Smithers, West Virginia, is barely a dot on a map along the Kanawha River southeast of Charleston, but for Stetson women's basketball coach Lynn Bria, that is the place where it all began.
 
In this edition of Hatter Chatter … The Podcast, presented by Insight Credit Union, Bria talks about how her world has always revolved around family and competition. As one of nine children, competition was all she ever knew, and there was always a game, event, or backyard challenge growing up in a large Italian family in rural West Virginia.
 
All of the Bria kids competed. Her oldest brother, Sammy, set the standard, earning a football scholarship to Virginia Tech, where he played from 1969-71. Lynn was just a baby at that point, and never got to see her brother play, but the competitive Bria spirit ran through the entire group.
 
When she was around the age of 10, the family moved to South Charleston so her dad could be closer to his job at Union-Carbide. There she attended Charleston Catholic and competed on the tennis team, the swim team, the softball team and the basketball team.
 
After high school she stayed close to home, attending the University of Charleston where she continued to play both basketball and tennis. She earned All-Conference honors as a senior in both sports.
 
After graduation she embarked on her coaching journey, serving as a volunteer assistant coach, earning a whole $300, for coach Judy Southard at Marshall University. Southard, who had coached with Pat Summit at Tennessee, went on to become Director of Athletics at Texas Women's University and later served as Associate AD and SWA at LSU, played a big role in Bria's career.
 
Bria spend two years working for Southard at Marshall as a graduate assistant, crossing paths for the first time with a men's basketball graduate assistant named Donnie Jones, before taking her first full-time assistant position at Radford University.
 
That job lasted just one year before Southard called and offered Bria, at just 24 years of age, the head coaching position at TWU.
 
Bria tells the rest of her rise through the coaching ranks, and covers a wide range of other topics from Italian food to the "Miracle in Macon" and the challenges everyone involved with athletics is facing in a Covid-19 dominated world in this edition of Hatter Chatter … The Podcast, presented by Insight Credit Union.
 
In addition to being available at GoHatters.com/podcasts, Hatter Chatter is also available at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and others. Make sure to give a like or a rating, or make a comment about the podcast on whichever platform you use.

Listeners are also encouraged to provide feedback, ask questions or make suggestions for future guests via email at HatterChatter@Stetson.edu.
 
About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program has a vision of developing a culture of champions athletically, academically and within the community. This vision is accomplished through a mission of recruiting and developing student-athletes, coaches and staff, creating a culture of champions, within and outside of competition. The department operates with five core values: Championship Culture, Integrity, Excellence, Pride/Tradition and Leadership. To learn more about the Vision, Mission and Core Values for Stetson Athletics, visit GoHatters.com and click on Mission Statement under the Inside Athletics tab.