When Pam Hindman looked at her six-player sophomore class during the 2008-09 season, she knew she had something special and decided to continue her coaching career for a few more seasons.
So when the last buzzer sounded on a 44-23 loss to Upperman in the Region 4-AA quarterfinals, Hindman realized she had a capable assistant on board and knew it was time to step aside.
After an 18-year career at Chattanooga Christian -- including 12 years as head coach -- Hindman decided to retire. Assistant coach Laura Cottrell, who coached previously at Baylor and David Brainerd, will take over as head coach.
"Will I miss it? Definitely. It might kill me not coaching come November," Hindman said. "But this summer has been the most relaxing summer I've had in 18 years. It'll be weird, but I don't have any doubt that this is the best thing for the program. I gave everything I had and would do it again in a heartbeat."
She has three children: Courtney Glass, who played at Lee University and was inducted into the women's basketball Hall of Fame earlier this year; Caleb, who is a graduate assistant for the Lee University women's basketball team; and Clay, who works for a remodeling company. Hindman did note that she has taken a job working the residential life and housing unit at Lee and started earlier this week.
Her Lady Charger teams won 11 district championships in a row, the final coming in 6-AA after CCS moved up in classification. Her 1999-2000 team finished in the final four, holding the top spot in the Class A poll for most of the season and finishing 31-6.
"I worked hard to get Chattanooga Christian basketball on the map," she said. "We were a Class A program competing in Class AA, so we were always competing with one hand tied behind our back because we had 400 students in a classification that had 800. I spent a lot of time in the gym with our players working on fundamentals; it was a lot of time, and the older I got, the less desire I had to do that.
"I always said when I lost the passion and drive for the game, that I would be the first one to step aside. I knew it was time when God sent me a replacement, and when I first met Laura, I knew she was it."
Cottrell, who grew up in Hayesville, N.C., and played for four state champions at the Class A school. She took her talents to Clemson, where she played for four seasons, then coming to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as an assistant to Wes Moore.
Losing six seniors will mean a rebuilding process for Cottrell, but she doesn't mind.
"It's one of those things where I just want to come in and continue the tradition laid forth already," Cottrell said. "We want to continue what's already going on and try to take it a step further, but it's going to take time."