North Carolina's Sylvia Hatchell is one of the most respected and successful women's basketball coaches in the country. She began the 2009-10 season with a career record of 812-282 over 34 years as a head coach, 540-202 in 23 years as coach of the Tar Heels. Hatchell, who ranks third among active coaches in career wins, was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in June of 2004.

Under her direction, North Carolina won the 1994 NCAA national championship and has claimed eight Atlantic Coast Conference crowns, including four in a row from 2005 to 2008. She has coached 23 professional players, eight All-America selections, five ACC Rookies of the Year and five ACC Tournament MVPs.

Although the Tar Heels' level of success had been building since Hatchell arrived in Chapel Hill in 1986, it was the landmark 1993-94 season that boosted the program to national prominence. That season, Carolina won Hatchell's first ACC title then went on to claim the program's first national title in a thrilling 60-59 win over Louisiana Tech. The Tar Heels finished the season 33-2, with the best record in women's basketball. UNC ranked No. 1 in the final USA Today coaches' poll, and USA Today and College Sports magazine both named Hatchell National Coach of the Year.

Prior to taking over the Carolina program, Hatchell guided Francis Marion College to a 272-80 mark over 11 seasons. In 1986, she coached the Lady Patriots to a remarkable 36-2 record and an NAIA National Championship. Her 1982 team also won a national title, in the AIAW small college division. Hatchell is the only women's basketball coach to have won titles on the AIAW, NAIA and NCAA levels.

Actively involved in shaping modern women's basketball, Hatchell is a past president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. She is a member of USA Basketball Women's Games Committee and has been a member of the WBCA Board of Directors.

A native of Gastonia, N.C., and a life-long Tar Heel fan, Hatchell graduated cum laude from Carson-Newman College in 1974 and has been honored as the school's Distinguished Alumnus of the Year. In 1975, she earned her M.S. degree at the University of Tennessee, where she began her coaching career directing the junior varsity team.

Her husband, Sammy Hatchell, is the boys basketball coach at Cresset Christian Academy. The Hatchells' son, Van, is a junior at UNC.