University of Tennessee Athletics
A “Ferocious Competitor,” Rackham was Destined to Lead
January 12, 2018 | Volleyball
By Rhiannon Potkey, special to UTsports.com
Everyone could see it from the moment she walked into the gym. Eve Rackham was destined to be in charge.
Her passion was contagious, and her work ethic was renowned. She had an innate volleyball IQ and a willingness to sacrifice for the good of the team.
Rackham was all of 12.
"There are only so many little girls at that age that have an idea about world domination. That is what Eve wanted to conquer," said Bear Grassl, Rackham's club and high school coach. "There was no question she would be a head coach at a Division I program. The only question was when it would occur."
The time has come.
Rackham was officially introduced as the 12th head coach in the history of the Tennessee volleyball program on Thursday during a press conference at the Ray & Lucy Hand Digital Studio.
Rackham spent the last nine seasons on the staff at her alma mater, the University of North Carolina, serving as assistant head coach since 2013.
She arrived at Tennessee for her interview with a detailed plan of how she would run her own program. It wasn't something thrown together at the last minute. It was a dossier of volleyball knowledge accumulated over a lifetime.
"When I started coaching, I always knew that I was going to be a head coach, but for me it was a matter of where and not if. After this season, I felt like I was going to look, but I was only going to leave for the right place," Rackham said. "There was no doubt, when this job came open, that this was the place I wanted to be, where I felt like I could be successful, or I felt like the resources were there and where they cared about female athletics and they wanted to see a program rise, and I felt like I could build on what was already there."
Rackham's volleyball career started in her hometown of Sebastopol, California, located 56 miles north of San Francisco in Sonoma County.
Sebastopol's population is 7,397 with 19 churches, one public swimming pool and a volunteer fire department. The city's website features the Caltrans night road work closures and the Pine Grove Square parking analysis.
Rackham was a four-year starter at El Molino High, earning Redwood Empire Player of the Year honors as a junior and senior.
"Where I went to high school, we didn't have any stoplights. I am from a very small town and we were able to field a volleyball program that sent multiple players to Division I colleges," said Rackham, a member of the El Molino Athletic Hall of Fame. "There were top Division I players coming out of there nearly every year, and you are talking about a place in the middle of nowhere. It's really kind of a unique story. It's not Southern California, San Diego or L.A., where the city is full of a bunch of athletes. This is a farm town in the wine country."
Grassl began coaching Rackham in the eighth grade at the Empire Volleyball Club and was her coach at El Molino for four years.
"She was a ferocious competitor. I mean just as competitive as they come," said Grassl, now the head coach at Sonoma State University. "She was as an elite a brain as we've had because she wasn't a particularly special athlete. She was unbelievably coordinated and all those things, but she was a fairly normal athlete. She just willed herself and her teammates to victory."
Rackham worked at Screamin' Mimi's Ice Cream and Espresso Company during high school, but her real career training came every day in the gym.
"I knew when I started playing that I wanted to coach. It's just something that came naturally to me," she said. "I was always a vocal leader on the team, which I think is a little bit rare with girls especially. Sometimes it's hard to get them to open up and talk and I never had that issue. I was always OK with that. I was just very fortunate to have great mentors and people that believed in me."
Rather than stay close to home on the West Coast, Rackham decided to attend college at North Carolina. She endured early bouts of homesickness, but used volleyball as her lifeline.
Rackham was a fiery player that didn't settle for anything less than total effort from anybody. At times, her stubborn nature led to clashes with coaches and teammates. But they understood her behavior was driven by the desire to win.
Rackham developed into an All-Atlantic Coast Conference setter and UNC's all-time career leader in assists per set (12.58).
Known as a strong recruiter, Rackham often searches for players built from the same mold as she was.
"First and foremost, I want kids with a ton of passion who love to play. I went to the facility yesterday to meet with the team, and the girls were in there, and I thought that was a great first sign," Rackham said. "I want kids who love to play, and not just when it's the first day of preseason, I'm talking about on a Wednesday in October after a midterm. Are you still excited to play? So obviously there's a certain talent level and physical level that we're looking for, but when you talk about those intangible things, I want kids with a lot of passion who want to compete, who want to play hard and want to play for the team."
