Gary Edwards, a native of Virginia Beach, Va., is entering his sixth season at the helm of the Patriot men's basketball program, and his 28th year as a college head coach.

His career coaching mark stands at 460-324 in 27 seasons, including a 7-4 mark in NCAA Tournament games and an 8-1 mark when playing for a conference or regional championship.

Edwards, 53, took over the reins of the Francis Marion University men's basketball program on April 26, 2006, and became the sixth head coach in the program's 41-year history.  His five-year mark on the Patriot bench is 71-68.  He improved the Patriots' win total in each of his first four seasons in Florence and has guided FMU to three consecutive winning campaigns -- a first since the program joined the NCAA in 1992.

This past season, he directed the Patriots to a 16-11 mark and a tie for third place in the Peach Belt Conference's East Division standings. Two Patriots were named to the PBC All-Academic squad and one player was selected to the All-Conference team.  His squad led the PBC in scoring offense and ranked 36th nationally at 80.6 ppg.

In 2009-10, he took the Patriots to an 18-10 record and the team's first back-to-back winning seasons in 11 years.  Francis Marion again placed third in the PBC's East Division.

During the 2008-09 campiagn, he guided FMU to a 16-12 mark and a fifth-place finish during the Peach Belt regular season.  He also took the Patriots overseas to compete in the prestigious Amsterdam Haarlem Basketball Week, held each year in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Francis Marion competed against teams from the Netherlands and Kazakhstan, as well as the Israeli National Team.

In 2007-08, Francis Marion recorded a 12-16 mark (a three-win improvement over the previous year) and an eighth-place finish in the Peach Belt standings.  During the year, Edwards captured his 400th career coaching victory (a 69-66 win over Coker College on Nov. 17, 2007), and the FMU program recorded its 500th all-time win (a 77-67 victory over UNC Pembroke on Jan. 16, 2008).

Edwards came to Francis Marion after 10 seasons as head coach at NCAA Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He guided the Indians to a 206-88 mark, including five 20-win campaigns, three Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference titles, and four trips to the Division II national tournament. Under his guidance, IUP advanced to the Elite Eight twice (2000 and 2002) and participated in the 2002 Final Four.  He left IUP as the winningest coach in that program's long history.

Edwards returned to South Carolina, where he still ranks as the winningest coach at Division I Charleston Southern University. In nine seasons, he guided the Buccaneers to 121 wins (against 133 losses). His 1995 CSU squad won the Big South Conference title, and he twice earned Big South Conference "Coach of the Year" honors.

He also previously coached at Atlantic Christian College (now known as Barton College), compiling a 62-35 mark in three seasons and leading the Bulldogs to two NAIA national tournament appearances. Prior to his arrival, the Bulldogs had recorded only one winning season in the previous 17 years.

Edwards received a B.A. degree in English (magna cum laude) from Virginia Wesleyan College in 1979, where he was recognized as an academic All-American on the basketball court in 1979. He later earned a master's degree from Old Dominion University.

His coaching career began in 1979 as an assistant varsity coach and head junior varsity coach at his alma mater, Virginia Wesleyan. He then served as an assistant coach at Hofstra University for two years before taking over the Barton program.

While coaching at IUP, he served as a weekly columnist for the Indiana Gazette in Indiana, Pa.  He has been a coach at the Eastern Invitational Basketball Camp (2004-05) and the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament (1979-82), as well as a head coach in the Summer Professional League of Puerto Rico (1993-95).  He served as director of the "Four Great Days of Summer" basketball camps (1987-96).

Each of the past four seasons (2007-11), he has authored a weekly sports column in the Florence (S.C.)  Morning News.

Edwards is married (Corinne) and has two adult children: Grady and Casey.  He is the director of the Patriot summer basketball camps (team & individual), and has revived the "Four Great Days of Summer" camp here in Florence.

(10-10-11)

Jarron Hinton begins his sixth season as an assistant coach for the Francis Marion men's basketball team, and his eighth year as part of the Patriot program.

His primary responsibilities include recruiting, on-floor coaching, individual player workouts, pre- and post-season workouts and helping in the area of academic support for team members. Hinton also serves as the camp director for the Gary Edwards' Four Great Days of Summer boys basketball camp at FMU.

He played for the Patriots during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons. From the point guard spot, he averaged 7.1 points and 5.3 assists per game with a school-record 66 steals as a senior, while helping lead FMU to a 27-4 record and an appearance in the round of Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Division II National Tournament. His senior season assists total of 164 was the third-highest tally in the program's history. 

His two-year total of 309 assists stands fourth on the FMU career list, and he owned a career assists-to-turnovers ratio of 1.5.  As a junior, he ranked 23rd in NCAA Division II in assists per game.

He earned the B. S. degree in history from FMU.  During December 2009, he was named to Francis Marion's All-Decade Team for 2000-09.

Prior to coming to Francis Marion, the Lima, Ohio, native played two seasons at Mercyhurst College.

Hinton is the father to two daughters (Jaelan and Mycahyla).

(9-27-11)

Crayton Jones, a native of Las Vegas, Nev., enters his third season on the FMU bench as an assistant coach, and his fourth year at FMU.

His primary responsibilities include recruiting, on-floor coaching, individual player workouts, pre- and post-season workouts and helping in the area of academic support for team members.

Jones played for the Patriots during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. In the backcourt, he started 47 games over two seasons.

As a senior, he ranked 71st nationally in assists per game, and helped the Patriots to their second-best season record in this decade. In the Peach Belt, he ranked second in assists per game, sixth in steals per game, and 17th in rebounding.

During his playing career, he was a member of the FMU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

Prior to coming to Francis Marion, Jones played two seasons at Pima Community College in Tucson, Ariz.  He averaged 15.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 5.3 apg, 1.9 spg in 2006-07 while hitting 57.6 percent of his field goal attempts.  He earned first-team All-Conference and honorable mention All-Region recognition, while being named his team's most valuable player.

He earned the B.B.A. degree from Francis Marion in 2010.

Jones has worked the Five-Star Basketball Camp, served as an NBA Summer League assistant coach (Detroit Pistons) for three years, as well as working the various summer camps at FMU.

He also serves as a mentor/volunteer at the Billie Hardee Home for Boys in Darlington, S.C.

(9-27-11)