Walters State hires former Georgia State star Patechia Hartman to coach women’s team

Walters State turned to one of Georgia State’s most accomplished former players on June 17, hiring Patechia Hartman to lead the Lady Senators into the 2026-27 season. Athletic director Derek Creech said the department was “thrilled” to bring her in, and the move gives Walters State a coach whose résumé reaches from the college game to a 12-season professional career overseas.

Hartman arrives with the kind of playing background that carries weight in recruiting rooms and locker rooms alike. At Georgia State, she helped the Panthers win two conference championships and reach two NCAA Tournament berths, scored more than 1,500 career points, handed out more than 400 assists and collected 200 steals. She was a two-time Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year, had her No. 3 jersey retired in 2006 and was added to Georgia State’s 2025-26 Athletics Hall of Fame class, announced Jan. 13, 2026.

Walters State is also leaning on Hartman’s broader experience as a teacher of the game. Before the move to Morristown, she spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Georgia State, where the Panthers produced two All-Conference performers and a Freshman of the Year while earning their first program victories over Power 5 opponents, including wins over Georgia and Clemson. Her coaching trail also includes stops at McDonough High School, Henry County, Westlake, Tri-Cities and Atlanta Metropolitan College, a path that gave her exposure to both the prep game and the junior-college level.

The international part of Hartman’s résumé is just as notable. Walters State said she represented the USA National Team in the 2013 William Jones Cup in Taiwan, where she averaged 16 points, seven rebounds and five steals and was named the tournament’s top guard. For a Walters State program that has built itself into one of the sport’s standard-bearers, that kind of pedigree matters because it comes with familiarity in elite settings and the credibility to match.

The Lady Senators are coming off a 28-3 season, a perfect 20-0 mark in Tennessee Community College Athletic Association play, a regular-season title and a Region 7 championship. Walters State reached the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Elite Eight, its sixth Elite Eight appearance and first since 2018, after entering the tournament ranked No. 8 nationally. Hartman inherits that standard with the next season set to open in November, and Walters State is betting her background can help sustain the program’s ceiling while shaping its day-to-day identity.