Rackham made coaching stops at Colgate, East Carolina and Florida International before returning to her alma mater in 2009.
She's endured complete rebuilds and faced high expectations. She's unearthed hidden recruiting gems and signed high-profile All-Americans.
"She has been at all the layers. She isn't just this pretty face from a Division I school who has never been in the trenches. That is what makes her so unique," Grassl said. "She has been in the trenches with mid-majors, grinding away the way mid-majors have to grind. And then she has done the work to be successful with Power 5 schools. She has all the boxes checked."
Rackham expects to attack the recruiting trail for Tennessee with the same tenacity that helped her sign 17 top-100 prospects at North Carolina and assemble two top-10 recruiting classes in the last six years.
"The good thing about Tennessee is that it's a university that everybody knows, it has a national brand, and we can go anywhere," she said. "I believe the best players in the state of Tennessee should come to the University of Tennessee, so that's where we'll look first. But I think we can reach out to the West Coast, we can get players from the Midwest, we can recruit in Texas and in Florida. I'm not concerned about that; I know this place will sell itself."
Coaching has always been about more than X's and O's for Rackham. Presiding over her own program will give her a bigger platform to develop and empower players for life beyond the court.
"There are not a lot of female coaches, and I think those of us who are need to be responsible to the girls we coach to be role models and to be an inspiration. We need to be a presence they can look up to and aspire to be," Rackham said. "I want to inspire my players and help them grow. College can be a crazy time when you are between 18 and 22, and you get to be a big part of that and help them find their way."
Rackham has watched film of Tennessee's current players over the last few days and been impressed with the talent and work ethic she's seen.
She knows Tennessee has all the resources to contend for SEC and NCAA titles on a yearly basis.
The next few months will be spent putting her own stamp on the program and learning more about the university and the community.
Rackham was fully prepared for her first meeting with the media on Thursday, arriving in an orange dress found after "scouring the malls" in North Carolina.
Before stepping to the podium, she looked out the glass doors and caught a glimpse of the statue across the street of one of the most legendary coaches in all of sports.
"I am truly humbled to be at the same university where Pat Summitt was a coach," Rackham said. "Obviously, I never had a chance to meet her or work at the same time. But as a female coach, she has really been an inspiration to so many of us and showed that women really can build championship programs."
Everyone could see it from the moment she walked into the gym. Eve Rackham was destined to be in charge.
Her passion was contagious, and her work ethic was renowned. She had an innate volleyball IQ and a willingness to sacrifice for the good of the team.
Rackham was all of 12.
"There are only so many little girls at that age that have an idea about world domination. That is what Eve wanted to conquer," said Bear Grassl, Rackham's club and high school coach. "There was no question she would be a head coach at a Division I program. The only question was when it would occur."
The time has come.
Rackham was officially introduced as the 12th head coach in the history of the Tennessee volleyball program on Thursday during a press conference at the Ray & Lucy Hand Digital Studio.
Rackham spent the last nine seasons on the staff at her alma mater, the University of North Carolina, serving as assistant head coach since 2013.
She arrived at Tennessee for her interview with a detailed plan of how she would run her own program. It wasn't something thrown together at the last minute. It was a dossier of volleyball knowledge accumulated over a lifetime.
"When I started coaching, I always knew that I was going to be a head coach, but for me it was a matter of where and not if. After this season, I felt like I was going to look, but I was only going to leave for the right place," Rackham said. "There was no doubt, when this job came open, that this was the place I wanted to be, where I felt like I could be successful, or I felt like the resources were there and where they cared about female athletics and they wanted to see a program rise, and I felt like I could build on what was already there."
Rackham's volleyball career started in her hometown of Sebastopol, California, located 56 miles north of San Francisco in Sonoma County.
Sebastopol's population is 7,397 with 19 churches, one public swimming pool and a volunteer fire department. The city's website features the Caltrans night road work closures and the Pine Grove Square parking analysis.
Rackham was a four-year starter at El Molino High, earning Redwood Empire Player of the Year honors as a junior and senior.
"Where I went to high school, we didn't have any stoplights. I am from a very small town and we were able to field a volleyball program that sent multiple players to Division I colleges," said Rackham, a member of the El Molino Athletic Hall of Fame. "There were top Division I players coming out of there nearly every year, and you are talking about a place in the middle of nowhere. It's really kind of a unique story. It's not Southern California, San Diego or L.A., where the city is full of a bunch of athletes. This is a farm town in the wine country."
