Softball player and coach Rendy Yates and runner Mitch Powell named to Hall of Fame

Former Francis Marion University softball player and coach Rendy Yates and former Patriot track and field and cross country athlete Mitch Powell were inducted into the FMU Athletic Hall of Fame on Feb. 6, 1999.

Yates, a native of Lake City, S.C., was a three-time NAIA All-American on the softball diamond.  She lettered in softball in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988, and earned the B.S. degree in elementary education in 1988.  She is a first grade teacher at Brockington Elementary School in Timmonsville, where she has taught for the past eight years.  Prior to that, she taught for two years at East Clarendon Middle School.

During her playing career, she helped lead the Patriots to a four-year mark of 131-49 and two trips to the NAIA World Series (1987 and 1988).  She ended her career with a .365 batting average and nearly 100 runs batted in.  She was a three-time NAIA District Six All-District selection and earned first-team All-America honors as a senior and second-team All-America honors in 1987 and 1985.

As a junior, she set a NAIA World Series record for most at bats (30) as Francis Marion reached the national championship game (a 1-0 lost to Kearney State College) with a 42-4 record.  That same year, she led the nation in stolen base percentage (22-22) and tied for 11th in triples per game.

Following her playing days, she returned as an assistant coach with the 1995 squad.  As the interim head coach in 1996, Yates led the Patriots to a 27-23 record and a fourth-place finish during the Peach Belt Athletic Conference regular season.

Powell, a native of Wadley, Ga., was a four-time NAIA District Six All-District cross country runner and a three-time All-District track and field performer.  He lettered four years in both track and field and cross country (1979-83) before earning the B.A. degree in history in 1984.  He currently resides in Milledgeville, Ga., and is a supervisor with Horton Homes Manufacturing in Eatonton, Ga.

He earned All-District honors in cross country each of his four years, was the District Six individual champion in 1981 and 1982, and ran in the 1980, 1981, and 1982 NAIA national championship meets.  In winning the 1982 district crown, he broke the USC Spartanburg course record by 30 seconds.

Powell was a three-time All-District selection in track and field and participated in the 1982 South Carolina-North Carolina All-Star Track Meet.  He finished his career as the third-leading scorer in Patriot track and field history (319.88 points), and set school records that still stand today, in the six-mile (31:37.77), three-mile (14:38.80), 5,000-meters (15:09.71), and 10,000-meters (32:42.08).

He helped lead the Patriots to three district team titles in each sport.