Legendary women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt is leaving the sidelines where’s she coached the Tennessee Lady Vols for nearly 40 years.
She has early onset dementia.
Many here in Atlanta who know coach Summitt are speaking high praise for her contributions to women’s sports.
WABE’s Rose Scott has more.
Every coach seems to have it.
A stare from the sideline that undeniably means what are you doing out there.
But a stone faced gaze from Pat Summitt always seemed to have its own definition, “when somebody does something wrong and she gives you the stare and the look, it’s something you don’t forget” says Marynell Meadors head coach of the Atlanta Dream.
She’s known Pat Summitt for more than 4-decades.
Meadors says while she knows Summit’s decision was difficult, her longtime friend is thinking about what’s best for the team, “she’s always been that way, there’s nothing changed about that but if she moves that moving out of the head coaching position at Tennessee will make them better…she’ll do that.”
In her press conference, Summitt talked about her decision to step aside from coaching after 38 years which includes 8 national championships and more than 1-thousand wins.
Summitt’s longtime assistant Holly Warlick will take over as head coach.
Before passing her coach’s whistle to Warlick, Summitt reflected on what she believes has been just as rewarding as winning championships.
“And I can say for almost 4-decades it has been a privilege to make an impact on the lives of 161 women who have worn the orange, I am so proud of them the Lady Vol student athletes”
Beth Bass is the CEO of the women’s basketball coaches association located in Lilburn, GA.
She credits Summitt for elevating the popularity of women’s basketball.
More importantly says Bass; she changed the perception of how women should play the game.
“Pat coached women like basketball players and forget about what sex they were or what gender, she got in their face and she held them accountable, it wasn’t like oh just do the best you can because we know that women can’t play as hard or not as good or athletic she had a revolutionary style of coaching”
Bass doesn’t like to think about the degenerative effects dementia will eventually have on her friend.
The battle with the condition may have removed the winningest coach from patrolling the sidelines but Bass says it will never erase Pat Summitt’s impact on sports.
9(MDAxODM0MDY4MDEyMTY4NDA3MzI3YjkzMw004))
