Gaither’s Permuy gets another hall call

Posted Feb 25, 2010 by Adam Adkins

Updated Feb 27, 2010 at 12:03 AM

Longtime Gaither baseball coach Frank Permuy will be part of the Florida High School Athletic Hall of Fame’s 2010 induction class, the FHSAA announced Thursday.

This is the second Hall of Fame induction for Permuy in as many years. In 2009, he was inducted into the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

“It really is quite an honor,” said Permuy, who added he was notified about his selection Thursday and that he took some time to look at the list of previous Hall of Fame inductees. “I’m not taking it lightly or anything. I was very surprised. There are a lot of good coaches on there.”

Permuy, the only coach in Gaither baseball history who last season topped the 500-win mark with the Cowboys, is the first baseball coach from Hillsborough County to be selected for the Florida High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

Joining Permuy in the nine-member HOF class will be Clem Brooks, a former official who worked for several years in Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

This is the 18th group to be inducted into the Florida High School Athletic Hall of Fame, formerly the FHSAA Hall of Fame, and it will bring the total number of inductees to 136. The ceremony will be held April 25 at the Best Western Gateway Grand Hotel in Gainesville.

Below are the bios provided by the FHSAA on both Brooks and Permuy:

Brooks, 75, retired in June 2009 after 40 years as a contest official. He is currently a consultant and trainer for officials in Hillsborough County. In multiple decades of service, he has officiated more than 2,000 regular season games, and 3,200 games overall. He has received much recognition for officiating games for football, basketball, baseball and softball throughout Hillsborough, Miami-Dade and Pasco Counties. His hard work and dedication to officiating has been publicized in multiple newspapers across the state of Florida and has made him a mentor to many younger officials. He has received numerous awards, including the Official of the Year Award in football, basketball and baseball.

Permuy, 67, is currently the head baseball coach at Gaither High School in Tampa. He started his head coaching career at Leto High School in Tampa, where he led his team to a 1972 conference co-championship. As the head baseball coach for four years at the University of Tampa, he guided his team to Division II Top 10 rankings twice. At Tampa Catholic High School in the 1980s, he coached his team to a 1982 state championship, and was honored with the State 3A Coach of the Year award. At Gaither, he has earned eight district championships and six conference championships. He was named the 2007 NFHS State Coach of the Year, and in 2009 was elected to the FACA Hall of Fame.

You can read more on the entire 2010 induction class HERE.

You can view all of the previous Hall of Fame inductees HERE.