Mike Ruane headed to Palm Beach State
Mike Ruane’s basketball journey is taking him to south Florida.
The Holy Name and Alvernia grad has been named men’s basketball coach at Palm Beach State College, a junior college located in Lake Worth, Fla.
“Building this program will be an honor and my number one priority,” said the 54-year-old Ruane, who coached the last 22 seasons at the University of Bridgeport.
He officially becomes Panthers coach May 2.
Palm Beach State is a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and plays in the Southern Conference.
The Panthers finished 5-16 this season under Martin McCann, who won 114 games over his six seasons, including four 20-win seasons.
“We could not have found a better coach to move this program forward,” said Palm Beach athletics director John Scarpino. “Mike not only has the level of professionalism and integrity we desire, but his players also have a proven track record of success both on the court and academically.”
Ruane was selected from a national pool of more than 200 candidates, according to the school.
Earlier this year Ruane won his 400th game with Bridgeport, making him one of only 40 active coaches at the 305 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II level schools with that number of victories.
The Purple Knights finished 11-16 this season, with an 8-10 record in conference play. They missed out on the final spot in the East Coast Conference playoffs to the University of the District of Columbia, which had the tiebreaker advantage.
In 2019-20 Ruane guided the Bridgeport basketball team to one of its most successful seasons as it finished 24-4 and was ranked No. 13 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches Poll and No. 1 in the East region.
Ruane led Bridgeport to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances (the most by a coach in East Coast Conference history), four ECC Tournament Championships, five ECC regular season championships, two NCAA Regional semifinal appearances, and one NCAA Sweet 16 appearance.
Ruane was named ECC Coach of the year five times, Eastern College Athletic Conference Division II Coach of the Year, Fairfield County Sports Person of the Year for Bridgeport and received the Sam Schoenfeld Award for Sportsmanship presented by the Collegiate Basketball Officials Association twice.
“I am so thankful to President Ava Parker, Vice President Peter Barbatis, Athletics Director John Scarpino and the entire search committee for giving me this opportunity,” said Ruane.