For University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball assistant coach Katie Burrows, there have been almost too many blessings in 2014 to count this holiday season. The Mocs are 9-3 so far this season with an upset win over then-No. 4 Tennessee the day before Thanksgiving and yet another stunner of then-No. 7 Stanford on Dec. 17.
The Mocs have been recognized by the NCAA and ESPN for their success, and they are ranked No. 4 in the latest College Insider women's mid-major Top 25 and No. 3 in ESPN's mid-major Top 10.
But those accolades pale in comparison to the joy that Burrows and her husband, Nick, experienced Thursday when they celebrated their first Christmas with their first child, 4-month-old daughter Jordan Burrows.
"They had tried for a while and said a lot of prayers," former UTC coach Wes Moore said last weekend during a visit to watch the Mocs play in the Chattanooga Christmas Classic. "When I heard she was pregnant I got a little bit emotional, and I'm doing it again now just thinking about it.
"I knew how badly she wanted to have a family. It's just really neat for her."
Burrows said this week that planning for Jordan's first Christmas was exciting, even though her husband may not have all the baby terminology down just yet.
"We were talking about what we were going to get her, because she can't really open anything right now," Katie said. "And (Nick) said, 'Well, why don't we just go get her some chew toys.'
"I said 'Honey, she's not a dog! They're teething toys,' but he was just like, 'They're chew toys,' and he still calls them chew toys. But we're going to just get her some things she can chew on and play with, because she's starting to get into that phase."
Since shortly after her Aug. 21 arrival, Jordan has been a familiar presence at UTC, and she often can be seen in the stands during games with her dad and her aunt Kristen Clounch, Katie's sister.
"She's becoming more curious, so it's harder to get her to sleep anywhere there's action like church or (during Mocs games at McKenzie Arena)," Katie said after UTC's win over North Carolina A&T last Sunday. "She loves to watch what's happening, so that's making things a little tougher.
"Even for feedings we have to take her to a quiet place, but she's still pretty easy to deal with and very even tempered. If she's fussing, then there's something wrong and it's not just to fuss."
Jordan Burrows comes by her curiosity around a basketball court naturally. Her grandfather and Katie's dad is longtime Lookout Valley girls' basketball coach Joe Galloway, and Katie was a standout player for her father at Lookout Valley and was named Times Free Press Best of Preps female athlete of the year before moving on to play for Moore at UTC.
In addition, her brother, Keith Galloway, played on the UTC men's team, and sister Kristen followed her father as the girls' coach at Lookout Valley. While at UTC, Katie helped lead the Mocs to the program's only NCAA tournament win, a 74-69 victory over Rutgers in 2004.
"She was one of the first kids we recruited," Moore said. "After we got her commitment and signed her, I start thinking 'Oh, gosh, is she really big enough? She played at Lookout Valley in single-A, and is she really going to be able to help us?'
"She came in here her first year and didn't really play a lot, but she was really the focal point for us beating Rutgers in the (2004) NCAA tournament, hitting some huge shots."
After leaving UTC and trying high school head coaching jobs at Ringgold and Tullahoma, Katie returned to Chattanooga to work for her former college coach, who knew that her drive to succeed would help him even though her playing days had ended.
"She's the most competitive kid I've ever been around," Moore said. "If you had a team full of Katie Burrows, you would never lose a game.
"With her as a coach on my staff, it was amazing that even at 25, 26 or 27 years old, if she had to get out there in practice, she was still the most competitive one out there. She had nothing to gain but was still the most competitive one out there."
When Moore left after the 2012-13 season to take the coaching job at North Carolina State, he knew Burrows would want to stay near her family and wouldn't be coming with him to Raleigh, N.C., so Burrows stayed on as the Mocs' interim coach. When Hall of Fame coach and Philadelphia-area native Jim Foster was hired, her big-city driving skills helped Foster know that this small-town woman might be worth keeping around.
"Katie was driving me around that first day," Foster said. "I hadn't made a decision even though I'd talked to her on the phone a little bit, but she made a couple of quick U-turns as she was driving me around, and that made me very comfortable with her right away.
"If you make a mistake, you fix it right away. You don't dwell on it. She just seemed like she'd be right at home in Philadelphia."
When Burrows told Foster she and Nick were expecting, Brianna Sanders was hired as the program's first-ever director of basketball operations, taking some on some responsibilities previously handled by Burrows so she could devote more time to Jordan. Foster said he also made changes to his routine as a young coach when he was raising his two sons, Christian and Andrew.
"I started doing practices at 6 a.m. because I wasn't seeing enough of my kids," Foster said. "I did that for 12 years because I wanted to see them more. and when you practice later they're in bed by the time you get home.
"You just have make decisions, and you prioritize what's really important."
UTC freshman guard Anna Claire Noblit went to her senior prom with Mocs student manager Chase Clounch -- the elder son of Burrows' sister -- and she said that having a baby around has been exciting for the players as well.
"Every time she comes in with (Jordan), everyone just lights up. We really enjoy it," Noblit said, noting that she has not been asked yet to babysit. "But I'm sure I may be drawn into that soon."
As exciting as having a new baby can be, Burrows admits that it's not always easy raising an infant while serving as an assistant coach for an NCAA Division I basketball program, even with a boss as suppotive as Foster has been during this major life change.
"It's extremely difficult, and I was told it would be and I believed it," she said. "Having extra outfits helps. Making sure there's a change of clothes for (Jordan), for me and for Nick. It's crazy how your life completely changes.
"You have to do things a lot sooner (with a young baby), so you have to prepare things the day before. If you wait until the next day, it's pure chaos and everyone's screaming at each other because its not going the way you want it to. So preparing ahead of time (is important)."
Sound preparation, the support of an extended team of friends and family and the ability to face unexpected challenges at a moment's notice -- being a successful new mom sounds a lot like being a successful basketball coach.
Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.