CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Following an 88-27 win over Division II Carson-Newman on Wednesday, North Carolina Tar Heels junior forward Xylina McDaniel was asked what it was like to have head coach Sylvia Hatchell back leading the team.
“Having Coach back is like having our mother back,” McDaniel said with a smile.
“It’s just good having her there – you feel that warmth. Coach Hatchell really is like our mother.”
A year ago to the day, Hatchell was getting her head shaved as chemotherapy treatment for leukemia was resulting in hair loss – one of the side effects of the beginning stages of fighting the disease that removed her from regular day-to-day and up-close contact with her players for the entire 2013-2014 season.
“Not having her last year really showed us that we need to appreciate her more,” McDaniel continued.
“Just hearing her voice and being able to look over there and seeing her, it just puts a smile on all of our faces. She pushes us to work harder – she doesn’t even need to say it – the fact that she’s here and she’s coaching us, we’re not gonna’ waste our time, we’re gonna’ work as hard as we can just to make her happy. It’s really good having her back.”
Having an individual who has achieved exceptional success entering her 40th season of coaching – her 29th at North Carolina – with two Hall of Fame inductions and three separate national championships (NCAA, NAIA, AIAW), isn’t a bad example to have standing alongside a group of players to show them that anything is possible.
Without her on the bench, longtime associate head coach Andrew Calder stepped in and guided a relatively young squad to advance as far as the Elite 8 in the 2014 NCAA tournament.
However, Hatchell was never far away.
She maintained contact and talked with the coaching staff and the players intermittently, but on what you can call a regular schedule for someone battling a life-threatening disease.
“Last here, I was here, but I wasn’t here,” Hatchell said.
“That was what was so hard – I was so close but yet so far away. I was a five-minute walk from the gym here where we’re sitting, yet it was a different world. Man, it’s unbelievable, the difference a year makes.”
As the Tar Heels’ success on the floor began and continued, so did Hatchell’s recovery.
As the team ended its journey in March with a 74-65 loss to Stanford, its coach’s fight and season with leukemia would also end soon after.
In early May, it was announced that Hatchell had completed her chemotherapy treatments and was back at work recruiting, attending speaking engagements, and running her program.
Her doctor, Dr. Pete Voorhees, Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine – Division of Hematology and Oncology at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, described her battle with the disease accordingly:
“She remained courageous and strong throughout the course of treatment, which allowed her to exceed all expectations. Her disease is in complete remission, and we remain highly optimistic about her future. Coach Hatchell will be back for the upcoming season, and I expect that her experience over the last many months, as difficult as it was, will only make her a stronger person and coach.”
Hatchell’s doctor not only announced a medical conclusion to her successfully fighting off acute myeloid leukemia, but he prefaced how she would approach the upcoming season and beyond as a result of doing so.
She stayed true to that assumption following the team’s first exhibition win with her on the sideline.
Hatchell stated the team’s outlook for the coming year as only a championship and cancer-fighting coach would – by reinforcing the confidence she had in her players and describing the path they would be led on.
“This group is a really special group of kids,” Hatchell said.
“They really are. They have a certain spirit about ‘em. We’ve got great leadership, we’ve got experience, teamwork out there. I think this team can go a long, long way – I really do. The first two rounds, the first two games are on the top 16. That’s our goal, to do that, and second round, somebody’s gonna’ go to Greensboro. Why not us? Then, after that, you go straight to Tampa, Florida for the Final Four.”
As Hatchell comes off a championship season of beating cancer with her players’ support, she will now try to provide them the same and to help achieve another success they can all share in – winning an NCAA championship
“They got really close last year,” she concluded.
“I think this team is very, very hungry and I know they’re gonna’ continue to get better. If they’ll play together and not beat themselves, they can play with anybody in the country.”