Franklin County native David Strother was introduced as the new head coach of the Itawamba Lady Indians’ soccer program at a press conference held at the David C. Cole Student Services Building on Friday.

“There is good soccer in the state, and I look forward to working with Itawamba and the surrounding communities to help build that even more,” Strother said. “It’s been a month and a half since the semester started, and the girls just want to train… and get it moving to see where we are with our returning class and getting the evaluation for our incoming class.”

Strother comes to ICC after spending the past three seasons at Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

Prior to his time at Co-Lin, he served as men’s head coach at NAIA powerhouse Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. While at ITT, Strother coached 12 All-Conference players, six All-Academic Team members, two NAIA All-Americans and two National Team members.

Strother started his collegiate coaching career as the men’s head coach at Southwest Mississippi Community College (2006-10), where he built the program from the ground up and eventually produced eight MACJC All-State players, two All-Region 23 award winners, three NJCAA Academic All-Americans and one NJCAA Distinguished Academic All-American while being nominated for MACJC Coach of the Year three times.

In his final season at Southwest, the Bears earned the prestigious Halbrook Award for most improvement in GPAs for NJCAA student-athletes.

“My purpose as a coach is to help players win, help players succeed, and help players grow in everything they do,” said Strother.

He is the third coach in the history of the women’s program and replaces former head coach Mike Sullivan, who will focus solely on the men’s program.

“It’s nice to be able to focus one team each to be able to put the time and the energy into what it takes to build the relationships with the student-athletes,” Strother said.

The Lady Indians have made five playoff appearances in the past eight seasons under the direction of Sullivan.

“History and tradition is what we want to build off of,” Strother said. “It’s not that we want to live off that by any way, shape or form, but it’s pride about being where you are and taking pride in what you do.”

Strother received a Bachelor of Science in sports administration and marketing, with a minor in business, in 2004 from Belhaven University. He was also a member of the Blazers’ soccer team where he earned NAIA Academic All-American honors in 2003.

He is married to the former Nina Fischer, and they are the parents of Sindey McCall and Liam Winfield. He is also a class of 1999 graduate of Franklin County High School.