The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 ■ 49 Melvin had many previous relation- ships, but those didn't seem to help her in a job search. On July 13, she was intro- duced as the head girls basketball coach at Green Hope High School in Cary, the same place her older brother Alejandro Ellis has been the boys head coach since 2019. "He told me about the position and helped me get an interview," she said. It was her reputation in the game, however, that got her the job. While it may not be on the same level as her most recent position with the Mercury, that's fine with Melvin. She hopes to hone her coaching skills with younger players. "In the end, it's about getting reps and staying around the game, just like with anything in basketball," she said. "You have to get your reps in, get in the gym and coach, work to develop my philoso- phy as a head coach. "This is a great opportunity for me. It's a family affair, and it helps me build my coaching résumé." That tends to be harder than most former players care to admit. Melvin's playing credentials are unquestioned. An all-state high school selection who was the 1995 ACC Freshman of the Year and an All-ACC pick from 1996-98, she was a superstar for head coach Kay Yow. Melvin was a first-team Kodak All- American in 1998, as well as a Wade Trophy finalist as the national player of the year. She won both of NC State's awards as the school's top athlete, the H.C. Kennett Award and the Alumni Athletic Trophy. She was the leading scorer and re- bounder for the only team Yow ever coached to the NCAA Final Four, which happened 25 years ago this season. A first-round pick in the WNBA Draft, Melvin spent a dozen years playing the game she loved at the highest level. When she retired in 2014, however, stay- ing around the game became more of a challenge. She coached high school basketball for two years and was an ambassador for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. In 2018, she was the first female assistant hired for a men's team through the NBA's Assistant Coaches Program, working for former North Carolina player Joe Wolf and the Greensboro Swarm in 2018. In 2020, she served for one season as an assistant coach with the Mercury. "I don't have any regrets about my path of playing and then trying to get into coaching," said Melvin, who spent her WNBA offseasons playing overseas. "When I didn't find anything else in the WNBA, I thought the best thing for me to do was to come back to North Caro- lina and begin reestablishing my con- nections. "Coming back here, returning to my roots and still being involved in basket- ball is a win-win situation for me." Yet it's a challenge that other former men's and women's players have ex- perienced while transitioning into the coaching profession. "It was really frustrating," said former Wolfpack men's player Chucky Brown. "As a player, you have all this playing experience, which means a lot. Then there aren't a lot of opportunities if you haven't spent a long time creating a coaching network." Brown played with more NBA fran- chises (12) than any player in history, was a longtime scout and sometime professional coach, always looking for the right fit. He had jobs in both the World Basketball Association in Raleigh and the NBA Developmental League in Roanoke, Va. When he heard from a friend there was a position open at West Johnston (N.C.) High School in 2019, he pursued it. After three years, he was introduced as the new head coach at Raleigh's St. Augustine University on April 1, 2022. "I would see people all the time who had a lesser résumé get an opportunity to coach," Brown said. "I bet Chasity has as good a résumé as some of the people coaching in the NBA and the WNBA. In the end, though, coaching is a who- you-know business. "Every coaching job I have ever gotten was because of who I knew." Still, Brown embraces the opportu- nity to coach at the Division II college level and to impart the knowledge he has gathered over a lifetime of basket- ball. "It might be who you know that gets you the job," he said, "but it's what you do with that opportunity that keeps it." And that's what excites Melvin the most about her new job, the opportu- nity to coach fresh faces still learning the game. She has plenty of ideas of what she wants to do. "The No. 1 thing is creating a culture," she said. "What I learned from Coach Yow is to always have a positive cul- ture. It's not just about being an athlete, or how much talent you have or your various skill sets. It's about character, something that will help you in athletics and in life. "No. 2, it's about teaching the funda- mentals of the game. I learned a lot from my old-school coaches, and I was able to excel because of those fundamentals. "Finally, it's about passion and excite- ment for the game. I want my players to understand that this is a gift, some- thing that might be challenging, just like schoolwork, but something that will de- velop skills used throughout your life." There's something about all those lessons that seems awfully familiar to Melvin as she recites the well-worn list. "Every time I start saying those things," she said, "all I can hear is Coach Yow's voice saying the exact same thing. It's a little bit surreal." As coaching philosophies go, it's a pretty good start. ■ Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. " Coming back here, returning to my roots and still being involved in basketball is a win-win situation for me. " Melvin on being named the head girls basketball coach at Green Hope High