Holly Warlick Position: Associate Head Coach Experience: 25th Season

The 2004-05 season marked the start of Holly Warlick's third decade as a top basketball assistant at the University of Tennessee, working with fellow Women's Basketball Hall of Famer, UT Head Coach Pat Summitt. As Summitt has become the all-time winningest coach in men's or women's collegiate hoops, Warlick has been alongside her, either as a player or an assistant, for 856 of the 1,005 wins collected by her mentor.

Warlick, the senior-most member of Summitt's staff, capably slid into the role as the top assistant in 2003-04 following the departure of longtime Associate Head Coach Mickie DeMoss to take over the head coaching duties at the University of Kentucky. In 2007, the WBCA named Warlick the nation's top assistant coach after she helped lead UT to its seventh national title.

Somehow it doesn't seem that long ago that the charismatic Warlick was flying up and down the court as a Lady Vol All-America point guard.

For over three decades, Warlick has been considered as the finest point guard to ever play for the University of Tennessee Lady Vols. A number of Halls of Fame agree, as she has been enshrined in five of them: On Feb. 27, 2004, she was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. In October 2002, she became a member of the University of Tennessee Lady Vol Hall of Fame in the second class of inductees.

In June 2001, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame selected Warlick as one of 10 inductees enshrined into the Hall for the Class of 2001. For the hometown girl, who grew up in Rocky Hill, just up the road from the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, it was a-dream-come true. In January 1994, Warlick was selected to the CONVERSE/Lady Vol Team of the Decade for the 1980s. In the summer of 1994, Warlick was honored as one of the City of Knoxville's finest all-time athletes with her inclusion into the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame.

Including this season, Warlick has spent 29 years with the program, having helped shape UT into a national powerhouse with tenure as both a player and a coach. Warlick's expertise and major contributions to the team come from her work with the guards. Additionally, she has been a highly-successful recruiter for the backcourt, attracting some of the nation's finest players to UT to continue the excellence she helped establish as a player. Warlick's tutelage helped to strengthen the game of Kara Lawson, a KODAK All-American and a four-time Lady Vol All-SEC performer, and Shanna Zolman, a three-time All-SEC selection. The duo accounts for the school records for most of UT's three-point marks.

In 1998, the NCAA Division I women's basketball coaches recognized Warlick as one of the nation's top assistants as she was ranked in The Women's Basketball Journal poll as was former fellow staffer Mickie DeMoss who won the award.

Warlick's association with the Lady Vols started in 1976 when she joined the program as a scholarship 400-meter track athlete who walked on to the basketball team. Soon, she would become the most prolific player in the history of Tennessee Lady Vol basketball. Warlick was the first player in the history of Tennessee athletics (men or women) to have her jersey retired (number 22) at the end of her career in 1980.

Known as a play-making wiz during her four years as UT's point guard, Warlick was once tabbed the "best player in the South." She has had no trouble adjusting her enthusiasm and knowledge of the game into the coaching role. As a rookie, Warlick helped lead the Lady Vols to their first Final Four appearance in school history in 1977. In 19 of the 28 years Warlick has been affiliated with UT, she has found herself at the Final Four as a player (1977, 1979, 1980) and as a coach (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008). Her best Final Four showing as a player was national championship runner-up in her senior season. As a coach, she has helped the Lady Vols grab the brass ring all eight times (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007 and 2008).

A three-time All-American while playing for Summitt from 1976-80, Warlick previously held UT records for most assists in a game (14), most steals in a game (nine), most assists in a season (225) and most games in a career (142).

Warlick brings vast international experience to the Lady Vols as well. A member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic basketball team, Warlick also participated in the Jones Cup, Pan American Games and World Championship competition. In addition, she was a WPBL All-Star as she led the Nebraska Wranglers to the championship of the Women's Professional Basketball League in 1981. She has served as a player representative on the USA BASKETBALL council and was a member of the USOC Advisory Council for Basketball. In recognition of being a former Olympian, Warlick earned the distinct honor of running the Olympic torch through Knoxville as it made its way to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga.

Tennessee is not Warlick's first stop on the coaching circuit. She was an assistant coach at Virginia Tech from 1981-83 and an assistant from 1983-85 at Nebraska.

A native of Knoxville, Warlick earned her B.S. in marketing from Tennessee in 1981 and her master's degree in athletic administration from Virginia Tech in 1983. Warlick added "biker" to her vitae in 2001. To commemorate her induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, a number of Warlick's friends got together and presented her with a Harley-Davidson "Sportster" motorcycle. In the summer of 2007, she and former fellow assistant Nikki Caldwell created the Championship For A Cause Foundation. In 2007, their cross country motorcycle event - Volunteers Crusin For A Cause - covered over 3,000 miles to raise awareness for breast cancer and in 2009, they traveled to New Orleans and back on their third annual ride. On Feb. 10, 2008, Warlick and Caldwell presented a $10,000 check to the late N.C. State Head Coach Kay Yow and the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.

She is single and makes her home in rural west Knoxville with mother-daughter Black Labs named Dixie and Chesney (her dogs are named after singers or bands).

Overall record as an assistant coach: 793-161
Overall record as a player: 118-23