ROCK HILL, SC--North Carolina women's basketball coach and Hall of Fame member Sylvia Hatchell will be the keynote speaker for the Winthrop Basketball Tip-off Dinner that will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the Richardson Ballroom of the DiGiorgio Campus Center.
A limited number of seats are still available and can be reserved by calling Sharen DuBard at 803-323-2129 ext. 6218. The tickets cost $20 for everyone above 10, and $10 for those ten and under.
Winthrop fans will have a chance to meet the members of the 2011-12 men's and women's basketball teams and hear from men's head coach Randy Peele and first-year women's head coach Marlene Stollings on the prospects of the upcoming season. The Eagles begin regular season play on Nov. 12 in the 2011 Homecoming game against Eastern Kentucky while the Lady Eagles open play on the road at Troy on Nov. 13. The men will host St. Andrews Presbyterian College this Saturday at 6 p.m. in a preseason exhibition that is included in the season ticket package.
Hatchell, who is in her 37th year of collegiate coaching and her 25th at UNC Chapel Hill. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004 and is one of only four head coaches in Division I history to reach the 800-win plateau. Her career record now stands at 859-303 making her the third-winningest active coach in the nation. She has been named national coach of the year three times and has led teams to at least 20 wins 27 times, fourth-most nationally.
While Hatchell keeps impressive company in many categories, she is also part of an exclusive club that features just one member. When UNC defeated Louisiana Tech to win the 1994 NCAA Championship, Hatchell became the first and only coach to lead teams to national championships at the AIAW, NAIA and NCAA levels. The first two titles came while she was head coach at Francis Marion.
Hatchell graduated cum laude from Carson-Newman College, where she played basketball and volleyball. In March 1994, she was honored as the Carson-Newman Distinguished Alumnus of the Year and in 1999 she was inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame. In the summer of 2009, Hatchell had the honor of being inducted into both the North Carolina and South Carolina Sports Halls of Fame.
Hatchell's husband, Sammy, is also a basketball coach. Formerly the all-time winningest coach at Meredith College in Raleigh, Sammy is currently the head coach at Cresset Christian Academy. Fittingly, the couple met at a summer league basketball game and attended a basketball clinic on their first date. They married two years later, in 1979. Sammy helps run the North Carolina basketball camps each summer.
