Shelley Collier is retiring after 39 years of coaching girls’ basketball.
Her legacy will continue through her family, former players, and former coaches.
The Hall of Fame coach and player made the announcement Thursday night, April 9, during a Lenoir City School Board Meeting.
Collier, who was the head girls’ basketball coach at Lenoir City High School, will continue serving as the Lenoir City School District’s Athletic Director.
“Mainly, I’ve been doing this a long time,” Collier told 5Star Preps on Friday, April 10. “The game is changing. My family, I really don’t want to miss out on my grandchildren. I’ve got a 7-month-old grandson and more on the way in the near future, and I want to be there for that. And when you coach, you can’t leave. You’ve got to be there.”
Andy Pennington, a veteran coach and former all-state basketball player at Madisonville High School, will take over as girls’ coach at Lenoir City. He was an assistant with the Lenoir City boys’ team the past two seasons.
“He’s going to be outstanding,” Collier said. “I’m glad we got somebody in place. That was important to me, to be able to do that for Lenoir City girls’ basketball because I want it to be good.”
Now, her job is to help other coaches in the district.
“I’m district athletic director,” Collier said. “My role is now to be a servant leader to the coaches. I want to support them and try to mentor coaches and help them with their teams.”
Pennington is replacing a legend of high school coaching in Collier, who had an intense style on the bench like legendary Tennessee Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt, for whom Collier played.
Born in Anderson County, Shelley (Sexton) Collier played for Lake City High School and was senior captain for Anderson County High’s first girls’ basketball team when the school opened for the 1982-83 school year.
She was recruited by Summitt and played point guard for the Lady Vols from 1983-87, helping Summitt win the first of her eight NCAA championships in 1987.
Collier went to three Final Fours as a Lady Vol point guard, spending countless hours with Summitt, whose in-your-face coaching demeanor was soothed by the care for her players off the court.
“Of course, Pat is intense,” Collier said, “but I’d look at her, and she’s just passionate about what she does, and she had high expectations and wants her culture to be right and has high standards, and I just wanted to continue carrying on her legacy and trying to do what she did as a high school coach. Hopefully her influence on me has gone on through other people. I know it has from my daughters’ standpoint. I know it has.”
Collier began her coaching career as a graduate assistant under Summitt for two seasons. She was the girls’ head coach at Clinton and Karns High Schools before being hired for the same position by Webb School of Knoxville, where she put together a remarkable 25-year run.
She coached the Clinton girls for four years and the Karns girls for five years, and during that time married Robby Collier, who was a teacher and assistant football coach at Kingston.
Collier credits her middle school coach, James Amos, and high school coach, Tony Cross, for helping form her coaching style.
“I would like to look at it in terms of just being passionate about a game that I played my whole life,” Collier said. “I loved it. I tried to honor Pat and I tried to honor Tony Cross, who was my high school coach, and James Amos. They were all very influential and instrumental in my life, not just from the basketball standpoint but as people. They taught me a lot about the game.”
While at Webb, Collier led the Lady Spartans to 10 state championship games and six state titles, coaching stars such as Glory Johnson at Tennessee and Marjorie Butler of Georgia.
One of Collier’s former Webb players, Micah Scheetz, played at UAB, East Tennessee State University, and Butler, then coached under Collier at Lenoir City before accepting the head coaching job at Knoxville Catholic last summer.
Another of her assistants at Lenoir City, Courtney Whitson, just accepted the head coaching job at Dobyns-Bennett in Kingsport, where Whitson grew up.
“After our season was over (this year), I just felt like I was ready to step away,” Collier said. “I had tried to bring some of my girls’ assistants to take over, but they got taken away by other schools.”
Shelley and Robby Collier have four daughters – each born two years apart – named Katie, Sydney, Casey, and Britney.
All four daughters played basketball for Shelley at Webb, where Robby served as an assistant football coach.
Shelley was hired by Webb when Katie was 2 years old and Sydney was on the way.
At one time during the 2014-15 season, Shelley had three daughters playing on her varsity roster – Katie was a senior, Sydney was a sophomore, and Casey was an eighth grader – while Britney was a sixth grader playing for the Webb Middle School team.
Katie is now the girls’ head coach at Soddy-Daisy High School, and Casey was an assistant the past season with Shelley at Lenoir City. Katie played college basketball at Middle Tennessee State University and Casey played at Lipscomb.
And Shelley coached against Katie when Lenoir City played Soddy-Daisy in the postseason.
Shelley is ready to be a fan in attendance.
“I’ll still be watching kids play different sports,” Collier said, “and I plan on watching Lenoir City, but I also plan on watching my daughter (Katie) coach. I don’t get to watch her coach. And I would like to go watch Micah coach at Catholic. Maybe drive down and watch Courtney. Some of these young ladies who are coaching in the game, I want to continue to support them as well.”
Collier resigned from Webb in the summer of 2023, a move that began by coincidence and concluded after much prayer.
One of Shelley Collier’s friends is a school administrator in Lenoir City and asked Shelley if Katie – already the head coach at Soddy-Daisy – would be interested in the LC job.
Katie, however, was married and happy at Soddy-Daisy, but the inquiry piqued Shelley’s interest in returning to public schools, so she took a leap of faith and accepted the Lenoir City job.
Robby, meanwhile, returned to Kingston as an assistant football coach.
Coaching was a full-time job for Shelley.
“It’s 24/7 if you do it the right way, which I’ve tried to,” she said. “I’ve tried to invest in the kids and care about them and all those things. Our district was tough this year. We finished third, and I thought we competed well.”
She’s ready for a change.
“The game’s been good to me,” Collier said. “I hope I’ve made a difference. A lot of coaches and players have called me or reached out to me, and that means the world. It’s now time for me to take on a different type of role. I just want to be ‘C.C.’ That’s my grandmother’s name, C.C.”
A reception celebrating Collier’s career will be Saturday (May 16) from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Lenoir City High School gym.
PENNINGTON HIRE
Pennington has plenty of coaching experience, not just at the high school level but also the collegiate level.
The two-time all-state player and career scoring leader at Madisonville High was an assistant at Alcoa High, where he was on staff for two state tournament teams.
After leaving coaching for several years, Pennington returned in 2018 and served four years as the head boys’ coach at Sequoyah High School before accepting a job as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama-Huntsville in 2022.
Pennington helped UA-H reach the NCAA Division II tournament’s Sweet 16 and spent a year on staff at the University of Memphis before accepting an assistant’s job with the Lenoir City boys in 2024.
“He’s amazing,” Collier said of Pennington. “I’ve been around him. He’s been on our boys’ staff. I’m just tickled to death. He’s got a great basketball mind, and these girls aren’t going to miss a beat. It’s nice to be able to leave it better than when you found it.”
A meet-and-greet gathering introducing Pennington as Lenoir City’s new girls’ head coach will take place Tuesday (April 14) at 5 p.m. at the Lenoir City High School Auditorium.
Article written by Dave Link/5Star Preps. To read more on area high school sports or to see photo galleries, videos, stat leaders, etc., visit 5StarPreps.com — and use promo code HAMMERS for 30% off your first year or month subscription.
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