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Josh Brooks hires women's basketball coach in continuation of crazy start to time at Georgia

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•03/27/22•

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Mackenzie Miles/UGA Sports Communications

It’s been a busy month for Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks. However, that’s nothing new for the young A.D. In fact, since being appointed to the position in January of 2021, Brooks has brought in five new coaches for varsity athletics at UGA: track & field, softball, soccer, men’s basketball and now, women’s basketball.

On Saturday, Brooks announced the hiring of new women’s basketball coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson. Better known as “Coach Abe,” the former Lady Bulldog will be the third full-time head coach in program history taking over for Joni Taylor who left for the same position at Texas A&M on Wednesday.

“We are thrilled to welcome Katie, Michael and their daughters Savannah and Brooklyn to Athens,” Brooks wrote in a statement released in conjunction with the hiring. “Throughout this process, one name kept coming up, and that was Coach ‘ABE.’ Her resume and history of success at every level is impressive. Our goal was to find a proven coach who has had sustained success both in competing for conference titles and in the NCAA tournament. Katie is the entire package, and I can’t wait to see what her teams are able to accomplish here at the University of Georgia.”

Brooks has been adamant about having all of the university’s athletic programs competitive. That’s been the goal in each and every decision that the’s made during his tenure. And in each of those decision, Brooks feels like he’s grown as an athletic director.

“You better be growing and learning,” Brooks said after hiring Mike White. “I think each search is so different depending on where that sport and program are at in their growth of their program, depending on the national landscape and just sometimes there are certain candidates that just by the grace of God are available and want to have a connection to get back to the south or region. But, with all that said, I can’t underestimate – and this is a compliment to President Morehead and Commissioner Sankey, the power of the SEC is extremely powerful when you talk about all these different sports. You’d be amazed of the candidates that showed interested because they know how powerful this conference is. But you have to look at each search differently.”

“I’ve had great confidence in Josh from the beginning. He’s just reconfirmed everything that I’ve thought about him as an athletic director from the first day he started,” Jere Morehead added when speaking about Brooks and what he’s learned about him early in his time at Georgia. “He’s thorough, he looks at every aspect, he was meticulous in this process. I’ve never seen a person that had more data and more information about candidates. I guess what really impressed me was how he was able to evaluate people and give insight as to what he learned after an interview and the observations that he would make but he’s already acting like an athletic direct that’s also got 11 years of experience even though he’s in his second year. So one again, I was just very impressed with how he’s running the Georgia athletic program.”

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