The women’s basketball team opens up ACC play against undefeated rival North Carolina Sunday in the most anticipated match-up of the season, according to senior guard Shayla Fields.
“Our rival, Carolina, is the game I am most looking forward to,” Fields said during the preseason.
Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m. in the Dean Smith Center, but after an announcement that legendary coach Kay Yow would give up coaching for the remainder of the season, the Wolfpack (9-7) is dealing with major mental hardships and has shifted its focus from rivalry to healing.
“It’s a tough situation, but I think all our players and coaching staff are handling it the best way we can,” Fields said, the only senior of the team. “It’s a very emotional experience. We have been very positive and uplifting to each other.”
Associate head coach Stephanie Glance, who has worked with Yow for fifteen years, feels prepared to slide into the interim head coach position not only for Sunday’s contest, but for the remainder of the 2008-09 season.
“Coach Yow has taught us many things,” Glance said. “One thing that we apply now is flexibility — we are adapting and focusing on the task at hand.”
Tia Bell, a sophomore forward, added that the team was adjusting well to Glance’s coaching style to be.
“There are a lot of similarities,” Bell said. “Coach Glance can get in your face, but it’s for the better of the team. They do it to make us stronger.”
The team went 16 games without Yow before, the legendary coach took a short leave of absence in 2007 but returned to lead the team to the sweet sixteen, but this year, things are different since Yow has said she will likely not return this season.
Fields has faith in her team to carry on in their beloved coach’s absence in the upcoming game.
“It’s different because now we know that she is not coming back this year,î Fields said. “Two years ago, we didnít actually know. Our job is to respond the way we did then – we have to stick together as best we can. Hopefully we will come out on top.”
Glance said the team’s focus when Yow isn’t around has shifted as the players and coaches want to stay current on her health.
“We have been working hard to prepare for ACC competition,” Glance said. “They have been giving great effort at practice. Our focus is on two major things.Yow and her health is first and foremost. The girls are able to text her and e-mail her to check in. Secondly, we are focusing on playing North Carolina and representing N.C. State the best that we can.”
Practice norms and traditions have also changed without Yow according to Glance, but she said the team has been adjusting.
“Coach Yow has a certain clap and rhymes she does with us — we don’t do it when sheís not here,” Glance said. “The mindset before and after practice is when itís really difficult for us. Itís always on our minds.”
Still the Pack sprints onward to its rival game in doing what Yow has prepared them to doógive their all. The team and coaches feel that if Yow is battling a disease, that gives them inspiration to make her proud.
“We are trying to be consistent with what she has set,” Glance said.”It’s almost like we are her students and she is the teacher. It’s our time. Even though she is facing the hardest opponent of all, you can never count Yow out. She has such a strong faith.”
The team’s persistence in carrying on despite Yow’s absence embodies Yow’s poster message in Reynolds Coliseum that states: “Think positive. Never, ever give up. Donít quit.”
