STARKVILLE — Discipline. Structure. Fundamentals.
Jemmye Ann Helms remembers those elements being cornerstones Sharon Fanning-Otis established in 1995 at Mississippi State when she took over as the school’s new women’s basketball coach.
Helms quickly discovered it didn’t matter whether Fanning-Otis was teaching a freshman or a senior or a 7-year-old or a 20-year-old, she was going to describe how to do something the same way so everyone could understand.
“She wants to you to know every step to take and she wants you to know why you should do it that way,” said Helms, who played for Fanning-Otis at MSU from 1995-97.
As much as Helms learned from Fanning-Otis on the court, though, she still recalls other things she learned from her former coach that stick with her today as an assistant principal at West Point High School. She remembers Fanning-Otis’ tireless work ethic, preparation, and attention to detail. She also recalls a piece of advice Fanning-Otis gave her after she graduated.
“She told me you’re going to go through a lot of battles as a coach but one thing you always need to make sure you do is to tell the truth no matter how bad it is,” Helms said.
Fanning-Otis has followed those principles in a coaching career that started in 1975 as a graduate assistant coach to Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee. Stops as a women’s basketball and volleyball coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and as women’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky followed before Fanning-Otis arrived in Starkville.
All of that work has moved Fanning-Otis into position to make history. At 7 tonight, Fanning-Otis will go for career win No. 600 when MSU (5-1) plays host to the University of South Alabama (5-1) at Humphrey Coliseum.
Fanning-Otis can be the 14th Division I coach to reach the 600-win plateau. In her 36th year as a head coach (17th season at MSU), Fanning-Otis has an overall record of 599-445, and a 272-217 record at MSU.
“She is probably the greatest teacher I have ever had as far as basketball,” said Helms, the former girls basketball coach at West Point High. “I know more basketball because of her just in how she taught. If she was teaching a skill or a play, she wouldn’t assume you knew what to do. She was great at teaching the skills and how to use them and then holding you accountable when you didn’t do them.”
Pillars of the program
Players from throughout Fanning-Otis’ career share similar stories about her coaching acumen, her work ethic, and her ability to create a genuine family atmosphere in her programs.
Earlier this week, Fanning-Otis downplayed being one win away from a milestone victory. She said she would forget one of the players, coaches, or members of the support staff on each team who helped her win so many games. Rather than focus on 600, she said she was more concerned with 14-3-1-1 — a letter-number association that spells NCAA — and the number of victories MSU will need this season to return to the postseason tournament.
“When you have a milestone win for a program or for a coach, you have to reflect on the people who have been involved,” Fanning-Otis said. “I am glad this team has an opportunity to celebrate that because it is a reflection of them. It is really is a reflection of the players, programs, and coaches, and I have been blessed to be able to persevere at this level for a long time.”
Seniors Diamber Johnson and Danielle Rector said Fanning-Otis has an uncanny knack for balancing business and fun. They said she has established a program built on trust in which all of the players have each other’s back and each individual will do whatever it takes to help one of their teammates.
Johnson and Rector, who is in her fifth season with the program, agreed Fanning-Otis can be hard on players, but they said she relates to them and talks to them in ways so they understand what she wants done and no one hold grudges.
“She really cares about us,” Rector said. “She would do anything for any of us.”
Rector said Fanning-Otis would be the first person to tell you reaching 600 wins isn’t her primary goal. She said Fanning-Otis’ drive to win stays the same whether she is going for win No. 1, No. 6, No. 60, or No. 600.
Rector has seen numerous examples of Fanning-Otis’ work ethic. She said she has driven by Humphrey Coliseum many times late at night and has seen Fanning-Otis’ car still at the facility. She said her coach is “always watching film” and trying to find ways to help players improve and to make the program better.
Johnson, the team’s point guard, or coach on the floor, said Fanning-Otis always has a plan and sticks to it. She said she has come to appreciate Fanning-Otis’ preparedness and the fact her coach keeps a notebook with her to write things down that she might use as a teaching tool.
“She eats, sleeps, lives this thing,” Johnson said. “Watching it with Mr. Larry, her husband. He probably knows more about the game than we do. I am pretty sure that’s what they did on their honeymoon. They watched film. It is something she really loves and really cares about. It is in her. She definitely chose the right thing for her.”
A different side of the coach
Larry Otis knows about being busy.
The former two-term mayor of Tupelo has been married to Fanning a little more than three years. Otis met Fanning at various MSU functions and saw her kindness when she spent time with his late wife, Julia, who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s Disease before she passed away. He said his years in politics and business help him appreciate his wife’s busy schedule, whether it is at practice, at games, on the road recruiting, or in the office tending to the business of the program. He jokes that after years of working and working and working at his jobs, now his job is to “walk two steps behind her, respectfully, and carry her bags.”
Otis also is a frequent sounding board when Fanning-Otis reviews tapes of MSU games. He said he enjoys watching his wife identify ways she can help the girls and determine new strategies she can try to be a better coach.
“She is a competitor,” Otis said. “I don’t care whether you’re playing ping pong, shooting pool, or shooting hoops in the yard. She is a competitor.
“The competitiveness is so ingrained that losing is like a death, it is like killing part of you when you do that. She is not going to let it get the best of her. She is going to work through whatever it is, and it may take a day or a day and a half. It is kind of pulling all of the scab off of an old wound. You have to scrape it all off and look at every bit of it.”
Otis said Fanning-Otis’ competitiveness comes from the fact she played sports growing up against boys and men. He said those lessons honed her spirit and allowed her to become a standout player in whatever sport she played. In fact, she was a pitcher for more than 20 years and spent most of the early portion of her career as a college coach traveling in the offseason to play softball.
