South Carolina-Aiken head coach Jerry Snyder has announced plans to retire following the 2020 season.
Snyder, the only leader that the Pacers softball program has ever known, will coach his 34th and final season in 2020. He owns a 778-763-3 record during his career, and is the longest-tenured coach in the Peach Belt Conference.
“Jerry Snyder has been synonymous with USC Aiken softball for over three decades,” athletic director Jim Herlihy said in a statement. “As the only coach in Pacer softball history, he has literally built the program from scratch and been an impactful figure for hundreds of student-athletes.”
Under Snyder’s guidance, the Pacers have reached the NCAA tournament four times, all coming in the last decades. The program reached the Division II postseason tournament for the first time in 2009, and later earned postseason berths in 2011; 2014; and 2016.
In addition to his team’s successes, Snyder has shepherded thirty-five all-conference honorees; a pair of all-Americans; and one Peach Belt Player of the Year. One of his top pupils, Jessica Strickland, received that Player of the Year award. Strickland was a three-time all-American and four-time all-conference selection during her Pacer career, and earned induction into the program’s athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.
The Pacers will kick off Snyder’s final season on February 1st against Columbia College in Aiken.
