Tennessee's Pat Summitt Faces Her Greatest Challenge
In 38 years of coaching, Tennessee head women's basketball coach Pat Summitt has never backed down from anything or to anyone. She has always met challenges head on with a bulldog spirit enveloped in her compassionate demeanor.
One of the faces of collegiate women's basketball, a sport that has grown by leaps and bounds over the past four decades, Summitt has rolled up the most wins ever in DI basketball (men or women) with a 1,098-206 record, or .842 winning percentage, (second all-time, Geno Auriemma, UConn, 802-128, .862).
The Clarksville, Tenn., native has played a crucial role in the growth of women's basketball. From those days in the 1970s when few media organizations or even the public paid attention to women's basketball; to today, when ESPN carries the NCAA Tournament; Summitt has been one of the sport's most transformative figures.
Summitt has been tireless as she has turned the Lady Vols program into one of the most successful and recognizable in collegiate sports, all the while being a mom and friend, who cares deeply about her family, colleagues and the 161 student-athletes who have donned the Lady Vols uniforms. That list of players includes 20 All-Americans and 12 Olympians - players like Chamique Holdsclaw, Candace Parker, Kara Lawson, among many others.
Yet, despite all that Summitt has accomplished and the people she has helped, Summitt is faced with her greatest challenge. And, the irrepressible Summitt will likely need other's help.
With her son, Ross Tyler, by her side, Summitt announced last August that the Mayo Clinic told her she had been diagnosed with "early-onset dementia." During the announcement, she revealed the establishment the Pat Summitt Foundation (http://www.patsummitt.org/Foundation.aspx) to raise awareness and funding to find a cure for the devastating and debilitating Alzheimer's diseases.
"Early-onset dementia" is a somewhat rare form of Alzheimer, afflicting 5-10 percent of those with the disease. It strikes people less than 65 years of age due to a genetic predisposition. Often fatal, it is a form of Alzheimer's that generally takes a victim's life within 10 years of the first symptoms. Early-onset dementia causes unusual memory loss, especially with events, names of people and more. Progression of the disease creates increased mood swings and the inability to perform activities such as driving and even brushing one's hair. Eventually, a victim must receive full-time care.
Summitt isn't intimidated by the challenge of what lies ahead for her. "There will be no pity party," Summitt said when she told the public about the disease. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDMLcZPe2iU&feature=related
"Can't" Not in Summitt's Vocabulary
Obviously, Summitt firmly believes that she will be able to deal with her health challenges. "Can't" has not been part of her vocabulary. She has preached responsibility, self-discipline, communication, competing hard, importance of hard work coupled with working smart, putting team first, understanding that change is part of life, and handling success like failure is an expectation.
During this past season, Tennessee players, coaches and fans rallied behind Summit. They have t-shirts "We Back Pat: Our Coach, Our Friend, Our Family." Team members continually told her they had her back. There is a lot of love and of respect for the Tennessee coach.
"Everyday, she pushed me to be my best. And, today I am better because of it," said former Tennessee standout point guard Michelle Marciniak, who transferred to Tennessee from Notre Dame and proceeded to lead the Lady Vols to NCAA DI Final Four berths in 1995 and 1996. She directed Tennessee to an overtime win over Connecticut in the 1996 semifinals and then helped orchestrate a victory over Georgia in the national championship game to lead the Lady Vols and Summitt to its fourth title.
Marciniak, who was MVP of the 1996 Final Four and later a WNBA player, credits Summit for helping her become a better person, a story told my numerous Lady Vols. After she transferred to Tennessee, Marciniak recalled a day she talked to Summitt about her stuttering problem. The coach told her she would have to get over it.
"She instilled a toughness in me that I didn't know I had in myself. Pat never makes it about her. It is always to make someone else better," said Marciniak during an interview when Summit received the 2011 Sportswoman of the Year award. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c56YsqYuq34&feature=related
It was during her unsuccessful recruitment of Marciniak in high school that Summitt went into labor with her only son Ross Tyler Summitt. As she finished that recruiting trip, Summitt told the pilot to fly straight back to Knoxville so the birth of her son would be in Tennessee.
She calls the birth of her son the most important day in her life. Later, when her son came home one day with tears in his eyes after not making his sixth grade team, she couldn't understand why he wasn't selected. "I thought what coach in Eastern Tennessee would cut my son. Put him on the end of the bench but give him a uniform," she said. "Then the coach in me asked him [Tyler Ross], do you think you worked hard enough [to make the team]?"
