Shawn Poppie trusted his gut.
Having just finished an interview in Atlanta to be the next head coach for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball program, Poppie called his wife Regina - who had hung around Chattanooga for a while - and suggested the family stay another night in Chattanooga.
"As I walked out of the interview, it had felt like they were trying to impress me, and I wasn't trying to impress them," Poppie said Wednesday. "I told my wife, 'Let's spend the night in Chattanooga, because I think something is coming.'"
They haven't left since, a stretch when they've also become frequent visitors of Scottie's on the River. Since coming to town, they had eaten there every night prior to Wednesday.
The week after walking out of that interview involving a professional search firm in Atlanta, Poppie stood in the Chattanooga Room of the University Center on UTC's campus Wednesday - the eve of his 37th birthday and his eighth wedding anniversary - reflective of a journey that, at the start, included no expectations of becoming a head coach.
The route went from Gaffney to Spartanburg to Greenville - all in South Carolina - to Blacksburg, Virginia. It was a journey he and Regina had taken together, just the two of them at first, before being joined by their first son Kai, now 6, and then 15-month-old Cayden.
When thinking of that journey Wednesday, it made Poppie emotional. The former Virginia Tech assistant looked over to his left while he was talking, where Kai sat, but Regina had just walked out of the room because Cayden had gotten restless.
"They put up with so much," Poppie said afterward. "(Virginia Tech head coach) Kenny Brooks has taught me a work-life balance, because you've got to have it. So I think what makes me even more proud is to look at my 6-year-old, and he's chest out, shoulders back, proud."
Kai wasn't alone. After the ceremony and news conference introducing both Poppie and men's basketball coach Dan Earl - whose hire was announced March 31, the day after Poppie's - the family was milling around. Cayden had made his way to some white and gold balloons he took a liking to, walking around the room with them firmly in his hand - until he saw some different balloons he preferred, shedding the originals for the new ones. Poppie met with administrators, personnel and supporters in attendance, greeting each one with a smile and conversing with them.
"It's really tough, especially when you're raising a family, because now you're making a decision for three other people and not just yourself," Regina said. "So for us to sit back and watch, it's really exciting. We're so proud of him and happy for him, and we know that he's been working towards this and he's ready to just take the bull by the horns and get this program going."
When Shawn called Regina to suggest the family stay in Chattanooga a bit longer, she had one question: "Is this what you want?"
"We're behind you. We're ready," she recalled saying that night. "If this is what you want, if this is the place that you want to be, you see us at, we're jumping on board. We're a family. We had a moment to sit back and think: This could be it. Are we going to go all in, or is there a little bit of doubt? But there was no doubt for him that this is the place he needed to be."
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC women's basketball Shawn Poppie talks with members of the team at his introductory news conference Wednesday. Poppie, a former Virginia Tech assistant whose hire was announced last week, has taken over after the Mocs went 7-23 last season.Like the college point guard he was at South Carolina's Limestone, where he set program records as a player before beginning his coaching career there as an assistant, Poppie controlled the room. There were nervous moments, of course, but he spoke to the administrators he had previously sat in a room with. He spoke to the 10 remaining members of last season's 7-23 team and thanked them for hanging around and giving him a chance - a chance he only recently realized he was ready for.
"I've been asked how I've made it in this business, and for me, to be honest, I've been really, probably been not great networking, because my philosophy has always been to put your head down and work and the next opportunity is going to come," he said. "I never searched for the next job, but I would be aware if there were opportunities. For me, it was just putting your head down, working, and as it goes along, you get an idea that someday you wouldn't mind sitting in that main chair and building a program.
"When did that come? I'm not really sure. But I didn't know two or three years ago that I was ready, and so from then it was just - it had to be the right fit because we had such a wonderful thing going, and there's no doubt in my mind that this is right."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.