North Carolina State University Athletics
Prayers for a Selfless Woman (1/7/09)
1/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Ever since women’s basketball coach Kay Yow had her first recurrence of cancer four years ago, she has contemplated whether it would be in her best interest or the team’s best interest for her to step aside as head coach.
That’s not an easy decision for anyone to make.
What has always impressed me about Coach Yow is that she has never based that decision on what is best for her. She’s always thinking about how it might affect other people. I don’t know that I have ever met a more selfless individual in all my years of working in college athletics.
This season was perhaps the hardest decision for Coach Yow, because she didn’t know what kind of team she was going to have. She lost a great individual player last year in Khadijah Whittington, and because of some other losses and a few injuries, she knew that this was a year, more so than most, that her team might need the benefit of her 37 years of coaching.
She wanted to see this season through, mainly because she thought her team really needed her. It’s a young team, with a lone senior on the roster, one that needs a strong leader.
Nothing epitomizes Coach Yow better than that. No matter what is going on in her life and this great lady has been through so much in the last four years her only concern is for others.
But this is a time that she needs to put her health first. All her energy needs to be focused on that right now.
So Tuesday Coach Yow made the difficult decision to step down as head coach for the rest of this year. She lacks the energy to do her best job, and the last thing she would ever want would be a detriment to the team.
She handed over all coaching duties to associate head coach Stephanie Glance and her other assistants, Jenny Palmateer and Trena Trice-Hill.
We have also received permission from the NCAA to elevate Kristin Gillespie, who was previously an assistant to the head coach, to a temporary assistant coach while Coach Yow is away. She will be on the bench with the rest of the staff during games, assume some coaching responsibilities and go on the road recruiting.
I am confident that they can capably guide the program until Coach Yow returns, as they did two years ago when she took a 16-game leave of absence.
Please keep Coach Yow and her staff in your prayers while she is away. She remains one of NC State’s most cherished treasures. And, if you would like to send her a note, go to this link on GoPack.com to let her know you are thinking about her.
Coach Yow rarely thinks about herself, but she should know that the rest of us are.
Lee Fowler