"I said no, I didn't think I did," he said. "And, she said, 'now you know what you need to do,'' he said.
Her son that asked his mom if he would help him get better. "I said I would help, but I will not start your engine every day."
"It was a defining moment in his life," said Summitt of her son, who learned the importance of self-discipline and the value of giving one's all every day.
Later, after Tennessee won its seventh national title, Tyler Ross asked his mom if she would consider coaching his AAU team. From those experiences, her son, a walk-on for the University of Tennessee basketball team, has never needed any additional motivation. He has fed off of the passion and bulldog tenacity of his mother (check this attached video for full interview). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxDi7H9Gt5M&feature=related
Now, Summitt will look to her son for help. He will be there for her.
Looking back over a career -
Summitt, a graduate of Tennessee-Martin, was offered the Tennessee head job after serving as a graduate assistant for the Lady Vols program and after the head coach left on sabbatical. A standout player, she played on the 1973 World University Games Team, the 1975 Pan American Games Team, 1975 World Championship Team and the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team, in which she was co-captain. She was on these teams even as she worked to build the Lady Vols program.
While Tennessee did not reach the 20-win mark in either of her first two seasons, the team, has reached that level every year since - a span of 36 straight seasons. Summitt has led Tennessee to 31 consecutive NCAA Tournaments where her teams have a 112-23 record (.830 pct.). During the Summitt era, Tennessee has won 16 SEC championships along with 16 SEC Tournament titles. She has led the Lady Volts to 20 seasons of 30 wins or more.
Summit has won numerous honors, including the John Bunn Award in 1990, presented by the Basketball Hall of Fame. She was the first female to receive the award in the Hall's history. In 2008 after her team won its eighth national title, Summitt received the prestigious John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching lifetime achievement award, also becoming the first female recipient of that honor. She was named by the Sporting News as one of the 50 Greatest Coaches of All-Time (11th on the list and only woman). Inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on June 5, 1999 and into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on October 13, 2000, she was named the 2011 SportsWoman of the Year.
A lot of accolades, no doubt, and the list is much longer.
How long will she coach?
It is a tough question on how long Summitt will continue to coach. It is a decision that rests with Pat Summitt, at least for now. With the Tennessee's basketball season over after a 77-58 loss to top-ranked Baylor at the NCAA Division I Women's Des Moines Regional last weekend, Summit will have to decide one day soon whether she continues coaching.
Leave no doubt, the question on her future coaching days encircled the Des Moines regional last weekend. Coaches and players from Tennessee, Baylor, Georgia Tech and Kansas were continually questioned about Summitt's legacy and if this might be her last coaching stint.
No one is pressuring her to leave. Far be it for me to suggest to one of the best coaches, regardless of gender, ever to walk the planet that it is time to move on.
Yet, from my observations this past weekend, I watched a proud and passionate coach, take a secondary role. While she held a spot on the Tennessee bench and occasionally rose to make a point to a player and yell at an official, it wasn't the same Pat Summitt. After the games, she didn't meet the media during any of the pressers and was also encircled, rightly so, by an entourage to protect her.
A fireplug her entire career, Pat was Pat only for periodic moments. When the regional final ended, she hugged Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, a friend, and then headed quietly to the locker room.
At the press conference, Associate Head Coach Holly Warlick said Summitt still has her competitive fire. "She may forget where her cell phone is but not how to challenge officials," she said.
It is understandable that Warlick has such compassion for her friend and boss. Warlick, a former Tennessee star guard (1976-80), has been an assistant coach for Summitt for the past 34 years. She like so many of her current coaching staff, colleagues and players have a deep and passionate loyalty to Summitt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBuA9HfyKNE&feature=related
"This team is about Pat Summitt," said Warlick in the presser following Tennessee's lost to Baylor on Monday night at the Des Moines Regional Final. "This team has battled all year. I am proud of them. I think, like Pat, this team never gave up. You know, as Pat represents this program, I think these five seniors represented it well. I think the coaching staff tried to continue on the tradition that Coach Summit has built. We have got a great foundation and this program's gonna continue to do what Tennessee has always done," she said.
