Southern Connecticut State University Athletics

Patricia Panichas, ’74, MS ’78, 6th Year ’85, represented Southern as a member of the 1970 USA Team at the World University Games in Italy. She won the Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympics All-Around Title in 1968 and placed third on the balance beam at the U.S. Gymnastics Federation national championship in 1969. She qualified for Olympic team trials in 1972. She went on to coach women’s gymnastics at Southern from 1977 to 2004, amassing more than 230 wins in her career. She has coached several Southern teams to prominence in USA Gymnastic Collegiate Championships. Her teams have won nine Eastern College Athletic Conference championships and placed third in the AIAW national championships. In NCAA Division II national championship meets, her teams garnered a sixth place in 1985 and a fourth place in 1986. Panichas was named a national Coach of the Year by the USA Gymnastics in 1998 and ECAC Regional Gymnastics Coach of the Year in 2002. She is a respected national and international gymnastics judge.