Holly Warlick joined WBIR's Russell Biven for a #10Chat to answer your questions about her life on and off the court. The Lady Vols coach shared a candid conversation about Pat Summitt's influence, how she handles bad calls, her love of writing poetry and more.
Here are 10 things we learned about Holly Warlick in her #10Chat. You can watch the entire conversation here.
1. She has to run before every game.
"I'll usually run 2-3 miles before every game, even on the road. Two years ago we ran in Notre Dame and it was snowing, blizzard, and I had to go at least half a mile up and back. It’s just something I always do. It gives you something to not think about what you’re about to do, and it’s kind of fun. I like running."
2. She'd consider playing UConn again in the regular season.
"I think that’s a possibility, I do. We’ve tried to work it out and haven’t, but I think it’s a possibility."
3. She's a country music fan!
"I listen to a lot of country ... I like songs where I can understand the words, not so much the beat. I love music, I listen to a lot, a lot of music. My mom used to tell me if I studied as much as I listened to music, I’d be a genius."
4. She likes the change to 4 quarters in college basketball.
"Love it. I didn’t think I’d like it. It was to speed the game up, and it has… You have an ending four times. You can do a special play or get a quick shot four times, and I really do like it. It’s a game within a game now. We used to have it in two halves, now we have it in four quarters were you can go, ‘OK, I won this quarter, I won this quarter.’ I think the fans have enjoyed it too, I think it has made the game quicker. I didn’t like it advancing the ball because I love defense….but I’ve learned to like it, I really do enjoy it."
5. She feels Pat Summitt's influence every day.
"I use Pat’s spirit of just her teaching me my philosophy, what I believe, how we should play, so that’s how I keep her in this program. We talk a lot about her and playing hard, rebounding, she was always a stickler on rebounding. So I just try to use what she taught me in the present with these ladies now."
6. She's not sure where "the stomp" came from.
"I don’t know. Just getting mad and that’s how I handle it."
7. But she's getting better at learning how to keep her composure when there's a bad call.
"I will say my first year as a head coach I just argued every call that wasn’t for us. I was constantly, I was in on everything. And now, I’m just kind of, you know what, they’re going to call what they call and I’ve learned to kind of keep my composure. I think in the past when I would get upset and get crazy, it’s not good for our kids. And I don’t think you can think clearly when you’re ranting and raving."
8. She doesn't look at the rankings.
"I don’t, I really don’t. I do when we play good, I get mad at them … and then when we don’t play good, I don’t want to look at them because we don’t want to go up."
9. She loves to write poetry!
"I do, I write a lot of poetry. I just sit down and start writing. It is therapeutic. I don’t even know what kind of poetry it’s called. It’s just my poetry. I’ve done a lot for a couple peoples’ weddings, I’ve done some for breast cancer, a lot of breast cancer. I did one just recently with all the violence and just all the stuff, so I enjoy doing it. I think it’s good for me, nobody else may…I did a couple for Pat. I’ve always loved doing it. It’s been therapeutic. I’m not going to be publishing any books anytime. I don’t even know if it’s called poetry, but I enjoy it."
10. She'd like to be known as a coach who gave players an opportunity to succeed.
"Probably as someone who carried on a great legacy with this program. Someone who treated people fairly and gave them an opportunity to succeed on the basketball court and in the classroom. I love what I do, and I want to put these kids in a situation to be successful. And I hope that it’s as somebody that committed themselves and has a tremendous love for the University of Tennessee."