Miracle worker
Purdue's charismatic Carolyn Peck has quickly risen to top of women's basketball coaching ranks

By WILLIAM KALEC
Collegian Staff Writer

During Big Ten Media Day last October, Carolyn Peck sat at her roundtable in the conference room of the Chicago-O'Hare Marriott trying to keep her composure.

But that task was very tough to accomplish.

Returning every single player from a squad that came within a step of becoming the first Big Ten team in five years to reach the Final Four, the Purdue women's basketball coach couldn't help but grin as question after question was verbally thrust in her direction.

"How do you think your backcourt of Stephanie White-McCarty and Ukari Figgs rank in the nation?" one reporter asked.

"They are one of the best, if not the best," Peck replied.

"Is this the year your team makes the final leap and makes the Final Four?" someone else inquired.

"We have a very talented team," said the former Vanderbilt standout center from 1985-88 with a big southern smile on her face.

"Are your plans for next season going to be a distraction at all during the season?" a reporter asked abruptly.

Peck's smile was gone.

For a moment Peck lowered her head, sighed and answered the reporter's question with an attitude that did not mirror her previous demeanor.

"Yes, I am leaving Purdue at the end of this year," Peck said. "And today will be the last time I ever talk about it until the end of the season."

Coming off a season in which her Boilermakers made an amazing run as the No. 5 seed in the Big Ten Tournament to the conference championship and on to the NCAA Elite Eight, Peck knew expectations were high and she had a job to do. But in the back of her mind she knew bigger opportunities loomed over the horizon.

And try as she might, Peck simply could not keep this story under wraps.

Hanging over the heads of the No. 2 Purdue Boilermakers all year has been the fact that no matter what happens after this fast-becoming miracle season, Peck will leave West Lafayette, Ind., in search of a new miracle.

Last July, Peck was named new coach and general manager of the Orlando Miracle, one of two new WNBA expansion teams starting play for the 1999 season. At 32 years of age, Peck has ascended to the peak of her profession.

"We had a list of six to 12 candidates and Carolyn was not even on that list. She was at the bottom of it," Orlando Magic and Miracle Senior Executive Vice President Pat Williams said. "Duke coach Gail Goestenkors and Florida coach Carol Ross both called me and said, 'Talk to Carolyn Peck. After you talk to her your search will be over.'

"I was not disappointed."

While impressive, Peck's coaching resume is quite miniscule compared to other coaches currently in the WNBA -- but Williams was able to look past that.

What he saw was the woman who as an assistant played an instrumental role in the success of one of the premier college programs in the country, Tennessee.

Williams saw the coach who, after only three years as an assistant, took over the reigns of a Big Ten program.

Most importantly, Williams saw something that experience cannot measure -- Peck's ability to get the most out of her players.

And while Williams' decision shocked many, everyone who had ever been associated with Peck through basketball was not.

"I am not at all surprised because when Carolyn came to us as an assistant she obviously demonstrated her desire to be involved in our program, as well as talking and studying the game," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. "She really wanted to be committed to this profession. While she didn't have the experience of some, I knew she would be successful because of the way she worked in other areas."

Those other areas transcend off the court.

During a women's pride dinner last summer in Orlando, Peck was in the middle of a conversation with her new bosses from the Miracle when she noticed a junior high school-aged girl out of the corner of her eye. Peck excused herself right in the middle of conversation.

She could tell someone was not having fun.

Peck rose out of her seat and walked her 6-foot-4 frame over to the teenage girl, crouched down and began to talk to her. After just five minutes of conversation, the girl's frown disappeared. Peck wanted to make sure everyone was as ecstatic as she was.

Peck followed that act with a speech after the dinner that made approximately 700 people stand and applaud her. And while the masses clapped their approval, Williams did more.

He cried.

From that moment, any doubt that Williams still had about hiring Peck was erased as he described himself as "jacked" following one of the most influential speeches he had ever heard.

"She's just got it," Williams said. "Some people got it and she does. She has an aura about her and you can see her passion for life.

"She is one of the chosen ones. Carolyn is not only going to change basketball, but society as well."

Peck's hard work, ability to connect with people and knowledge of the game have put her in a position that only 12 others in the world share -- head coach of a WNBA franchise.

In four short years, Peck has proved that miracles can happen.