Clemson hires Chattanooga's Shawn Poppie as women's basketball coach
Chattanooga's Shawn Poppie is the new Clemson women's basketball coach.
Poppie's hiring was approved Tuesday afternoon by the Clemson University Board of Trustees' Compensation Committee. Clemson will hold a formal introduction on a day to be announced.
He received a six-year contract that will pay him $500,000 this year and grow by $25,000 annually during the next five years. He also will receive a $435,000 signing bonus.
Poppie, who guided Chattanooga to the NCAA tournament the past two seasons, replaces Amanda Butler, who was fired after six seasons on March 12. Butler’s record with the Tigers was 81-106, including a 12-19 overall record and 5-13 ACC mark this season.
The 39-year-old Poppie becomes the eighth coach in Clemson women’s basketball history, and the first male coach to lead the program at Clemson since Jim Davis, who was fired in 2005 after 19 seasons, 355 victories and two ACC championships.
"We are thrilled to welcome Shawn and his family to Clemson," athletic director Graham Neff said. "As we worked through our search process, his name kept coming up in several circles, and the on-court results speak for themselves. He's coached and recruited at a high level, has experience in the ACC and in the Upstate, and we are confident in his ability to get our program to the next level."
A native of Crescent City, Illinois, Poppie is familiar with South Carolina’s Upstate. A former all-conference point guard at Limestone College in Gaffney, he served as an assistant coach at Limestone, USC Upstate and Furman before joining the Virginia Tech staff in 2016.
He remained on coach Kenny Brooks’ staff with the Hokies until taking over at Chattanooga two seasons ago.
In his inaugural season, Poppie guided the Mocs to a 20-13 record in 2022-23, the Southern Conference tournament title and an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament.
This season Chattanooga went 28-5, including a 59-53 victory against No. 21 Mississippi State, and won both the SoCon regular-season and tournament titles. It lost to No. 3 seed NC State 64-45 in the first round of the NCAA tournament last week.
Scott Keepfer covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at skeepfer@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ScottKeepfer
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson women's basketball hires Shawn Poppie as coach
