Chris Whitaker
AMERICUS — While Georgia Southwestern is out on spring break, Kelly Britsky is still on the job.
The GSW women’s basketball coach has hit the recruiting trail, hoping to possibly get a steal while other Peach Belt teams are playing in the national tournament.
But before she took the road, Britsky was honored on Saturday in Tifton before a pair of softball games as part of ABAC’s 1991 national champion softball team.
The team, along with others, were inducted into ABAC’s Hall of Fame.
“It was nice; I felt really old,” said Britsky, who just completed her third season as the Lady Hurricanes head coach. “We were taking pictures with the current team, and I know they couldn’t help but think, ‘Man, I will get old like that one day.’ I know when I was their age and a team came in, I’m sure we looked at them as an ancient team. It’s a good honor, it was good times, and it was fun.”
Britsky played first base, third base and pitched for the Fillies in 1990-91. ABAC started her sophomore season 8-7 before winning 23 of the last 24 games in beating defending champion Lake City (Fla.) for the national championship.
Britsky was one of five Fillies who made that All-Tournament Team.
ABAC finished third in Britsky’s freshman season.
“It seems like forever ago,” said Britsky. “We lost the first game, and we were the undefeated team, so we came back and beat them 9-3. It was a lot of fun.”
Britsky played basketball and softball in high school at Warner Robins and could have played basketball at Georgia College or softball at Kennesaw State. Instead, she chose ABAC and went on to LaGrange College where she was a part of a softball national championship team as a graduate assistant.
Britsky said the Fillies could’ve and should’ve won the state championship in 1990, too.
“There was a game we should have won, and we could have won the national championship my first year,” she said. “We got to play at home the next year, and it was just an incredible feeling. Once you’ve experienced winning something that big, you want to win again.”
Britsky was coaching girls basketball, track and softball at Perry High when LaGrange called her and asked if she wanted to take over the softball program. She coached the softball and volleyball programs two years when the college wanted to start a women’s basketball program in the 1999-2000 season.
She gave up softball and coached basketball and volleyball until coming to GSW three seasons ago.
LaGrange was in the NAIA the first three seasons before switching to NCAA Division III, and Britsky remembers playing GSW that first season.
“They killed us,” said Britsky. “They were really good then, and I had a first-year team with all freshmen and no scholarships. They beat us to death, but everybody beat us to death that year.”
Since coming to GSW, the Lady Hurricanes’ win total has increased from one to eight to 12 this season, which included their first-ever berth to the Peach Belt Conference Tournament.
Britsky said she never regrets making the move to basketball.
“How strange things work out with the choices you make,” she said. “Basketball’s been my love, and I got the opportunity to start the program at LaGrange.
“I’m loving it. This is my 10th year, and it’s been a good decision and the right decision. Softball, as far as a player, I was definitely better at softball than basketball. That success you have (like at ABAC) drives me as a coach, and I want to feel it again and have the girls feel it to work hard and accomplish it. Looking back on it, we had fun, and the competitiveness shapes who you are as a coach now. It’s been an interesting trip.”
