UNC's Hatchell gets 2-year extension through 2019-20 season

Posted September 22, 2016 7:00 am

The Associated Press

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina is extending the contract of Hall of Fame women's basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell and giving new deals or extensions to six other Tar Heels head coaches.

The school says Hatchell's two-year extension runs through the 2019-20 season.

Thursday's announcement comes as UNC faces five NCAA charges tied to its long-running academic fraud scandal. One accuses an academic counselor working with women's basketball players of providing improper assistance on assignments, though no coaches are charged.

Women's lacrosse coach Jenny Levy received a one-year extension through the 2018-19 season. UNC says it has agreed in principle on three-year contracts through 2019 with five others: men's lacrosse coach Joe Breschi, women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance, men's tennis coach Sam Paul, field hockey coach Karen Shelton and men's soccer coach Carlos Somoano.

Hatchell's future at UNC had been in question with her contract set to expire in 2018. The 64-year-old coach is entering her 31st season in Chapel Hill, ranking third all-time with 975 career wins to go with eight Atlantic Coast Conference championships and an NCAA title in 1994.

She missed the 2013-14 season while receiving treatment for leukemia. She returned the next season and reached the NCAA Sweet 16, but the Tar Heels ended last year at 14-18 with six scholarship players on a roster depleted by injuries and transfers amid the NCAA case.

Levy and Breschi won NCAA championships on Memorial Day weekend, making the Tar Heels the first in 22 years and the second ever to sweep the men's and women's lacrosse titles in the same year. Levy is in her 22nd season as the only coach in program history and also won the 2013 NCAA title, while Breschi is in his ninth season.

Dorrance is in his 38th season and has won 22 national championships, while Shelton is in her 36th season and has won six NCAA titles.

Somoano won the NCAA championship in his first season as head coach in 2011.

Paul, in his 24th season, led the program to its first No. 1 ranking last year and the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.

FILE - In this May 31, 2016, file photo, North Carolina men's lacrosse coach Joe Breschi embraces North Carolina women's lacrosse coach Jenny Levy before entering a press conference together at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C, where both coaches talked about winning dual NCAA National Championships at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C. UNC said it has agreed in principle to a three-year contract with Breschi and a one-year extension for Levy, both running through 2019. (Robert Willett/The News & Observer via AP, File) The Associated Press

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