Summitt: Washington Mystics Player Personnel Consultant
|
Summitt brings to the Mystics 28 years of collegiate and international coaching experience, a winning record that ranks her sixth amongst active NCAA coaches and a prestigious list of accolades that includes induction to both the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Basketball Hall of Fame.
Head coach of the University of Tennessee's Lady Vols women's basketball team since she began her coaching career at the age of 22, Summitt joins the Mystics basketball operations staff after leading the Lady Vols to a 29-5 season in 2002, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) semi-final game (Tennessee lost to LSU 81-80) and the school's 13th NCAA Women's Final Four appearance (an NCAA record). Tennessee's winning season pushed Summitt ever closer to another milestone in her career, 800 wins. At 789 career collegiate victories (tied with Judy Conradt for the winningest coach in the women's game) and just 158 losses in 28 years (.833), she is truly in an elite class of coaches.
Some of Summitt's victories include 21 SEC tournament and regular season championships and six NCAA titles (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997 and 1998); her teams have played in and recorded the most NCAA tournament victories in history. Summitt's record of six NCAA Championships is second only to UCLA's John Wooden who captured 10 during his career. Her last three championships were the first back-to-back-to-back victories in women's NCAA history and featured the play of Olympic gold medalist, three-time WNBA All-Star and Mystics forward Chamique Holdsclaw.
Summitt's success has spanned over nearly three decades. She started coaching in 1974 and since then has packed her legendary career with an unparalleled number of accomplishments. Shortly after graduating from the University of Tennessee-Martin where, as a junior, she played on her first U.S. national team, Summitt accepted a graduate teaching assistantship and the head coaching position at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, beginning the legendary marriage between coach and team. In 1976, while continuing to coach the Lady Vols, she capped off her playing career by making the U.S. Olympic Team and helping that team capture a silver medal at the Montreal Games.
Summitt expanded her international experience in the game of basketball when, just a year after having competed as a player in the Olympics, she was given head coaching duties of the U.S. Junior National team in 1977, also the first year the Lady Vols reached the NCAA Final Four with a 28-5 overall record. Summitt also served as head coach for the U.S. National Team; leading both squads to many gold medal victories. In 1984, she lead the U.S. Olympic Team to its first women's basketball gold medal in her home country during the Los Angeles Summer Games.
In the years that Summitt has accumulated the numerous wins, regular season titles, conference titles, NCAA championships, international and Olympic medals, she can additionally boast to having developed and coached an outstanding crop of women athletes. She has guided 11 U.S. Olympians, 16 Kodak All-Americans, over 45 international players and 25 professional players serving in the ABL, WNBA and international teams.
Complementing her induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999, she became just the fourth women's basketball coach to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000. In 1990, she became the first woman to receive the Hall of Fame's most prestigious honor, the John Bunn Award. Summitt was also named Naismith College Coach of the year in 1987, 1989, 1994 and 1998 and Naismith College Coach of the Century in 2000. She was the WBCA/Converse Coach of the year in 1983 and 1995 and the IKON/WBCA Coach of the Year in 1998.
Summitt's off the court life is just as full as her time in the gym. She is devoted to a number of community organizations and causes including the United Way, the Race for the Cure, Saint Jude's Children's Hospital, the Helen Ross McNabb Mental Health Center and Habitat for Humanity. She has been recognized as one of the WISE "1999 Women of the Year," the 1999 ARETE Award for Sports, as one of Glamour Magazine's "1998 Women of the Year" and the city of Knoxville's "1999 Woman of the Year." Summitt has served as a vice president of USA Basketball and an Olympic representative on the Advisory Committee to USA Basketball. She currently holds the position of Associate Athletics Director at the University of Tennessee and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
Summitt, a native of Henrietta, Tenn., also devotes time to her 11-year-old son Tyler and her husband R.B., making their home on the banks of the Tennessee River.