Web exclusive | Posted March 25, 1:44 a.m.
FRESNO, Calif. – Coach Kay Yow didn’t know how she would make the trip to Fresno, Calif. She knew she couldn’t miss it, but her assistants and many other staff members worried about the six-hour flight.
So the 65-year-old coach took everything she needed and jumped on the flight — her bags, her medicine and her nurse.
“My staff is always worried something is going to happen,” Yow said. “And then what do they do? What do I do?”
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Her nurse, Angela Vaughan, sat beside Yow during the flight. She gave the veteran coach her medicine and made sure Yow was comfortable during the journey.
Vaughn was unavailable for comment Saturday.
Yow said her oncologist, Dr. Mark Graham, sent the nurse — something that puts the assistant coaches at ease.
However, this wasn’t the first time a nurse has traveled with the team. It’s something the team experimented with late in the regular season.
“For the Virginia Tech game and Miami game, we tried for the first time to have a nurse go with her,” Graham said. “The entire operation went a lot better — they were more comfortable with her traveling. So we did that with the ACC Tournament and we’re doing that when she travels now.”
Graham and Vaughn started attending games in mid-February.
“On the day Feb. 16, when the court was dedicated and the team beat UNC, we were all there,” Graham said. “She was having problems at that time and I just think it gave her a greater comfort level.”
Graham, who joined the coach Saturday, said Yow reached a low a couple weeks later during the ACC Tournament. But he said this trip, in particular, had gone extremely well.
“She’s actually holding up real well,” Graham said. “In fact, right now, she’s the best she’s been in the past one to two months.”
Some of it has to do with not taking chemotherapy, Graham said. He decided Wednesday, the day before the team left, it would be better to pass on the chemotherapy because she had a low platelet count.
Even though Yow understood the situation, she was upset she had to take the time off.
“I just couldn’t take it — it wasn’t in my best interest,” Yow said. “I’m a little disappointed because I like to keep it going and not miss any time because I feel maybe that’s best.”
But Graham said because Yow has not taken chemotherapy, it will help State’s coach “to feel a little better.”
“There are fewer side effects,” Graham said. “We had lightened up on her chemotherapy. Her platelet count was a little low so we elected not to give it at all Wednesday. She’s done fine, if anything, she’s substantially better.”
Yow admitted the chemotherapy caused her to feel constantly weak and without a lot of energy. She hopes “a break will be good.”
Despite not taking the treatments, when the team arrived in Fresno, Calif., the staff got in touch with a local clinic. Yow actually spent part of her Saturday morning at the clinic taking blood tests. The trips to the clinic are to just “make sure everything is OK.”
For the players, it’s become normality. They are used to seeing their coach in out of the doctor’s office.
But senior center Gillian Goring said this season has taught the Wolfpack a lot more than just basketball.
“We’ve learned a lot about biology, character, faith, honesty — everything,” Goring said.