It is heart-breaking to see one of the true legends and pioneers in women's basketball struggle to continue her Hall of Fame career. For many of us, we remember Summitt and the Lady Vols memorable battles with UConn and head coach Geno Auriemma. We think about how she led Tennessee to Final Four after Final Four. If Tennessee wasn't there, a major upset had occurred.
We can't help but remember Summitt and that trademark "ice stare" that her players felt even if they had their back to the coach. And, we recall those classics Summitt and Auriemma showdowns, when each traded barbs, "icy stares" and sarcasm over the years. But in that "smack talk," they shared mutual respect.
"Those last 30 years or so, for a majority of that time up until today, she is recognized as the face of women’s basketball,”said Auriemma recently. “Her team’s consistency year after year, the always being there and her teams always being in the conversation about winning national championships. I think since 1985, when I got the job at Connecticut, playing Tennessee and watching her work, you really start to realize if more women’s basketball coaches took (Summitt’s) approach, there would be more good programs and a lot of programs in America would be better."
“She is one of the few coaches in America — I can count them on my hand — that coaches players like they are basketball players and not girls. The game can use a lot more people like that for sure," he said.
Kim Mulkey, one of the stars in the collegiate women's coaching circles, has her top-ranked and unbeaten Baylor team in the Final Four, seeking a second national title. Mulkey, who herself is dealing with a physical problem (Bell Palsy), said during the weekend that she didn't like that the Lady Bears had to face Tennessee and Pat Summitt.
One of the faces of collegiate women's basketball, a sport that has grown by leaps and bounds over the past four decades, Summitt has rolled up the most wins ever in DI basketball (men or women) with a 1,098-206 record, or .842 winning percentage, (second all-time, Geno Auriemma, UConn, 802-128, .862).
The Clarksville, Tenn., native has played a crucial role in the growth of women's basketball. From those days in the 1970s when few media organizations or even the public paid attention to women's basketball; to today, when ESPN carries the NCAA Tournament; Summitt has been one of the sport's most transformative figures.
Summitt has been tireless as she has turned the Lady Vols program into one of the most successful and recognizable in collegiate sports, all the while being a mom and friend, who cares deeply about her family, colleagues and the 161 student-athletes who have donned the Lady Vols uniforms. That list of players includes 20 All-Americans and 12 Olympians - players like Chamique Holdsclaw, Candace Parker, Kara Lawson, among many others.
Yet, despite all that Summitt has accomplished and the people she has helped, Summitt is faced with her greatest challenge. And, the irrepressible Summitt will likely need other's help.
With her son, Ross Tyler, by her side, Summitt announced last August that the Mayo Clinic told her she had been diagnosed with "early-onset dementia." During the announcement, she revealed the establishment the Pat Summitt Foundation (http://www.patsummitt.org/Foundation.aspx) to raise awareness and funding to find a cure for the devastating and debilitating Alzheimer's diseases.
"Early-onset dementia" is a somewhat rare form of Alzheimer, afflicting 5-10 percent of those with the disease. It strikes people less than 65 years of age due to a genetic predisposition. Often fatal, it is a form of Alzheimer's that generally takes a victim's life within 10 years of the first symptoms. Early-onset dementia causes unusual memory loss, especially with events, names of people and more. Progression of the disease creates increased mood swings and the inability to perform activities such as driving and even brushing one's hair. Eventually, a victim must receive full-time care.
Summitt isn't intimidated by the challenge of what lies ahead for her. "There will be no pity party," Summitt said when she told the public about the disease. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDMLcZPe2iU&feature=related
"Can't" Not in Summitt's Vocabulary
Obviously, Summitt firmly believes that she will be able to deal with her health challenges. "Can't" has not been part of her vocabulary. She has preached responsibility, self-discipline, communication, competing hard, importance of hard work coupled with working smart, putting team first, understanding that change is part of life, and handling success like failure is an expectation.
During this past season, Tennessee players, coaches and fans rallied behind Summit. They have t-shirts "We Back Pat: Our Coach, Our Friend, Our Family." Team members continually told her they had her back. There is a lot of love and of respect for the Tennessee coach.
