Deandra Shirmer addresses as she is introduced as the new women's head coach at UTC.
photo by gomocs.com
As Chattanooga Mocs women’s basketball readies to enter its 51st season of existence dating back to the team’s inception in 1974, some fans may notice a crop of unfamiliar faces scattered throughout the staff and roster.
Amongst those fresh faces is newly appointed head coach Deandra Schirmer. And while Schirmer may bring a new look to the Mocs for 2024-25 and beyond, she wants to make one thing very clear: the championship expectations aren’t going anywhere.
The Mocs are coming off yet another season to remember, having captured the Southern Conference regular season and tournament titles punctuated by the team’s 17th trip to the NCAA Tournament.
While some coaches may balk at having such high expectations in their first season at the helm of a program, Schirmer welcomes them with open arms.
There may be new names and faces, but the standards for this team always remain the same.
“There are going to be a lot of new elements; new schemes, new X’s and O’s, new players, new personalities,” Schirmer said. “But the reason I am here is because of that standard.
“There are a lot of people that would shy away from this opportunity, and they’d rather go and take over a fixer upper. You can go there, win two more games than last year and everyone loves you. That’s not me. I want to be around people that want the very best, and that’s what’s always been expected here at Chattanooga.
“From the community to the administration, I could tell it during my interview and interactions. There is that standard, and that’s what I want to be around.”
It’s no secret that Chattanooga women’s basketball team is one that is synonymous with dominance. A member of the Southern Conference for 41 seasons, the Mocs have a grand total of 23 SoCon regular season titles, 20 SoCon Tournament crowns and advanced to the NCAA Tournament 17 times. That’s 13 more than the next highest SoCon program.
Not to mention that UTC still marks the only women’s basketball program in SoCon history to have won an NCAA Tournament game.
The standard for success goes beyond just women’s basketball at UTC, with the department as a whole coming off of one of its most successful years having captured a total of six team conference regular season and tournament titles over the past 12 months.
“I always say iron sharpens iron, so being around talented coaches like Dan (Earl), Rusty (Wright), Colette (Murray) and everyone here only brings it out of me even more,” Schirmer added. “We all just want to be around success. Success breeds success, so that expectation is still very high here.”
Schirmer knows a thing or two about success. Over her previous five seasons at the helm of Valdosta State, she’s helped sculpt the Lady Blazers into a perennial powerhouse of Division II including punching VSU’s ticket into four consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
After 114 wins and multiple conference titles, she brings her talents to the Scenic City. And while some might be tentative at making that jump from Division II to Division I, Schirmer is ready to embrace the pressure.
“I always like a challenge. I’m not blind to the fact that since this is my first DI coaching job, there are going to be a lot of eyes and a lot of pressure. We always like to say in my programs that pressure creates diamonds, and we want that.
“Going into this season I simultaneously have a chip on my shoulder because I want to show that if you build it the right way, it works and you can create a really good program whether it’s at the DII or DI level, but in that same sense our team still has that big target on its back.
“Every team we come across is going to be looking for that moment where we slip up. We revel in that opportunity to be in pressure situations because that’s what’s going to put us at our best.”
It’s also no secret that Chattanooga women’s basketball comes with a storied history that now spans over five decades. One of the winningest collegiate women’s programs in all of Division I, the names that have come and gone from the Scenic City remain etched in the annals of Chattanooga lore.
For Schirmer, she looks at UTC’s history as a means to inspire the next generation of Mocs.
“The biggest thing for me is going to be making sure that the girls are educated. I want to make sure that this program’s story and how the foundation has been laid before them by players just like themselves is known by our team.
“For me, there are two big reasons why I’m making sure that we put the history of this program as prevalent as possible. One, because those women and coaching staffs all deserve to be honored and deserve to have that tradition carried on, but also because they serve as role models.
“These players, eighteen- to twenty-two-year-olds that are coming in and being a part of our program; having somebody successful to look up to is so important. Those paths and those trails have all been blazed by people before them, and honestly all of those paths are probably paved at this point with who has walked down them.
“When we say ‘building a program’, a big piece of that and inclusion to that is the people that were here before us. Even in our first year we want to have alumni events where we’re connecting the paths of our current and former players for years to come.”
This brings us to one of the most popular buzzwords in all of college athletics: culture. While it holds so much weight, the definition of culture varies depending on the coach you may be talking to. So, how does Deandra Schirmer define culture?
“When you talk about culture, really it’s about creating a home and creating a place that’s not only safe for all of your players and staff, but it’s also very positive and uplifting.
“When you’re in it, you know it and you feel it. This feels like home, this feels like a place where I’m supported, and we’re all working towards a common goal. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit or who’s getting interviewed after the game, we’re all happy for each other.”
For Schirmer, it also feeds a lot into one very important aspect of the sport: winning.
“One of the things you’ll see when I’m recruiting is that I always believe that winners win.
“You find people that know the sacrifice and everything that goes into winning. They’re much more likely to get it done on the backend, so we want to make sure we’re focused on bringing in people who know what that winning element is like.
“That includes players who might not have found that success so far in college, but they want to be a part of a winning program and that’s their biggest priority when they go into the transfer portal. I’m all about creating a positive, and an unselfish environment of winners.”
Beyond what happens on the court, Schirmer wants student-athletes to know that when they commit themselves to becoming the next wave of Chattanooga Mocs, they are also positioning themselves in an environment that can help them flourish in whatever the next stage of their life has in store.
A former college basketball player herself at USC Aiken (2009-11) and Cloud County Community College (2007-09), Schirmer understands that deciding to join her squad is a decision that goes much further than your four years of eligibility.
“What we always talk about in recruiting is that this isn’t just a four-year decision; it’s a lifetime decision. This is you dictating your future, so from my standpoint, I want them to know that what they’re going to get, and the experience they’re going to get here isn’t just about winning championships. It’s also about setting them up for their future and learning what that process looks like.
“The standard is going to be bringing in players that are highly motivated and have that initial drive, and then we want to make sure we’re cultivating that and developing it into championships and those lifelong experiences—something that they can look back on and feel proud that they’ve helped build up this program into everything that it is.”
Take the last several paragraphs, bundle them all together, and you’re left with the Deandra Schirmer brand of Chattanooga basketball.
She may be the new face in town, but she’s far from apprehensive about coming to the Scenic City.
With her, the winning standard in Chattanooga rolls on.