Carolyn Peck

Carolyn Peck: Profile

Caroline Peck was instrumental as head coach and general manager in the success of the Orlando Miracle's inaugural season. She led them to finish tied for second place in the Eastern Conference. Peck is also an on-air commentator for ESPN and served as expert guest analyst for their coverage of the WNBA Playoffs. In the past she led the Purdue Boilermakers to the 1999 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship with a 34-1 record. She has been named National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, a Big Ten Coach of the Year, and has a two-year head coaching record of 57-11 (.838 winning percentage), including a 9-1 NCAA Tournament record.

Instrumental in winning collegiate programs at Tennessee and Purdue, she was named inaugural General Manager/Head Coach of Orlando's WNBA franchise on July 6, 1998. Peck continued in her role as the head coach at Purdue for the 1998-99 season, which included a season-opening upset of top-ranked and three-time defending NCAA Champion Tennessee, thus ending the Volunteers' 46-game winning streak. She officially assumed duties of Orlando's General Manager/Head Coach on April 1, 1999.

She led the Boilermakers to a 23-10 record and a NCAA Tournament "Elite Eight" showing in 1997-98, coming within eight points of advancing to the Final Four, only the second coach in Purdue's 23-year program history to notch 20 wins in a season. This also had her become only the third coach to reach the NCAA Tournament final eight in her first season. Serving as assistant coach for Purdue in 1996-97, she helped to assist on a team which finished 17-11, won a share of the Big Ten Championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Head Coach Nell Fortner afterwards left Purdue to become head coach of the USA National Team competing in the 2000 Olympics.

Over three years at Purdue, Peck was a key in leading the program to a 74-22 record for a .771 winning percentage. She served as top assistant coach for the silver medal winning USA Jones Cup team in August 1997, began a coaching career at Tennessee where she served as an assistant coach under Pat Summitt for two seasons, and spent the 1995-96 season as assistant coach at Kentucky.

In 1985-88 she played At Vanderbilt where the 6-4 center averaged 10.6 points and 5.8 rebounds with 180 career blocked shots. Peck became team captain junior and senior years and moved on to play professionally for the Nippondenso Corporation in Japan from 1991 to 1993. A native of Jefferson City, TN, she earned a B.A. degree in communications from Vanderbilt in 1998 and later worked for a Nashville television station as a marketing consultant. Additionally she has sold pharmaceuticals for a Fortune 500 company for two years, was the youngest coach in the Big Ten, was Tennessee's Miss Basketball, and a two-time all American at Jefferson County High School.