College basketball fans spent Tuesday mourning the loss of legendary Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt.

For some, the news hit closer to home than others.

Sydney Smallbone, the new girls basketball coach at South Bend St. Joseph, played for Summitt and the Lady Vols from 2007 through 2011.

Smallbone’s parents, Brian and Maria Smallbone, are both Dowagiac graduates.

She played in the 2008 championship game, going 1-for-2 from the free throw line in what would be Summitt’s final national title.

Despite learning that Summitt’s health was failing, it still came as a shock when she received a 6:30 a.m. phone call Monday from a teammate.

“I had heard over the weekend that it was pretty much going to be any day now,” Smallbone said. “I actually had a teammate who called me and woke me up and told me the news. It was good to hear it from another teammate, but it was still a shock.”

Smallbone recalled the first meeting she had with Summitt.

“She came walking into an exposure event for AAU in the summertime,” she said. “She just had that presence. When she walked in it was almost like the gym went silent. She was so respected in the women’s game. She was so nice and so friendly. She really was a genuine person. She really took the time to get to know people. She was a player’s coach in those regards.”

Smallbone was the coach at Lakeshore High School the past couple of years before accepting the same position at her alma mater.

She said she feels that she took many things away from her experience of playing for Summitt that she uses as part of her own coaching style.

“Putting aside the Xs and Os, what she brought to the game of basketball was top-notch,” Smallbone said. “From a defensive perspective, I run some of her defenses. From an offensive perspective, the majority of the offenses I run I learned from her.

“When you talk about motivating certain players, she taught me each kid is motivated differently. And there are life lessons to be learned. That it is more than just a game and I thought Pat did a really good job of teaching us that.”

A public celebration of Summitt’s life will be held July 14 in Knoxville, Tennessee and Smallbone, along with many of the Volunteer players will be in attendance.

Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw did battle with Summitt throughout the years.

She said that Summitt brought legitimacy to the women’s game.

“Pat was the one voice in women’s basketball that everyone respected,” she said via her Twitter. “She only cared about what was good for the game and how we could make it better. She raised the bar for women and showed us what it meant to be a leader, not just in coaching, but also in life. We have lost an icon in our game.”

Reaction also came from several area girls basketball coaches, including Niles’ Phil D’Amico and Dowagiac’s Brent Nate.

“I think any coach who is coaching a female sport and specifically women’s basketball owes Pat Summit a debt of gratitude for building the increased popularity in women’s basketball,” he said. “She is the most iconic, best and most influential person perhaps ever in women’s basketball. The WNBA exists in large part to her contributions to the game of basketball.”

“Pat summit was an icon in coaching,” Nate said. “She was truly a coaching great who not only changed the landscape of her sport, but college athletics as a whole.”