"Everyday, she pushed me to be my best. And, today I am better because of it," said former Tennessee standout point guard Michelle Marciniak, who transferred to Tennessee from Notre Dame and proceeded to lead the Lady Vols to NCAA DI Final Four berths in 1995 and 1996. She directed Tennessee to an overtime win over Connecticut in the 1996 semifinals and then helped orchestrate a victory over Georgia in the national championship game to lead the Lady Vols and Summitt to its fourth title.
Marciniak, who was MVP of the 1996 Final Four and later a WNBA player, credits Summit for helping her become a better person, a story told my numerous Lady Vols. After she transferred to Tennessee, Marciniak recalled a day she talked to Summitt about her stuttering problem. The coach told her she would have to get over it.
"She instilled a toughness in me that I didn't know I had in myself. Pat never makes it about her. It is always to make someone else better," said Marciniak during an interview when Summit received the 2011 Sportswoman of the Year award. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c56YsqYuq34&feature=related
It was during her unsuccessful recruitment of Marciniak in high school that Summitt went into labor with her only son Ross Tyler Summitt. As she finished that recruiting trip, Summitt told the pilot to fly straight back to Knoxville so the birth of her son would be in Tennessee.
She calls the birth of her son the most important day in her life. Later, when her son came home one day with tears in his eyes after not making his sixth grade team, she couldn't understand why he wasn't selected. "I thought what coach in Eastern Tennessee would cut my son. Put him on the end of the bench but give him a uniform," she said. "Then the coach in me asked him [Tyler Ross], do you think you worked hard enough [to make the team]?"
"I said no, I didn't think I did," he said. "And, she said, 'now you know what you need to do,'' he said.
Her son that asked his mom if he would help him get better. "I said I would help, but I will not start your engine every day."
"It was a defining moment in his life," said Summitt of her son, who learned the importance of self-discipline and the value of giving one's all every day.
Later, after Tennessee won its seventh national title, Tyler Ross asked his mom if she would consider coaching his AAU team. From those experiences, her son, a walk-on for the University of Tennessee basketball team, has never needed any additional motivation. He has fed off of the passion and bulldog tenacity of his mother (check this attached video for full interview). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxDi7H9Gt5M&feature=related
Now, Summitt will look to her son for help. He will be there for her.
Looking back over a career -
Summitt, a graduate of Tennessee-Martin, was offered the Tennessee head job after serving as a graduate assistant for the Lady Vols program and after the head coach left on sabbatical. A standout player, she played on the 1973 World University Games Team, the 1975 Pan American Games Team, 1975 World Championship Team and the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team, in which she was co-captain. She was on these teams even as she worked to build the Lady Vols program.
While Tennessee did not reach the 20-win mark in either of her first two seasons, the team, has reached that level every year since - a span of 36 straight seasons. Summitt has led Tennessee to 31 consecutive NCAA Tournaments where her teams have a 112-23 record (.830 pct.). During the Summitt era, Tennessee has won 16 SEC championships along with 16 SEC Tournament titles. She has led the Lady Volts to 20 seasons of 30 wins or more.
Summit has won numerous honors, including the John Bunn Award in 1990, presented by the Basketball Hall of Fame. She was the first female to receive the award in the Hall's history. In 2008 after her team won its eighth national title, Summitt received the prestigious John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching lifetime achievement award, also becoming the first female recipient of that honor. She was named by the Sporting News as one of the 50 Greatest Coaches of All-Time (11th on the list and only woman). Inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on June 5, 1999 and into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on October 13, 2000, she was named the 2011 SportsWoman of the Year.
A lot of accolades, no doubt, and the list is much longer.
How long will she coach?
It is a tough question on how long Summitt will continue to coach. It is a decision that rests with Pat Summitt, at least for now. With the Tennessee's basketball season over after a 77-58 loss to top-ranked Baylor at the NCAA Division I Women's Des Moines Regional last weekend, Summit will have to decide one day soon whether she continues coaching.
Leave no doubt, the question on her future coaching days encircled the Des Moines regional last weekend. Coaches and players from Tennessee, Baylor, Georgia Tech and Kansas were continually questioned about Summitt's legacy and if this might be her last coaching stint.
No one is pressuring her to leave. Far be it for me to suggest to one of the best coaches, regardless of gender, ever to walk the planet that it is time to move on.
Yet, from my observations this past weekend, I watched a proud and passionate coach, take a secondary role. While she held a spot on the Tennessee bench and occasionally rose to make a point to a player and yell at an official, it wasn't the same Pat Summitt. After the games, she didn't meet the media during any of the pressers and was also encircled, rightly so, by an entourage to protect her.
