Pat Summitt is forced to retire due to early onset dementia!
Channel: KomicalMischief
Date: 19/04/2012

Eight months after disclosing her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, Pat Summitt announced Wednesday that she will step aside as the Tennessee women's basketball coach, making way for longtime assistant Holly Warlick to take over the Lady Vols.

The university made the news official via a press release Wednesday afternoon after Summitt, 59, met with her players in Knoxville, Tenn., to inform them in private. A news conference is expected to follow Thursday.
Summitt, who has won more college basketball games than any man or woman in the sport (1,098), is not retiring but will remain part of Tennessee's staff, assuming the title "head coach emeritus," which will give her latitude and flexibility to do as much mentoring with players as her health allows.

But her role will be circumscribed by NCAA rules, which will permit her to watch practice, collaborate on game plans and continue as a motivator, disciplinarian and mentor but will preclude her from actively coaching. Rather than sit on the bench during games, she'll sit directly behind the Lady Vols' staff, able to consult with Warlick and, no doubt, telegraph her impressions of what's unfolding on the court through her famously piercing glare.

The development brings a measure of stability to an inherently fluid and unknowable situation, with neither Summitt nor her doctors able to predict the course of the disease.

In an exclusive interview with The Washington Post on Wednesday morning, Summitt said the decision to step aside after 38 seasons as Tennessee's coach was not difficult, particularly given her long and productive association with Warlick, an assistant the past 27 years who shouldered game-day coaching duties last season, when Tennessee went 27-9 and lost to eventual national champion Baylor in a NCAA tournament region final.

"It is what it is," Summitt said. "And Holly has been doing a lot, and we not only have a great friendship, we understand each other. And we can work through this."
For more visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/pat-summitt-to-step-down-legendary-tennessee-womens-basketball-coach-won-1098-games-8-ncaa-titles/2012/04/18/gIQA2CK2QT_story.html