Bayne Selected to Lead Brevard Track and Field Program

BREVARD, N.C. – Brevard Athletic Director Juan Mascaro has announced the hiring of Michael Bayne to lead the Tornados' track program.

Bayne will serve as the Head Coach of the track team and as the Special Teams Coordinator for the Tornados football program. Bayne has spent the last eight seasons coaching special teams at the Division II level, including five years at North Greenville following a three-year stint at Brevard under head coach Paul Hamilton.

Bayne's most recent head coaching position came at North Greenville, where he led the women's lacrosse program during its first season of existence in 2015. He also led the cross country and track and field teams during his five years in Tigerville, including guiding the Crusaders' men's cross country program and both the men's and women's track teams to their first-ever regional ranking.

"This is such an exciting time to come back home to Brevard College," Bayne said. "The leadership that [Brevard president] Dr. [David] Joyce and [Athletics Director] Juan Mascaro are giving to the school and to athletics gives me great pride to come back. I'm thrilled to be leading the track programs, and I'm looking forward to continuing to learn from the best option football coach in the nation in Coach Hamilton."

Bayne still has a home in Brevard after departing the Tornados' football program following the 2009 season. His parents James and Katherine graduated from Brevard in 1948, and his daughter is currently enrolled at the college.

Bayne has amassed significant coaching experience in a number of sports since his graduation from the University of South Carolina in 1980. He has been a head coach in football, basketball, baseball, track and field, and tennis at various high schools in South Carolina, earning six of his 20 Region Coach of the Year Awards in track and field and another in cross country. He also spent two years as an assistant baseball coach at Charleston Southern University in addition to his football, lacrosse, basketball, track and field, and cross country experience at the collegiate level.

In his college coaching career, Bayne has coached eight All-Americans and three athletes that have ascended to the professional ranks, including Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Freddie Martino and R.J. Swindle, who won a World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008.

In addition to these positions, he has also worked as a teacher, a police officer, a high school athletic director, and a radio host. Mayor Joe Riley named him Charleston, South Carolina's Educator of the Year in 2000. He has also won awards spanning from Region Athletic Director of the Year and state coach of the year in the high school ranks to a Local Hero Award by Little League Baseball. He has also served as a track announcer for the University of South Carolina and was the bronze medalist in the hammer throw in the 1987 Palmetto State Games.

The most interesting footnote on Bayne's resume, however, comes from a high school basketball game he coached on January 2, 1998. His Garrett Academy of Technology Falcons went 32-for-79 from beyond the three-point arc, setting a record for three-point field goals made in a single game that led to recognition by Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings on the U.S. Senate floor and in the Guinness Book of World Records.