A fireplug her entire career, Pat was Pat only for periodic moments. When the regional final ended, she hugged Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, a friend, and then headed quietly to the locker room.
At the press conference, Associate Head Coach Holly Warlick said Summitt still has her competitive fire. "She may forget where her cell phone is but not how to challenge officials," she said.
It is understandable that Warlick has such compassion for her friend and boss. Warlick, a former Tennessee star guard (1976-80), has been an assistant coach for Summitt for the past 34 years. She like so many of her current coaching staff, colleagues and players have a deep and passionate loyalty to Summitt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBuA9HfyKNE&feature=related
"This team is about Pat Summitt," said Warlick in the presser following Tennessee's lost to Baylor on Monday night at the Des Moines Regional Final. "This team has battled all year. I am proud of them. I think, like Pat, this team never gave up. You know, as Pat represents this program, I think these five seniors represented it well. I think the coaching staff tried to continue on the tradition that Coach Summit has built. We have got a great foundation and this program's gonna continue to do what Tennessee has always done," she said.
It is heart-breaking to see one of the true legends and pioneers in women's basketball struggle to continue her Hall of Fame career. For many of us, we remember Summitt and the Lady Vols memorable battles with UConn and head coach Geno Auriemma. We think about how she led Tennessee to Final Four after Final Four. If Tennessee wasn't there, a major upset had occurred.
We can't help but remember Summitt and that trademark "ice stare" that her players felt even if they had their back to the coach. And, we recall those classics Summitt and Auriemma showdowns, when each traded barbs, "icy stares" and sarcasm over the years. But in that "smack talk," they shared mutual respect.
"Those last 30 years or so, for a majority of that time up until today, she is recognized as the face of women’s basketball,”said Auriemma recently. “Her team’s consistency year after year, the always being there and her teams always being in the conversation about winning national championships. I think since 1985, when I got the job at Connecticut, playing Tennessee and watching her work, you really start to realize if more women’s basketball coaches took (Summitt’s) approach, there would be more good programs and a lot of programs in America would be better."
“She is one of the few coaches in America — I can count them on my hand — that coaches players like they are basketball players and not girls. The game can use a lot more people like that for sure," he said.
Kim Mulkey, one of the stars in the collegiate women's coaching circles, has her top-ranked and unbeaten Baylor team in the Final Four, seeking a second national title. Mulkey, who herself is dealing with a physical problem (Bell Palsy), said during the weekend that she didn't like that the Lady Bears had to face Tennessee and Pat Summitt.
"I told you the other day, it's not fun for me to coach against Pat. It'd be like coaching against Leon [Barmore], and I don't take great pleasure in that," said Mulkey. "But I have a job to do. My relationship with Pat Summit will never interfere with what those kids in the locker room are trying to do - and that's win a national championship," she said.
"From a personal standpoint, I thought about it when the brackets were announced. Pat Summit...y'all talk about me dressing up! have you seen pictures of her back in her day? That woman could dress, too. go back and look at her clothing, look at her hairstyle. You learn from the Pat Summitts of the world' you learn from people like that. If I didn't have a personal relationship with her, I'd still learn from her because she's so successful. What do you say after the game? You say, 'I love you,' and that's about it."
If this is it for Summitt, who has two years on her current Tennessee contract, it is unfortunate that her career doesn't end in a Final Four or a championship game. As she know better than most, those things are the breaks of the game.
Regardless, I think we will take Mulkey's cue and continue to learn from Summitt, who will contribute, whether coaching or trying to raise funds for Alzheimer's research.
Summitt never accepted "can't" as an option for her son, or for her team. It is what will motivate her as she tries to beat this disease. That principled belief of doing is a lesson for us all.
If this is it for Summitt, who has two years on her current Tennessee contract, it is unfortunate that her career doesn't end in a Final Four or a championship game. As she know better than most, those things are the breaks of the game.
Regardless, I think we will take Mulkey's cue and continue to learn from Summitt, who will contribute, whether coaching or trying to raise funds for Alzheimer's research.
Summitt never accepted "can't" as an option for her son, or for her team. It is what will motivate her as she tries to beat this disease. That principled belief of doing is a lesson for us all.
Comments
Post a Comment