Grassl began coaching Rackham in the eighth grade at the Empire Volleyball Club and was her coach at El Molino for four years.
"She was a ferocious competitor. I mean just as competitive as they come," said Grassl, now the head coach at Sonoma State University. "She was as an elite a brain as we've had because she wasn't a particularly special athlete. She was unbelievably coordinated and all those things, but she was a fairly normal athlete. She just willed herself and her teammates to victory."
Rackham worked at Screamin' Mimi's Ice Cream and Espresso Company during high school, but her real career training came every day in the gym.
"I knew when I started playing that I wanted to coach. It's just something that came naturally to me," she said. "I was always a vocal leader on the team, which I think is a little bit rare with girls especially. Sometimes it's hard to get them to open up and talk and I never had that issue. I was always OK with that. I was just very fortunate to have great mentors and people that believed in me."
Rather than stay close to home on the West Coast, Rackham decided to attend college at North Carolina. She endured early bouts of homesickness, but used volleyball as her lifeline.
Rackham was a fiery player that didn't settle for anything less than total effort from anybody. At times, her stubborn nature led to clashes with coaches and teammates. But they understood her behavior was driven by the desire to win.
Rackham developed into an All-Atlantic Coast Conference setter and UNC's all-time career leader in assists per set (12.58).
Known as a strong recruiter, Rackham often searches for players built from the same mold as she was.
"First and foremost, I want kids with a ton of passion who love to play. I went to the facility yesterday to meet with the team, and the girls were in there, and I thought that was a great first sign," Rackham said. "I want kids who love to play, and not just when it's the first day of preseason, I'm talking about on a Wednesday in October after a midterm. Are you still excited to play? So obviously there's a certain talent level and physical level that we're looking for, but when you talk about those intangible things, I want kids with a lot of passion who want to compete, who want to play hard and want to play for the team."
Rackham made coaching stops at Colgate, East Carolina and Florida International before returning to her alma mater in 2009.
She's endured complete rebuilds and faced high expectations. She's unearthed hidden recruiting gems and signed high-profile All-Americans.
"She has been at all the layers. She isn't just this pretty face from a Division I school who has never been in the trenches. That is what makes her so unique," Grassl said. "She has been in the trenches with mid-majors, grinding away the way mid-majors have to grind. And then she has done the work to be successful with Power 5 schools. She has all the boxes checked."
Rackham expects to attack the recruiting trail for Tennessee with the same tenacity that helped her sign 17 top-100 prospects at North Carolina and assemble two top-10 recruiting classes in the last six years.
"The good thing about Tennessee is that it's a university that everybody knows, it has a national brand, and we can go anywhere," she said. "I believe the best players in the state of Tennessee should come to the University of Tennessee, so that's where we'll look first. But I think we can reach out to the West Coast, we can get players from the Midwest, we can recruit in Texas and in Florida. I'm not concerned about that; I know this place will sell itself."
Coaching has always been about more than X's and O's for Rackham. Presiding over her own program will give her a bigger platform to develop and empower players for life beyond the court.
"There are not a lot of female coaches, and I think those of us who are need to be responsible to the girls we coach to be role models and to be an inspiration. We need to be a presence they can look up to and aspire to be," Rackham said. "I want to inspire my players and help them grow. College can be a crazy time when you are between 18 and 22, and you get to be a big part of that and help them find their way."
Rackham has watched film of Tennessee's current players over the last few days and been impressed with the talent and work ethic she's seen.
She knows Tennessee has all the resources to contend for SEC and NCAA titles on a yearly basis.
The next few months will be spent putting her own stamp on the program and learning more about the university and the community.
Rackham was fully prepared for her first meeting with the media on Thursday, arriving in an orange dress found after "scouring the malls" in North Carolina.
Before stepping to the podium, she looked out the glass doors and caught a glimpse of the statue across the street of one of the most legendary coaches in all of sports.
"I am truly humbled to be at the same university where Pat Summitt was a coach," Rackham said. "Obviously, I never had a chance to meet her or work at the same time. But as a female coach, she has really been an inspiration to so many of us and showed that women really can build championship programs."
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