Some 30 years ago, Sylvia Hatchell applied for a job as the head women’s basketball coach at the University of North Carolina. She was already a two-time national champion head coach at Francis Marion University, but she had a dream of being the head coach at Carolina. The small town, southern girl from Gastonia, North Carolina, walked into her interview with Athletic Director John Swofford, now Commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and said with conviction, “I don’t care what you pay me, I want to be the next head coach at the University of North Carolina.”
It is that same determination that drove her in guiding the Tar Heels from the bottom of the ACC, to eight ACC Championships, a NCAA National Championship in 1994, and the current winningest active head coach in the sport.