Virginia Tech Women's Basketball associate head coach Shawn Poppie will be leaving to become the next head coach at Chattanooga which was reported by others on Twitter first last night and announced this morning.
WBB NEWS: ACC women's basketball sources are hearing that Virginia Tech Assistant Coach Shawn Poppie will be the new head coach at Chattanooga joining Sam Purcell at Mississippi State and Brooke Wyckoff at Florida State as new head coaches.
— Coaching Changes (@CoachingChanges) March 30, 2022
Welcome to the family, Coach Poppie!
— Chattanooga WBB (@GoMocsWBK) March 30, 2022
🔗https://t.co/H83HxBn46a#GoMocs #SoConWBB
Poppie leaves for Chattanooga after being a part of Kenny Brooks for all six seasons of his tenure at Virginia Tech. Prior to Virginia Tech, Poppie was at Furman where he coached under a former Kenny Brooks assistant in Jackie Carson when Brooks was the head coach at JMU.
Poppie played a valuable role as the "defensive coordinator" as well for Virginia Tech over the past two seasons while he has played a big role in the development of Tech's talented guards over the past six seasons.
The hiring of Poppie means that four former Kenny Brooks assistants are active head coaches in college basketball with Poppie at Chattanooga joining former VT assistant Jennifer Brown (Queens (NC)) plus Carson (Furman) and Sean O'Regan (JMU).
Poppie's departure also means that all three of Kenny Brooks' initial assistant coaches have left Tech with two becoming head coaches and Brittany Anderson leaving for an assistant job at current Final Four team and defending national champion Stanford. Anderson could be a top target for filling Poppie's spot directly as associate head coach though Anderson could also factor in to some head coaching searches herself.
Outside of Anderson, it seems likely that Brooks will promote from within to fill the specific role of associate head coach with current assistant Lindsey Hicks seeming like the prime candidate to get the internal bump.
In terms of replacing Poppie on the staff as a whole, Brooks may go the root of pulling a rising assistant from a former Brooks assistant staff like he did with Poppie. Furman associate head coach/recruiting coordinator Pierre Curtis could be a name to watch as he has built a strong reputation at Furman working for Carson while he also played men's basketball at JMU while Brooks was the women's coach there.
