Web exclusive | Posted March 25, 1:50 a.m.
FRESNO, Calif. – Down 78-71 with .1 of a second remaining, coach Kay Yow remained focused as she sat on the end of N.C. State’s bench.
Her team out. Her season over. And her career possibly finished.
But Yow sat there and dished out directions. She pointed her players to certain spots on the court and the Wolfpack passed the ball in.
Then, as senior guard Marquetta Dickens caught the inbounds pass, time expired and the buzzer sounded. And that was it.
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Alhtough Yow held in her emotions immediately after the loss, the post-game press conference was a much different story.
Yow, with tissues in hand, led junior forward Khadijah Whittington and sophomore guard Shayla Fields to the podium. Whittington had tears in her eyes and Fields quietly walked up to her seat, not looking up once.
After the coach made her opening statement, a reporter asked the two players what they would remember about the season. Fields said she would remember the fight in her team. Then Whittington described exactly how she felt about Yow.
“The team will take a whole lot of life lessons from this year,” Whittington said as tears poured from her face.
For 15 seconds, Whittington tried to gain her composure. As she did, tears rolled down Yow’s face. Yow’s sister, Susan Yow, put her head down — as did associate head coach Stephanie Glance. Glance’s parents quietly looked on and assistant coach Jenny Palmateer teared up.
“To have a coach that’s able to fight for you. Through all that she’s going through. There’s so many times when I feel like giving up and then I see coach Yow and she never gives up. Sometimes it looked like we were down, but coach Yow, she still believed in us,” Whittington said.
“It teaches you a lot about life, never giving up when you want something. Pursue it. That’s what I’m going to take from this season.”
After the players left, Yow said Whittington’s words summed up what “coaching is about.” She said it’s about coaching people, not basketball. She explained how parents bring the athletes to their school and trust them with the players — making them “parents away from home.”
“They come in at 17, 18 years old,” Yow said. “We’re going to have them until they’re 22. And the thing is, it’s a great time for growth, a great time for learning and we never want to forget that.”
As Yow sat alone in front of nearly 50 people, she quietly talked about her seniors and how the end of the season hadn’t set in. She talked a little bit about the Huskies and then came the question regarding her future.
Immediately, as though she had planned for the response, she said she had no immediate answer. Yow said a lot depended on how the chemotherapy goes and how she feels once it’s finished.
“I just need a little time to figure all this out,” Yow said.
But she’s preparing as though she is sticking around. She talked about her plans for the offseason and where the team will go. While Yow said she wouldn’t spend too much time on the court, she did expect to spend time talking with her players.
“Since I can’t work on the court as much like I used to, my part will be trying to talk to each of them and getting them sold on what they need to do, along with the staff,” Yow said.
After the team bus returned to its hotel, a small group of players’ family and friends waited in the lobby. The group cheered as each player walked through the glass door. Every player smiled and most stopped to hug.
For Yow, as she said after the game, it was a season which no one will forget anytime soon.
“They’ve done a tremendous job for us this year. It’s an incredible team – it’s a team that will never be forgotten about,” Yow said. “None of the teams have been forgotten about. This is just one that will stand out for everybody – our former players, fans, everybody.”