Head Coach Kris Ruffo enters her fourth season at the helm of the Palm Beach State Women's Basketball Program. Ruffo has engineered a complete overall of the program since her arrival in 2008-2009. The 2009-2010 campaign proved to be an outstanding year as the Panthers finished with a Southern Conference record of 10-2 and an overall record of 21-7. Ruffo was voted by her peers as the Southern Conference Women's Basketball "Coach of the Year" for her efforts and the Panthers cracked the Region 8 poll for the first time in eight years. The Panthers qualified for the Region 8/FCSAA state tournament and made it to the Final four- the only non Panhandle school to do so. Her career coaching record stands at 240 and 165 and her Southern Conference coaching record is an impressive 18-6 in her two seasons at the helm.

Prior to her arrival to the Lake Worth campus, Ruffo spent five years at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Geneseo, where her Knights posted an overall record of 82-55 and a conference record of 54-26. Again, this was a re-building job where Ruffo's teams reached post season play each year while winning the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Upstate Championship in 2003. Ruffo recruited and coached numerous student-athletes that earned prestigious academic accolades as well as all conference, all-region and All-American honors.  Before her tenure at Geneseo, Ruffo spent four seasons as the head women's basketball coach at NCAA Division II Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, NC. She engineered a turnaround in that program that saw double digit wins each year and tallied an overall record of 52-56, going 15-12 in the 2000-2001 after inheriting a team that was 3-21 prior to her arrival.  Ruffo started the women's basketball program at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 1992-93. She compiled an overall record of 62-33 in her four years culminating with a trip to the NCAA National Tournament in 1996-97.

 Email- ruffok@palmbeachstate.edu  Phone- (561) 868-3008

Assistant Coach Nicole Johnson begins her first year as an asistant coach for the Palm Beach State Women's Basketball Program. Prior to her arrival at the college, Johnson returned to her alma mater as Head coach at Atlantic Community High School, where she rebuilt a struggling program into a powerhouse. Johnson led the Eagles to their first Regional Championship and trip to the FHSAA state final four in 2009. She earned Palm Beach Post Coach of the Year honors in 2006 and County Conference Coach of the Year honors from 2007-2009. Prior to her tenure at Atlantic High School, Johnson spent five years as the women's Basketball Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Miami under Head Coach Ferne Labati. Johnson played her college ball at Howard and Barry University.

Assistant Coach Marvelous Washington enters her first season as an assistant coach for the women's basketball program. Before coming to Palm Beach State, Coach Washington served four seasons as the girls assistant basketball coach at Palm Beach Lakes High School in West Palm Beach, Florida, Prior to that she worked at Royal Palm Beach High School as a Head Coach for girls basketball where she compiled a 20-10 record which earned the first conference championship for the school. Marvelous has local ties to the area through the semi-profesional women's basketball team, the Palm Beach Storm where she has served as an assistant coach. Washington is a 1999 graduate of Palm Beach Lakes High School, played collegiate basketball at University of Central Florida and Nova Southeastern University.