Tara Tansil has been named the new women's basketball coach at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Tansil's promotion was announced Friday afternoon shortly after lunch.

"I am very happy and very excited," Tansil said. "I am just glad to have the opportunity to work for a program that I love and respect. I have played hard here, and I can work very hard for UT Martin."

Tennessee-Martin athletics director Phil Dane was equally happy as he announced Tansil's promotion.

"Monday of this week we closed one chapter on women's basketball," Dane said. "Today I am excited to announce we have opened another chapter, having Tara Tansil as the next women's basketball head coach at UT Martin."

Tansil served as an assistant coach for the past eight years. During that time the Skyhawks compiled a 105-122 record. With Tansil as an assistant the Skyhawks posted an 11-16 record this past season and a seventh-place finish in the Ohio Valley Conference.

The team advanced to the OVC tournament this past year for the seventh time in nine years. The team advanced to the OVC tournament title game twice in the past eight years, and in 1999 the team posted a 22-9 overall record and won the OVC championship. The team also advanced to the second round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT).

Tansil's knowledge of the game and overall talent made her a standout on the court while she was a student at UT Martin. In January of 1996, the school honored her efforts as an athlete when it retired her No. 24 jersey. She ended her career as the program's second all-time leading scorer with 1,702 points. She was honored once again in 2000, when she was inducted into the UT Martin Athletics Hall of Fame.

"Tara Tansil is one of my favorite people as an individual," Dane said. "I know she will be a great basketball coach. I have no hesitations whatsoever about making this recommendation to the chancellor."

The first task at hand for Tansil will be to hire two assistant coaches.

"The first of many challenges will be finding assistant coaches. I will be talking to the girls, reassuring them and getting ready for school to start August 30. We will be getting ready to put the staff in place and get a plan ready," Tansil said.

A formal press conference will be held once Tansil hires her assistant coaches.

The Skyhawks will return three starters and 10 letter winners. Among the returning seniors are Chandra Carey, Little Rock, Ark.; Leigh Ann Davidson, Jackson, Tenn.; and Jenny Lannom and Danielle Page, both from Bradford, Tenn.

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Van Attas call it quits

University of Tennessee at Martin women's basketball co-head coaches Gary and Kim Van Atta announced their resignation, effective immediately, from UT Martin this morning during a press conference in the Boling University Center.

The Van Attas have accepted jobs at Mount Juliet High School, Gary and Kim Van Atta's alma mater. Gary will serve as the boys head basketball coach, while Kim will serve as the school's guidance counselor.

"The reason we are leaving UT Martin is because of our family, our immediate family as well as our extended family," said Gary Van Atta. "UT Martin gave us the opportunity to be a basketball family and this move will allow us to continue that. We will be able to watch our daughter (K.C.) play. She will be able to watch her father coach and we will never leave the gym. We won't have to drive to make it to her game and she won't have to rush to make it to our game."

K.C. will be a sophomore at Mount Juliet High School this fall. She played this past season at Westview High School in Martin where she was named to the all-district tournament team. Her 16-and Under Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball team finished as runners up in the Division II National Championship in Orlando, Fla. recently.

"Kim, KC and I are Skyhawks and we will always be Skyhawks," said Gary Van Atta said. "We are turning over a new leaf to be with family. This is not a decision to take a new basketball coaching job, but I have two younger sisters who have been diagnosed with cancer and we want to be with family."

For Kim Van Atta the move back to Mount Juliet, where as a player she helped lead the women's basketball team to a Class AAA state championship and a 36-1 record in 1983, also is about family.

"We have three years left with our daughter. "It seems like yesterday that she was a toddler and today she's a sophomore in high school," said Kim Van Atta.

Kim Van Atta said the move is not about just basketball. "We are a close family. The three of us are best friends and we do everything together."

For the first time, Kim Van Atta's mother will get to watch her granddaughter play basketball. Kim's mom lives in Goodlettsville, about 30 minutes away from Mount Juliet

"We prayed long and hard about this decision because of the people here," Kim Van Atta said. "We feel like the people here have adopted us. This is bittersweet."

The Van Attas have served as Skyhawk co-head coaches since 1996. The coaching tandem has compiled a 105-122 record during their eight-year stay at Tennessee-Martin. The 105 victories are the most by any Tennessee-Martin women's basketball coach. The Van Attas guided the Skyhawks to an 11-16 record this past season and a seventh-place finish in the Ohio Valley Conference.

The team advanced to the OVC tournament this past year for the seventh time in nine years. In 1998 and 1999, the Van Attas led the Skyhawks to the tournament title game. The 1999 team posted a 22-9 overall record and won the OVC championship and advanced to the second round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT).

Off the court this past year, under the direction of the Van Attas, the Skyhawks were ranked eighth nationally on the Women's Basketball Coaches Association honor roll. The Skyhawks sported an overall team grade point average of 3.397.

"We are closing one chapter of our lives and moving on to the next chapter where we can be all together as a family," Kim Van Atta said.

The Van Attas came to Tennessee-Martin in 1996 after a seven-year stint at the University of Montevallo (Alabama).

A national search will begin immediately to hire a new head coach for the Skyhawk women.

The team has three starters and 10 letter winners returning. Among the returning seniors are Chandra Carey, Little Rock, Ark.; Leigh Ann Davidson, Jackson, Tenn.; and Jenny Lannom and Danielle Page, both from Bradford, Tenn.