University of North Carolina Athletics
Hatchell Inducted Into Gaston County Sports Hall
September 6, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Sept. 6, 2005
On Aug. 30, North Carolina women's basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell added another honor to an already long list when she became the first woman inducted into the Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame. Hatchell, who is heading into in her 20th season at UNC and is a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, is a native of Gastonia, N.C., and still has close ties to the area.
The following story was originally published by the Gaston Gazette on Aug. 28, 2005.
Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame
A True Pioneer
From humble roots, Hatchell becomes first woman inductee
BY PHILLIP GARDNER
Gazette Sports Reporter
Sylvia Rhyne Hatchell didn't grow up with the same athletic opportunities girls have today. There were no organized sports for her to participate in as a child. Even by the time she got to high school, Hunter Huss did not yet offer sports for girls.
But those barriers never stopped her.
Hatchell always had a love for sports and remembers the days when she would hang out at the local park until dark. She was as good as the guys -- she had to be if she wanted to be chosen for pick-up teams -- and despised losing. Those traits sound familiar to those who know her today.
A successful women's basketball coach at the University of North Carolina for the past 19 years and previously at Francis Marion College, Hatchell has won three national championships and ranks fourth in total wins among active Division I women's basketball coaches. Her credentials offer an obvious reason she was selected for induction into the Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame Tuesday at Cramer Mountain Country Club.
Hatchell, 53, will join local prep coaching legends Dennis Franklin of Dallas, Robert Mason of Gastonia and Delmer Wiles of Mount Holly in the hall's 17th induction class. The event is sponsored for the second straight year by The Gazette after the Hall of Fame was restarted last year following a 26-year absence.
Hatchell becomes the first female inducted into the hall. Those who knew her when she was little aren't surprised at the woman she's become. Many of them recall a sweet girl and fierce competitor. It all started in a west Gastonia community near Myrtle School.
Immersed in sports
Many of Hatchell's childhood memories involve sports -- everything from basketball to football to horseshoe pitching. "There were a lot of kids in this neighborhood and we used to play ball all the time," she said.
She was interested in sports from an early age and remembers the thrill she received when June Badger, then the Gastonia recreation director, gave her her first baseball glove. She was left-handed and couldn't borrow a glove from just anybody.
"I'm going to tell you what, that was like a million dollars," said Hatchell, who was 7 or 8 at the time. "I took care of that glove. I slept with it. I just about wore that thing out."
You name the sport and she played it. She and her friends broke so many windows while playing in the back yard that her dad kept a large pane of glass ready for replacements. Although one of four children, Hatchell wasn't introduced to athletics by her brothers. In fact, it was the other way around. Since she was 4 years older than Ralph and 5½ years older than Ronnie, she got them involved in athletics. Her older sister, Phyllis, didn't play sports.
"All I can say is she was very competitive," Ralph Rhyne said. "She never did let me win at nothing. I never did beat her until I got taller than her."
Hatchell's competitiveness became obvious at an early age. Her late mother, Veda Rhyne, used to tell the story of when Sylvia was about 5 and played checkers against her grandfather. "He would beat me in checkers and I would come home crying," Hatchell said. "I would be so mad because he'd beat me in checkers."
The same thing applied to everything she did -- especially when she played against the boys. "I'd be the only girl up there on the court. I'll tell you what, if you're going to play, you've got to be good enough to play. I'd practice and practice and I could make a little bank shot using the backboard from both sides. So they'd choose me."
Not only could she hang with the boys, but she had her way with them. There was the time when she was about 11 that she beat Colin Smith for the city horseshoe pitching championship. Then there was the time in eighth grade when she beat her first boyfriend in the high jump at the school's field day.
Others will support her claims.
"She was competitive with all the guys and could certainly throw and hit and run as good as any of them. In fact, they enjoyed her being part of the teams," said Earl Walters, who is six years older than Hatchell but attended church with her and often saw her at the park.
But, for the most part, Hatchell couldn't put her natural talent to use in organized sports until she was older. The first time she was able to play organized sports came in the fifth grade when she played two years for Tri-Gray Y at the local YMCA. She won the league's high scoring awards both years. At the age of 12, she had her first chance to play organized softball in a textile league for Firestone and Hope Plastics.
But as she was nearing high school age, she knew Hunter Huss High didn't offer female athletics. She considered living with her grandmother in Dallas so she could play basketball at Dallas High, but she decided to stay with her friends in her own school district.
Woman on a mission
Hatchell knew from an early age what she wanted to do with her life. "I just loved all sports and I always wanted to be a coach and a physical education teacher," she said. "It was never a doubt what I wanted to do."
Gene Alexander became aware of this early in her life. Alexander, who attended Unity Baptist Church and ran the Greater Gaston Baptist Association, recalls a time when he took a group of kids on a hayride when Hatchell was about 13. Hatchell was in the back with the rest of the kids before she asked Alexander if she could join him in the front. "She said, `They're having fun back there but I want to talk sports,'" he said.
She never wavered and chose to attend Carson-Newman College, in part due to its strong physical education program. She also picked Carson-Newman because it had a women's basketball team and was a small Baptist school. She played volleyball and basketball for the Lady Eagles and excelled, even though her teammates had played high school ball and she had not. "All the time I had to play against boys, I think that made me better because when I went to college, I was good enough to play at Carson-Newman," she said.
As a senior, Hatchell took her first coaching job, coaching the middle school team in Talbott, Tenn. She graduated cum laude from Carson-Newman in 1974 and then went to the University of Tennessee, where she earned her master's degree in 1975 and coached the junior varsity team under Pat Summitt. She went from there to Francis Marion College in Florence, S.C., where she compiled a 272-80 record from 1975-86.
In 1986, she accepted what she always considered her dream job at North Carolina and hasn't let the Tar Heels down. She's led the Tar Heels to a record of 412-186 in 19 seasons, including an NCAA championship in 1994, five Atlantic Coast Conference titles and 13 NCAA tournament appearances. The future looks bright with four of her top five scorers returning this season, not to mention a freshman class that includes Asheville's Rashanda McCants, sister of former North Carolina men's star Rashad McCants.
Lessons learned
Hatchell says she owes her coaching success to the foundation that was laid by her parents, Carroll and the late Veda Rhyne, neighbors and friends at Unity Baptist Church. She specifically remembers one lesson she learned from W.F. Woodall, who was pastor at Unity when she was younger. "That man visited like you cannot imagine," she said. "Something I learned from that is one of the biggest parts of success is developing relationships with people. In my business, it's recruiting and with your players. That's what he did. While he was out visiting, he was developing relationships with people. In return, those people came to that church and people that were involved with that church at that time will tell you that it was a tremendous church."
The values she learned are still apparent today. "She's just really personable with everybody she comes in contact with," said Catherine Greene, a 2004 Hunter Huss graduate and currently head manager for Hatchell's basketball team. "She also treats me like an athlete and cares about me just like any of the players."
Hatchell says she's honored to become the first female inductee into the Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame. "I hope I'm paving the way for a lot of other deserving females in the future," she said. "I feel like a pioneer -- being the first one -- but I hope this is just the start of a lot of other women athletes from the Gastonia area to be inducted."
She already has plans for her post-coaching life. She plans to own and run a Christian skills youth camp in the North Carolina mountains. But she doesn't feel close to retirement age yet and remains happy with the path she's taken.
"When it comes a time when I'm not enjoying it and I don't feel the passion for it, that's the time I'll say, `Hey it's time to move on,'" she said. "But right now, I'm enjoying it as much as I've ever enjoyed it."
