The Chattanooga Mocs women's basketball team, formerly known as the Lady Mocs, represents the

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT-Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is one of four universities and two other affiliated institutions in the ...

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

, in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

women's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

competition. The team is currently led by head coach Shawn Poppie, and play their home games at

McKenzie Arena McKenzie Arena (also called "The Roundhouse") is the primary basketball arena for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) in Chattanooga in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It replaced Maclellan Gymnasium, a 4,177-seat gymnasium now used f ...

. The team has won 18 SoCon Tournament championships, five consecutively since 2013, and have made 15 NCAA tournament appearances, most recently in 2017. The 2015–16 team began the season ranked 25th in the

AP poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

2018–19 roster

Head Coaches

The Chattanooga women's team has had only six coaches in their 42-season history: Grace Keith, Sharon Fanning-Otto, Craig Parrott,

Wes Moore Westley Watende Omari Moore (born October 15, 1978) is an American politician, investment banker, author, and television producer. He is the governor-elect of Maryland, after defeating Republican Dan Cox in the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial ele ...

, Jim Foster, and Katie Burrows.

Grace Keith

Keith had settled into teaching for two years at Chattanooga's Hixson Elementary School, following her 12 years of coaching the girls' basketball team at

Hixson High School Hixson High School is a public high school in the Hamilton County Schools system located in the Chattanooga, Tennessee, suburb of Hixson, with grades 9–12. History Hixson High School was founded in 1909. Its current site opened in 1966. It h ...

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

became law in 1972 and began affecting the mostly male-dominated college athletics across the US, allowing women to participate. Harold Wilkes, then

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

for UTC and friend to Keith's superiors, offered her a job as head coach for the UTC Mocettes. After a few chaotic months of building a program, the former intramural Chattanooga team began its varsity era in the

Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...

, eight years before the NCAA allowed women's basketball as a sport. In 1976, Keith retired from basketball to return to teaching.

Sharon Fanning-Otto

One of the players Keith recruited was

Chattanooga High School Chattanooga High School was founded in the fall of 1874 in Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee. The school, sometimes called City High School, has evolved into two high schools: the Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts and the Cha ...

standout Sharon Fanning, who also played and later coached both UTC's volleyball (until 1978) and women's basketball teams. Fanning also renamed the Mocettes as the Lady Mocs. In 1982, the NCAA began hosting women's championships. The Lady Mocs joined the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly ...

, which only included

East Tennessee State East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a Public university, public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. Although it is part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee, the university is governed by an instit ...

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

and

Appalachian State University Appalachian State University (; Appalachian, App State, App, or ASU) is a public university in Boone, North Carolina. It was founded as a teachers college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and the latter's wife, Lillie Shull Dough ...

. UTC claimed the first regular season title that year and went on to win five straight titles under Fanning's leadership. She went on to become an eight-year head coach for the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

in 1987 and retired in 2012, following a 17-year coaching career with the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs.

Craig Parrott

Craig Parrott had spent several years coaching high school basketball teams before Fanning offered him an assistant coaching job at UTC in 1986. The following year, Fanning departed for Kentucky and Parrott was asked to fill the position. He became the first coach to take the program to the NCAA Tournament, after winning the SoCon Tournament in 1989. In the 1991–92 season, he again led the team to the NCAA, after sharing the regular season conference title and winning the SoCon. In 1998, he returned to coaching high school teams in

Walker County, Georgia Walker County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,654, down from 68,756 in 2010. The county seat is LaFayette. The county was created on December 18, 1833, from ...

, and retired in 2014.

Wes Moore

became the fourth Chattanooga women's basketball coach in 1998. In 15 seasons, he led the Lady Mocs to 12 SoCon regular season titles, nine SoCon tournament championships, and nine NCAA Tournament berths, becoming the winningest coach in UTC and SoCon history. The six-time SoCon Coach of the Year had an overall record of 358–113, 222–42 (SoCon). In 2013, he went on to coach the

NC State Wolfpack The NC State Wolfpack is the nickname of the athletic teams representing North Carolina State University. The Wolfpack competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for college footb ...

Jim Foster

On May 9, 2013, Chattanooga announced the hiring of Jim Foster to become the new head women's basketball coach. Foster has 37 years of coaching experience at St. Joseph's, Vanderbilt,

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

and Chattanooga, along with four

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

coach of the year awards. Soon after taking the job at Chattanooga, Foster was voted into the

Women's Basketball Hall of Fame The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame honors those who have contributed to the sport of women's basketball. The Hall of Fame opened in 1999 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. It is the only facility of its kind dedicated to all levels of women's bask ...

. Foster retired from coaching at the end of the 2018 season.

Katie Burrows

In May 2018, Katie Burrows was named as the new head women's basketball coach. An alumna of Chattanooga, Burrows served as an assistant coach under Moore and Foster, respectively.

Shawn Poppie

In 30 March 2022, Shawn Poppie was named as the new head women's basketball coach. Previously he was assistant coach under Kenny Brooks at the

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

since 2016.

NCAA tournament results

The Mocs have appeared in fifteen NCAA Tournaments, with a combined record of 1–15.

References

External links

* {{Southern Conference women's basketball navbox Basketball teams established in 1974 1974 establishments in Tennessee