Mocs Introduce Deandra Schirmer or Coach ‘D’ as New Women’s Basketball Coach

Chattanooga-(WDEF-TV) Mocs introduced new women’s basketball coach Deandra Schirmer on Friday.
She comes to the Scenic City after a successful stint at Division two Valdosta State.
News 12’s Brian Armstrong gets us acquainted with the 8th basketball coach in UTC women’s history, who prefers to go by Coach ‘D’.

Said Schirmer: “We are primed and ready to win more championships under my direction here at UTC.” DeAndre Schirmer has big shoes to fill as the Mocs have won back to back SOCON titles and last year’s SOCON regular season.
Schirmer:” For me, I’m not going to go someplace where, you know, I feel like we can’t have success. It was scary at first, for sure.

Said Mocs guard Sigrun Olafsdottir:”It was kind of unexpected this year, so, but I’m glad she came in. She was ready.”

One of those involved in the hiring process was player Addie Grace Porter.
Said Schirmer:”One of the things that we want to do as coaches and as administrators is empower these young women. So not only was she able to speak with us and speak with all the candidates and have some input on it, she was also able to see how an interview process works.”

Said Porter:”Every coach preaches culture and like that that’s important and culture wins, but to every coach that can mean something different. So my question mainly to her was just like, what does that mean to you? And how do you see that coming to fruition here at Chattanooga?”
Said athletic director Mark Wharton:”Knowing Addie’s kind of the leader of that team, you know, trying to get her. A little piece of seeing who we’re talking to. She had a voice on who we’re going to see in Atlanta. ”
Coach D had huge success at Valdosta State, but there are questions if she can make the step up from D2 to D1 basketball.
Said Schirmer: “One of the things that division two really preps you with is I don’t have a lot of assistance. It’s me. I have to understand how to do every single person’s job and so I think it allows me to be well rounded and it also has prepared me in all aspects because I can’t rely on somebody else to do defense or offense. I’ve got to know all of it. ”