Holly Warlick addresses departure of Andraya Carter, announces that Te’a Cooper will miss season, provides other updates

Thank you all for coming. It’s been kind of a busy summer. I’ve been in and out (of the office) with recruiting and everything, but I just wanted to address a couple of things with you.

First of all, with the medical updates, I’ll start with Andraya Carter. Andraya has chosen not to come back this year. As you all know, she battled with her knee being a problem. You know how hard Andraya plays. There’s nothing going slow or anything soft about her. She has gotten her degree. She is still in school. She is getting her master’s in sport psychology. We addressed it and Andraya thought she could not perform and do the things that she needed to do and I concurred with her. I think that my biggest thing was Andraya’s future – just with her general health. She’s been a great ambassador for this program. You all know she won the Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Award. I look at her and what she’s done from the community service to everything else she’s done, and I think she has been a positive Lady Vol and obviously we will miss her.

Te’a Cooper and Cheridene Green. Cheridene has had her surgery. We knew going in that she needed to have knee surgery. It went great. She will be out this season and we knew that. She is rehabbing and did a great job before her surgery to get ready for the official knee surgery. She’s doing really well.

Te’a Cooper has a knee problem and she will miss the entire year. She has not had surgery. She did it while playing basketball at home. We’re continuing to evaluate, but she will not be back this season. Obviously, a disappointment for Te’a, and it’s really just a tough break for all of us, her and our Lady Vol family.

Meme Jackson had a scope to clean up her knee. She looks awesome, is back in practice and trying to get in shape. She continues to really flourish.

Great things….we hired Heather Ervin, who was with the men’s football office for 13 years and got the opportunity to have her be associated with our program. She is working on the recruiting side of it.

Kind of a nice note, Sharrona Reaves, our new assistant, coached Heather at Troy University. If Heather doesn’t do anything right, she’s (Sharrona) going to get on her. I’ll leave that up to those two. (I’m) excited that Heather brings a wealth of knowledge to us, working with the football staff. She’s really going to help us on the recruiting side, in on-campus things and making sure we get organized.

I cannot say enough about what our kids are doing right now, the whole atmosphere, camaraderie and leadership has been unbelievable. I just think we are building off last year and our team is so focused. Usually you have a group that summer workouts, they balk a little bit. Our kids are loving summer workouts, they are going to all the workouts, doing extra. The feel is incredible; it makes me feel so encouraged on where we are going in building off last year.

Diamond DeShields is now healthy and we needed her to be. She’s been a great leader. Jordan Reynolds has worked so much. She has transformed her body, not that it was bad. She’s done a great job of really focusing on her health and what she can do to make her game better. Really, really excited about Jordan. All of them — Mercedes, Jaime, Kortney, the new kids, Alexa – she’s come back. It is an unbelievable feel, and I am really anxious looking to the fall to get back at it. Our newcomers, Kamera (Harris) and Qui (Schaquilla Nunn). Qui is obviously a little bit ahead of Kamera because she is a redshirt senior. They are really fitting in; Kamera is learning the ropes. She’s a great kid, positive and we are going to get her obviously in the right direction.

Let me end with this…just so excited for Tamika Catchings to be on the Olympic Team. Wished we had another kid, but we don’t. Tamika is the epitome of what I think a Lady Vol is; obviously talented, but an extremely hard worker, just represents our program and the U.S. with a lot of class. Excited for her, I look for her to contribute well, especially on the leadership side of it and I look forward to watching her compete.