Hatchell became the sixth coach – man or woman – to win 900 games Thursday when the Tar Heels beat Boston College 80-52. She told The Daily Tar Heel that when she started coaching at age 23: “I drove the bus. If the floor needed sweeping I swept it. Sometimes, especially on holidays, I’d wash the uniforms.”

Instead of a victory lap, Hatchell plans a “gratitude tour.” She plans to visit to every person who ever allowed her to coach, starting with a Tennessee school whose principal let her coach seventh- and eighth-grade girl’s basketball while she was still in college.

Hatchell’s Tar Heels won the national championship in 1994 and eight ACC championships, and she still has five years left on her contract.

“I think the greatest compliment that I have heard from a lot of people,” she told the DTH, “ is that you ain’t changed a bit.”

Norris, a 700-game winner in volleyball, recorded her 500th Chapel Hill High hoops victory Feb. 5 with a 57-37 victory over Southern Vance.

She immediately deflected any personal glory.

“What it really says about me is I have staying power,” she told CHN sports editor Elliott Warnock.

She also credited her players – “great athletes” – and family for supporting her through many missed meals and time away from home. “It is an outstanding accomplishment, but not just for me,” she said.

Well, sure. But coaches lead by personal and professional example. And Norris has set the bar high. Last year the N.C. High School Athletic Association named her its 2012 women’s Toby Webb Coach of the year, recognizing Norris as the state’s best coach in girls high school sports.

Congratulations, coaches.

Roses to student director Chloe Ladd and the cast of Chapel Hill High School’s “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” which played to about 600 people in performances last weekend.

When Ladd suggested a stage adaptation of the Internet hit to teacher Thomas Drago last year, he had never heard of it. (For shame, Drago.)

Rights to the work, penned by “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon, proved challenging until students hit on the idea of donating proceeds to charity. In addition to ticket sales, they collected money at last week’s show’s for Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a nonprofit foundation that fights childhood cancer. (To donate online go to alexslemonade.org/mypage/92248)

The show, about a would-be super villain sweet on a girl wooed by arch nemesis Captain Hammer, is a hoot – complete with “freeze ray” gun and pop-up cowboy chorus.

A special shout, too, to Adrian Thornburg, whose Dr. Horrible will go down as one of the most memorable and enjoyable student performances on any theatrical stage we have seen.

From the arch of his eyebrow to soul-stirring singing (a fellow theater-goer Saturday said he’d like to see him as Sondheim’s demon barber), Thornburg made this show stellar. His performance was skillful and self-assured.

“Adrian has done an amazing job for our drama program since his first role as Renfield in ‘Dracula’ when he was a freshman,” Drago says. “I’ll be sad to see him graduate this spring.”

Thornburg aspires to be a professional actor and auditions soon for the N.C. School of the Arts.

The show’s over, but the curtain may just be coming up on this rising star.