Conference honors as a junior and senior and all-OVC Freshman Team honors and Co-Freshman of the Year honors during the 1989-1990 season. He finished his college career with 1,000+ points.