Charleston – Ashley Hall has a long and storied tradition of success in athletics, due in part to coaching stability and very little change.
However, in recent years, the coaching roster at Ashley Hall has seen more change as longtime coaches move into retirement.
The one constant through nearly four decades is athletic director and volleyball coaching legend Franny Slay. Slay is entering her 39th season as the volleyball coach and her 31st as the school’s athletic director. She also attended and played at Ashley Hall, graduating in 1980.
In volleyball, the coach has amassed more than 825 career victories. That includes 12 SCISA state championships and 10 state runner-up trophies. She also led the school to four championships (1988. 1989, 1991, 1993) in the Palmetto Athletic Conference prior to the school joining SCISA.
But volleyball is far from the only successful sport at Ashley Hall. Under Slay’s guidance, Ashley Hall has won several state titles in cross country, track, and tennis while also competing at a state level in swimming, lacrosse, soccer, golf, sailing, archery and equestrian.
A primary role in her duties as athletic director is filling coaching vacancies when they occur. Slay says finding quality varsity coaches has been a fairly easy process. However, she does experience difficulty filling spots on the lower levels. The b-teams, junior varsity and middle school sports arena is vitally important to the future success of the varsity programs. Those levels may miss out on quality coaches due to timing or outside job commitments.
“The biggest challenge for me as an athletic director is securing coaches for our lower level teams,” she said. “If they don’t teach on campus, it is difficult for them to match our practice times.”
Slay reports a few new coaching hires for the 2023-24 school year. Cassidy Rindge is taking over the swimming program this fall while Samantha Shuster is going to assist with junior varsity tennis. Caroline Owen also returns to the jayvee tennis program while Charlotte Hartsock returns to direct the highly successful girls tennis program.
Christian Alcantara is back as Slay’s assistant athletic director while also serving as the soccer coach. Jeff Wood and Grace Cunningham will coach the cross country team while Cyndi Simpson is back as the equestrian coach.
Kate O’Donnell returns to coach the sailing team and Mary Fran Blanchard is the golf coach. Jodie Runner heads up the basketball program and Aimie Burgos is the lacrosse coach. Runner is the second-most tenured of the Ashley Hall staff.
Anna Ruggiero is the varsity archery coach while Ellen Reiber heads up the junior varsity program. Julia Lener returns as the athletic trainer.
Slay says the lone coaching vacancy remains the track and field position.
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