Anne Tierney transforms team culture on the court

Lehigh women’s basketball player Anne Tierney, ‘03, ‘04M, remembers scoring her 1,000th career point at the Naval Academy.

Her best friend and teammate, Cat Nicholson, ‘03, threw her a lob pass, a moment Nicholson said she couldn’t have been happier to be a part of. Tierney remembers her parents, teammates and Lehigh fans erupting in the stands.

Even though she hit such an incredible milestone, Tierney said it wasn’t skill that got her there.

“I am the first one to tell you that I’m not even a very good basketball player,” Tierney said.

She said it was her work ethic.

Tierney finished her college career with 1,807 points, 1,129 rebounds and four First-Team All-Patriot League honors. She was inducted into the Lehigh Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.

Tierney said her grandfather, John Hammel — who was a Hall of Fame high school basketball coach in Indiana — first introduced her to basketball. She said every summer, she, her brother and her sister spent a week with their grandparents, and they’d help her grandfather with her uncle’s landscaping business.

She said much of her work ethic comes from him.

Tierney said at the end of the day, she’d walk through her grandfather’s garage, covered with every Indiana men’s basketball poster known to man.

If Indiana basketball wasn’t playing on the TV inside, it was on the radio.

“It was just surrounding me,” Tierney said.

She said her earliest memories playing basketball were in fourth and fifth grade in Kentucky, when she played on a co-ed recreational basketball team. She said she remembered being the tallest and biggest player on the team, and during a jump ball, she lifted a little boy off the floor.

Soon after, Tierney said she started taking travel basketball seriously, but often was the only girl on most of her teams.

When she practiced with her brother and friends at home, Tierney said they’d make her do push-ups, and even if she won, she always had to do something for it.

Tierney also said her parents were extremely involved in her basketball career. Whether it was rebounding for her, painting a basketball court on their blacktop driveway or making her a ladder for speed drills, she said they were always supportive, especially when resources were limited.

When looking for colleges, Tierney said her dad made VHS tapes to send to schools and tracked all the offers and letters she received. Her dad wanted her to feel comfortable wherever she went, and her mom wanted her to get a good education.

Growing up in the Midwest as a Big 10 fan, an east coast school wasn’t even on her radar.

That was until she visited Lehigh.

Sue Troyan, the deputy athletic director at Lehigh, had a 34-year coaching career, 27 of which were as head women’s basketball coach at Lehigh. She said when she recruited Tierney, she was one of the first players in a class that was offered scholarships to play women’s basketball.

Troyan said through getting to know Tierney, her family and her AAU coach, she said she immediately noticed Tierney was looking for a place where she could get a great education and make an impact on the basketball program.

“She was a competitive person, and you could see that just in terms of the interactions with her family,” Troyan said. “You could also see that they were people who really cared about (Tierney), cared about her education, cared about her well-being and wanted her to be in an environment that would bring out the best in her, both academically and athletically.”

During the recruiting process, Troyan said she remembers Tierney’s confidence and outspokenness. She said her personality stuck out, but knew from a talent perspective, she would make an impact on the basketball program right away.

Tierney said she liked the idea of a smaller school with a “real arena” like Stabler and a good football team. What sealed the deal was her first official visit and a team meal with Troyan, who made “puppy chow.”

Tierney said looking back, her greatest joy is that she picked a place she thought she’d play and, more importantly, contribute to the rest of the team.

Tierney said her proudest accomplishment was being the first female student-athlete in Patriot League history to become a four-time First Team All-Patriot League player. She said achieving the accolade as a first-year student and keeping up that momentum was important to her.

She said she was fortunate to have a coach like Troyan, who pushed her to do her best every day.

“They didn’t let me get by on my laurels or what I did last year or what I did the game before or anything like that,” Tierney said. “We were always trying to make me the best player I could be.”

Troyan said coaching Tierney challenged her to think differently and forced her to bring out her best in her coaching element. Yet, what she really loved was Tierney’s work ethic.

“She just was incredibly driven, incredibly bright and I think brought people along with her because of those characteristics, on the basketball court and in the classroom,” Troyan said. “I’ve recruited and coached a number of exceptional student athletes… (Tierney) is probably by far and away the top student athlete I’ve coached here.”

Troyan recalls Tierney not being the most athletic on the court, and said after watching her run 100s at practice, questioned whether or not she could play at the Division I level. But she said her work ethic got her through.

Tierney also credited her teammates, like Nicholson, who taught her to face things head-on and to communicate with each other separately as teammates and as friends.

Nicholson said although she’s had many teammates, Tierney is one who truly became a sister. She said going through the highs and lows of college life with someone going through the exact same thing creates a bond that transcends playing basketball.

Tierney earned her master’s in economics from Lehigh immediately following her four years competing as a Mountain Hawk, and she said she experienced some burnout. She said the efficiency and productivity she had to maintain as a student-athlete went away once basketball did, so she had to work hard to get that mentality back.

Once she started her first job as a financial analyst, she said Lehigh’s preparation kicked in. She balanced the workload but missed playing basketball.

“The transition of not being an athlete and having that as part of your identity and having that daily ability to let out some steam as student-athletes was quite a transition for me,” Tierney said. “It’s very different when you do it on your own and when you’re there with the team.”

When Tierney found out she was inducted into the Roger Penske Hall of Fame, she said she was floored.

Usually, student-athletes get inducted many years after their career ends, and she was inducted seven years later.

“It’s obviously such an honor…. It’s like it was unfathomable to me,” Tierney said.

She said her advice to student-athletes is to work hard, and that hard work got her to where she is today.

She said Lehigh is where she came into her own, but it created a life she never would have imagined.

“I was far away from home, I wasn’t near any of my friends, but I was able to excel both academically and athletically and change life forever,” Tierney said. “I obviously grew up and had a great life, but it totally changed the trajectory of my whole life.”

Nicholson said Tierney’s support of others is what truly makes her a winner. Off the court, she sees that in the way Tierney supports her son.

“He’s a great human being, and she’s done a lot of that on her own, and I think it’s just a testament when you can see someone’s kids and how they’re raised,” Nicholson said. “I’m extremely proud of her as a mom.”

Nicholson said although they’ve lived in different states since their Lehigh careers, they try to see each other whenever they can.

“Obviously, she broke a bunch of records, but she’s a heck of a teammate too,” Nicholson said. “Whether it’s like your life teammate as a friend, or whether it’s someone to play sports with, she’s just someone you can always count on to show up to work hard and support you.”

Tierney said her Lehigh legacy is to work hard and do the absolute best to create a basketball culture that gets the best recruits. She said she made it her mission to leave the program better than she found it.

According to Troyan, Tierney did just that.

Troyan said Tierney was transformative for the Lehigh women’s basketball program. She said Tierney came in when scholarships were first being offered to women’s programs; she excelled in the classroom and on the court and she attracted recruits that would succeed for years to come.

Troyan said getting a student-athlete of the caliber of Tierney is what enabled the program to move forward and continue moving forward.

“The legacy and the impact she’s made after graduating from Lehigh is as significant as it was while she was here,” Troyan said.