Sherry Seely, who played for Fanning-Otis in 1978-80 when she was coach at UTC, never saw her former coach play softball, but she did have an opportunity to catch her one day in the school gym.
“It took two pitches that I didn’t see until they were three feet from my face,” said Seely, who lives in Austin, Texas, and caught up with Fanning-Otis earlier this month when MSU played at Texas A&M. “One of the football coaches took my glove and I just watched her pitch. I was amazed at what she could do with a changeup. I had never seen anything like that.”
Seely also enjoyed what she learned from Fanning-Otis on the basketball court. She said even though Fanning-Otis was only a few years older than her, the age difference never was an issue because Fanning-Otis was a “no-nonsense person” who had an “aura” around her that made it easy for her to look up to her.
Seely said Fanning-Otis taught her a lot about basketball and helped foster a family atmosphere. She said she would take the players to her parents’ restaurant, Cables, in Chattanooga, Tenn., where she had the best fried chicken she has ever had. Complete with mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and banana pudding, the visits to Howell and Ethyl’s restaurant were a welcome respite at a time when student-athletes with cars was a rarity.
“Those things just brought us closer,” said Seely, who was a college basketball official for 25 years and now trains officials in several sports. “We were all kind of stuck on the same boat. We all looked out for each other. She made me feel right at ease with her, and it was easy for me to talk to her if I ever needed anything or if I needed help in school.”
Driving force
Debbie Antonelli has seen plenty of games in the past 20-plus years to know what drives Fanning-Otis.
Antonelli first met Fanning-Otis when she was an intern in the marketing and promotions office at the University of Kentucky. Her role was to help Fanning-Otis and the school build support for its women’s basketball program. Her work helped her develop a friendship with Fanning-Otis that is still strong today.
In 2010, Antonelli was on hand in Pittsburgh as part of the ESPN family of network’s broadcasting team that televised MSU’s comeback win against Middle Tennessee State and its second-round upset of Ohio State that sent Fanning-Otis and MSU to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the first time.
Antonelli said not much has changed about Fanning-Otis from the time she first met her.
“She is very demanding,” said Antonelli, who works as an analyst and a sideline reporter for men’s and women’s college basketball and does a weekly women’s basketball podcast with broadcaster Beth Mowins that can be found at espnW. “Her kids always played hard. They might have been less talented, but they played hard, and I still think that carries over today. She might not have players who are the No. 1 recruit in the nation, but she finds a way to get the kids to play on the same plan and to play well because they work hard.”
Antonelli said Fanning-Otis has been so successful because she is a good teacher, she builds trusting relationships, and she shows her student-athletes the right way to do things. She said Fanning-Otis has remained competitive for so long because she knows she can make a difference and she wants her players to be the best on and off the court.
“I think Sharon is very caring, and I think that is something that permeates all of her decision-making with her student-athletes. I think it goes back to trust because she cares so much about doing it the right way for the kids who have played for her.”
Staying true to principles
Strategies and coaches change, but Fanning-Otis has stuck with her guiding principles: Discipline. Structure. Fundamentals.
Former University of Mississippi and LSU women’s basketball coach Van Chancellor had numerous matchups against Fanning-Otis in his coaching career. He also has had plenty of chances to watch Fanning-Otis in his role as television analyst. He said there is no one more deserving of reaching a milestone victory than Fanning-Otis.
“She is one of the sweetest and nicest human beings,” Chancellor said. “I am thrilled to death for her. She has been a great coach, and she has done an outstanding job at Mississippi State.”
But Chancellor said don’t mistake Fanning-Otis’ caring and generous nature for someone who isn’t passionate about being the best and doing everything she can to beat you. In fact, he said he was amazed at how hard Fanning-Otis worked on the recruiting trail trying to find players to help her program climb the ladder in the ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference.
“Oh my gosh, nobody outworks Sharon Fanning,” Chancellor said. “She knows the game, she studies the game, and she really relates to the players. She does a great job of relating to the players.”
Mary Kathryn (Govero) Whittle had a special relationship with Fanning-Otis. She said Fanning-Otis gave her an opportunity to play in the SEC when not many other coaches believed in her. She said Fanning-Otis saw something in her and then worked her hardest to bring that out. As a result, Whittle was able to play a key role in helping MSU advance to the Sweet 16 in the 2009-10 season.
“She has a fiery streak in her when she needs to, but she is not a coach who is all of the time over the top and yelling in your face,” Whittle said. “She is hard, and she will get into you when it is necessary, but that is not her personality to yell and to scream for no purpose. She really does care about you off the court as much as she does on the court.”
Fanning-Otis never knew she would get a chance to affect so many lives. At first, she thought she would be an elementary school or a high school teacher and coach. As she moved on to each level, though, she opened a new door and a new set of possibilities.
The dawning of Title IX in the 1970s gave Fanning-Otis an opportunity to get into coaching on the ground floor, even if she had to drive the vehicles and do the team laundry. The explosion of women’s basketball created a plethora of opportunities for young women throughout the country that has permanently changed the landscape for pioneers like Fanning-Otis. Through all of those changes, Fanning-Otis has remained focused on working hard and staying true to what she believes in.
“I have been blessed. God has opened the doors for me to take my passion and do what I love,” Fanning-Otis said. “As a basketball coach, you’re a teacher first, and as my husband always says, ‘If the student hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught.’ You coach them up and find a way to get the best out of people and find a way to win.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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