UTC Athletics photo / Shawn Poppie has been hired as head coach of the UTC women’s basketball program. Shawn Poppie has been hired as head coach of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball program.
UTC announced the move Wednesday. Poppie, most recently the associate head coach for the Virginia Tech women’s basketball program, replaces Katie Burrows, who was let go earlier this month after four seasons leading the Mocs.
Poppie spent the past six seasons on Kenny Brooks’ Hokies staff and has a lot of experience developing guards, having worked as the director of a fundamentals camp with USA Basketball in Beijing in summer 2007. Poppie is a former point guard who played at Limestone, an NCAA Division II program in Gaffney, South Carolina.
He then started his coaching career at his alma mater (2007-11) before two seasons at the University of South Carolina Upstate. He remained in the Palmetto State when he spent the next three seasons at Southern Conference program Furman, where he helped the Paladins to a pair of appearances in national postseason tournaments (Women’s National Invitation Tournament in 2014 and the Women’s Basketball Invitational in 2015).
In his six seasons at Virginia Tech, the program had a winning record each year and five postseason appearances (three WNIT berths and NCAA tournament trips in 2021 and 2022).