![]() It was the first post-pandemic transfer portal, but it was a different environment for all coaches. ![]() “But I felt like we were working really hard and obviously we gained two great players in that month and super excited about those two. But with the transfer portal it added to what a normal April is. “Typically, April is a little bit lighter, typically, the recruiting that you’re doing is on campus and it’s typically with underclassmen, maybe on a weekend here or there. “During March, we were doing in-home visits with the 23 class, and any transfers at that point as well,” Harper said. Harper’s itinerary in the spring included an excursion to Detroit for a home visit with Rickea Jackson shortly before the All-SEC player selected Tennessee a trip to Wichita, Kansas, for the Sweet 16 additional home visits with transfers and 2023 recruits a three-day weekend of showcase events across the country multiple stops on the Big Orange Caravan tour SEC meetings in Florida a trip to Colorado as a member of the committee for USA Basketball junior national teams and finally, a vacation. Pat Summitt and Kellie Harper when Western Carolina played in Knoxville in 2008. Devices now track all of it, and Harper’s phone buzzed throughout March, April and May in a spring in which the Lady Vols reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in six years, and Harper and crew signed a stellar class via the transfer portal. The late Pat Summitt used a color-coded, printed calendar to keep track of everywhere she needed to be from practice to meetings to media to public appearances. It has been hard to find that, but we definitely carve it out.” You have to make time for yourself because if you’re not your best, you’re not giving your team your best.’ And I remember her telling me you’ve got to take time for yourself. “And she said, ‘Kellie, you have to do this. ![]() “I’ll never forget … I know people have heard me talk about Pat a lot as my coach, but I came over, I was a young coach and I came over and was talking to Pat about coaching and she said, ‘I’m going down to the beach,’ and I said, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, for two weeks,’ and I said, ‘Oh, that sounds even better.’ “We just had to carve out a week and say you know what, there’s not a perfect week on our schedule so let’s just find one and go with it,” Kellie Harper said. After exams wrapped in mid-May, the team scattered home, including Jessie Rennie to Australia and Marta Suárez to Spain, and the head coach set a deadline of June 8 – classes started June 9 – to max out the down time.įinding a week off for a family vacation with her husband, Jon Harper, and their two children, Jackson and Kiley, took some effort. She also made sure her players got a break. It was some well-deserved rest after a long season and a spring that saw her crisscrossing the country and region for recruiting, Big Orange Caravan stops and speaking engagements. Harper returned from vacation about the same time her players got to Knoxville in June.
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