Shelley Collier
A recent Saturday was a window into the past, present and future.
Here was Shelley Collier, a decades-long high school basketball coach in Tennessee, taking in a toddler-league contest.
Why? Because a former player had mentioned to Collier that her twin, 3-year-old daughters had a game.
Collier’s presence was at once testament to her unyielding devotion to her players – past, present, future – and her impact on those she has coached, taught and helped grow into young adults through a record-setting career that’s spanned four schools, including now at Lenoir City.
“It’s really funny you say that,” Collier said about the reach of now getting wedding invitations, birth announcements and much more from her decades in education. “This past Saturday, one of my former players at Webb, she has twin daughters who are 3 and just as cute as can be, and they’re playing basketball in this league. So, I went and watched her daughters; just showed up. Another former player who’s got three kids who played at Rice University and lives in Houston now but is in for Thanksgiving, she called me this week.
“When you have so many years into it, the most special thing for me is the relationships you build with players, and those don’t stop when they graduate. They continue in life.”
With her impact far beyond some half-dozen state championships, hundreds of wins and a couple dozen former players who went on to play collegiate basketball, Collier is TSSAA’s Distinguished Service Award recipient for November.
“I’m honored to be a coach and in service with other coaches,” Collier said. “A lot of us out there have done it for quite a while now,
“Shoutout to all the coaches in it, because it’s not just former players and their families, but I’ve established some good friendships across the state that are special. There’s a lot of good people out there trying to make difference in young peoples’ lives. I’m very thankful for this honor.”
Collier, whose husband Robby is a prep football coach and whose oldest daughter, Katie Collier-Wright, is the girls’ coach at Soddy-Daisy, has relished the family experience across a decorated coaching career.
“First of all, I was just really blessed with coaches in my life who have influenced me tremendously,” she said. “Elementary, high school and college. Just feel like it’s a way for me to give back to them after the way they invested in me growing up.
“This is my fourth different school, but I was longest-tenured at Webb, where my four daughters all played for me there. It was so much fun sharing those experiences, watching young women grow and develop far beyond basketball, and just to have the honor and privilege of coaching. Seeing them growing their game but as people, to be tough young women and handle things in life. Basketball helps give those tools to be able to handle it.”
Yet, for a brief moment back in the 1980s, after she had captained the Tennessee Lady Vols to their first-ever national championship in 1987, Collier initially wondered if she would stick with coaching during her graduate-assistant stint under the late, iconic Pat Summitt.
“Well, I got my masters in physical education, and was always being active and healthy and trying to encourage students, student-athletes to have that kind of lifestyle,” Collier said. “Even as a high school student, I had the thought of coaching in my head. I stayed on with Pat as a G.A. for two years.
“And honestly, after I G.A.’d for her, I wasn’t sure I wanted to coach or not. Back in the day, we didn’t have all these managers and support staff. I still remember after winning the national championship, I drove a van full of kids back. But, I just threw myself into it.”
It’s been a family affair ever since, both her own family and a basketball family spanning hundreds of players and decades of life.
“Family is everything to us, and my husband is an incredible football coach himself,” she said. “He’s had a lot of good experiences as well. Us having four daughters, he’s been very supportive of all of us.
“I’ve just been really fortunate to have had some wonderful experiences as a family through athletics.”
TSSAA proudly salutes Shelley Collier for her many years as a coach, leader, and educator in Tennessee.
