VTTW Board Index

http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2012/apr/18/pat-summitt-steps-down/

We all sort of knew it was coming, still doesn't make it any easier to swallow.   :frown:

That was a dumb argument from the get go.

I guess Pat has earned the right to pick her successor, but I still wish they would've gone outside the program for the new coach.  Maybe Holly will do great- but she's been around for a long, long time, and I just can't shake the feeling that if she were HC material, she would've gotten a job somewhere else by now.

I can understand that concern.

What I don't understand are insinuations that some people make about her personal baggage standing in the way. Because I'm pretty certain the personal baggage they're insinuating that Warlick is carrying doesn't matter to most NCAA institutions, nor to most recruits.

Goodbye Pat.  :bawl:  Thanks for everything and good luck in your battle.  :thumbup: 

Then why was it that people that I know that are connected to UT and the Athletic Department were voicing them?  It might have been a "dumb arguement" in your estimation but obviously people had concerns especially in the light of the Pokey Chapman at LSU incident in the not too far distant past (and Chapman was released from LSU for those problems). 

Pat had the right to name her successor and she is still going to be aorund the program as a "on campus" recruiter.

Sad to see Pat go, especially under the circumstances, but thanks for all your contributions and for the way you ALWAYS represented the university with dignity, humility and class.  :powert:

This is real nice.  Warlick wasn't my choice as the next coach, but she has been at UT for over 3 decades and has conducted herself in a professional manner.  But yeah, lets trash/stereotype her based on what some jack ass at LSU did.  :crazy:

Whether or not that concern was voiced by AD officials, it's a non-starter, IMO.  Chapman was an exception to the rule.  Sue Gunter was openly gay, and she coached at LSU for many years without incident.  Ditto for Tara Vanderveer at Stanford.  If the concern is that the coach is going to engage in "inappropriate behavior" with their players, then why is hiring a lesbian any different than hiring a straight man?

What specifically is the 'personal baggage' that we are talking about? If it's merely her being a lesbian, then it's a non issue and anybody at UT who was 'concerned' about it should be fired and now. That kind of stuff has no place anywhere anymore. Surely that's not the issue here, since it is often rumored that Pat is a lesbian herself.

If it had to do with inappropriate relationships with players, then that's a different issue. To be clear I haven't heard that at all, I'm just assuming since the former LSU coach was brought up that this might be the issue because that's what Pokey Chapman did? An inappropriate relationship with a player is inappropriate no matter the sexual orientation of the coach.

I will get fired up if we still have rednecks in UT administration who would let someone's sexual orientation be a factor in this hiring process. Surely that's not what we are talking about here in 2012. SURELY NOT.

If there is concern about there about an inappropriate relationship between Warlick and a coach, I certainly have never heard anything about it. I assume the personal baggage we're talking about is lesbianism. And as BDV pointed out, lesbianism has been pretty rampant in WCB for a pretty long while. You can't judge every situation by what Chatman did at LSU, and chances are just as great that a male coach would have an inappropriate relationship with a student as a lesbian coach.

At the risk of turning this into a major political brouhaha, I don't condone Warlick's lifestyle if the rumors about her sexual preference are true, but then there are a lot of things people do with their personal lives that I don't condone, and that shouldn't stop them from being considered for a coaching job.

Our high school hired a girls coach this past season who was rumored to be gay. It was a surprisingly moot issue. Some made an issue of it, but not many. If a little conservative town in rural Tennessee can hire a basketball coach who is gay, surely to goodness a college can do it...especially considering that at least half of the players in WCB are gay.

Yes, surely not.  No way theyd be hung up on that considering the fact that Pat is (pretty sure) as wel as many other women's coaches.

Would be great to know what Emeril is insinuating, here.

Same here.

Her being gay should have zero bearing on her being hired ....period.

What Granny said!

I thought Holly Warlick would get the job all along. I hope She doesn't wind like Gene Bartow did following John Wooden at UCLA.

If those people truly exist, UT is ripe for a bunch of discrimination law suits.   There is no way that anybody in a position of authority at a college or University would voice those kind of opinions.  It would be career suicide.