There is Still a "Summitt" on the Sidelines in Women's Basketball

It was a sad day for the basketball world when it was announced that Pat Summitt had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.  As the coach of the women’s basketball team at Tennessee she helped changed the nations perspective of women’s sports.  Fortunately for us when she was forced to walk away from the sidelines she did not leave us empty handed.  For 38 years she gave us passion and a role model and now that she has moved on her last gift to us is her son, who carries on his mothers gifts to the sidelines of the basketball court.

Tyler Summitt is now an assistant coach for the Marquette women’s basketball program.  At 21 years old he might seem young to be holding a position like this but with his pedigree that’s doubtful.

Pat is not known for just throwing compliments around but even she said, “Once Tyler started seeing things exactly as I did on film, I knew he was ready to coach.” Tyler walked on the the men’s team at Tennessee to play for Bruce Pearl and Cuonzo Martin, guided youth basketball teams and was a regular at Tennessee’s men’s and women’s summer basketball camps. “I knew I had a passion for it,” Tyler says. “Basketball, and the lessons I learned from it, really helped me in my life. I wanted to share that with student-athletes.”

His new boss, coach Terri Mitchell, sings his praises and sees a future great coach. “It took maybe 10 minutes and I knew I wanted to bring him in for an interview,” Mitchell said. “I got over the age issue right away. I felt like I was talking to someone in his 30s. I moved quickly. We talked Friday, and I brought him in Sunday. Hearing what he believes, his philosophies, his views on offense and defense … his eagerness to do the job was just pouring out of him.”

Sound like someone else named Summitt?