The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1190316
34 ■ THE WOLFPACKER She kept it from me. But I think that's one reason she steered me to NC State." After graduating with a degree in speech communications — and with the WNBA still 10 years in the future — Trice-Hill embarked on an overseas playing odyssey that would last for the next 12 years. From 1987-97, she played for teams in Spain, France, Brazil (where she met her future husband in 1999) and Italy, before being drafted in 1997 in the WNBA's first season by the New York Liberty. An injury ended Trice-Hill's stay in the WNBA in 1998, and she returned to Europe for another stint for two teams in France. By then in her mid-30s, married and with a young daughter (Kiana), Trice- Hill was contemplating life after playing the game for more than 20 years. But it took a world-shaking event to cement her decision. "I was preparing for practice on Sept. 11, 2001, when a teammate told me to turn on the TV," Trice-Hill said. "I saw the plane hit the tower. My daughter was with me in France, going to school. "I called my coach, told him I wasn't coming to practice, got my daughter, and we sat in our apartment the rest of the day, scared and wondering what to do next." Earlier that summer, before returning to France, Trice-Hill had stopped by the office of then Hampton University women's basketball coach Patricia Cage-Bibb. "I knew I was getting to the end of my playing career, and I'd been a player-coach for my team in France the previous year and liked coaching," she said. "They didn't have any openings, but Bibb told me to keep in touch. "When 9/11 happened, I felt it was a sign. I finished the season, came home, contacted Coach Bibb, and she hired me as her assistant in 2002." Hampton had won two straight Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championships with Trice-Hill on staff when she got another very unexpected call in the summer of 2004. "It was Coach Yow," she said. "She'd just lost one of her assistants to Arkansas, and she offered me the job. Without even talking to my husband first, I said yes. "I'd always wondered what it would be like to go back and coach where I played, and I had talked about it with my husband before. What player wouldn't want the chance to go back and coach at their alma mater?" For the next five years, Trice-Hill joined fellow assistants Stephanie Glance and Jenny Palmateer on Yow's staff, helping the Pack to three straight NCAA Tournaments (2005-07) and a memorable ACC Tour- nament win over No. 1-ranked and undefeated Duke in March 2007. "That's probably the main memory of those years, one I always talk about with my family," Trice-Hill said. "That, and walking on the court for the first practice with Coach Yow. I couldn't believe I was working with and learning from a legend. "There are so many things I learned from her that I take with me in my life — how despite all the successes and honors she got, she never let them change who she was. She was always gracious, humble and available, and that's what I most take with me — to be yourself, know who you are and stick with it." Yow's death in January 2009 was a double blow for Trice-Hill, not only ending her coaching career at NC State (with the eventual hiring of Kellie Harper in March) but rekindling the feelings of losing her mother. "There were so many similarities with my mom, and you don't ever really stop grieving when you lose a mother," she recalled. "It was hard having those feelings resurface." For the next seven years, while her husband remained in Raleigh, Trice-Hill rode the coaching merry-go-round for stops at Shaw (in 2010), Virginia Commonwealth (2010-12), Columbia (2012-13), Norfolk State (2013-15) and back to Columbia in 2015, after Glance had accepted the vacant head coaching position. But before the season even began, Glance resigned to take over as executive director of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, leaving Trice-Hill with a one-year apartment lease and an interim head coach, Shelia Roux. "Her contract wasn't renewed after that season, and I was just ready to go in a different direc- tion," she said. "I came home, saw Miller-Motte College had an opening for an admissions rep and talked to the executive director [Eric Ellis, an NC State grad]. I've been here three years now." Her job demands keep her from attending many Wolfpack games, and she admitted returning as a spectator to Reynolds Coliseum — where her No. 15 is one of just seven hanging in the rafters after having been retired by the school — after nine years of playing and coaching there was difficult at first. "I've gotten past it," she said. "I talked to [former Pack director of athletics] Debbie Yow, and I talk to [current Pack coach] Wes Moore — I think he's doing an awesome job." Though her dream of a long coaching career may be in the past, Trice-Hill is glad to be back home and still be a member of the Wolf- pack family. "It's all about giving back, and my way of giving back is being a supportive fan now," she said. "I look forward to hopefully being more involved in the future." ■ After a 15-year college coaching career — including a five-year stop at NC State to serve under Kay Yow — Trice-Hill opted to settle down in Raleigh and take a job as an admissions rep at Miller-Motte College. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS "It was such a family environment at NC State, and we went to levels of success together that were rewarding and memorable for all of us." ■ Trice-Hill