The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/916614
46 ■ THE WOLFPACKER WHEREARETHEYNOW? three months after I arrived." A four-year stint at UNC-Wilmington from 1993-97 followed, but when Yow was unexpectedly let go following the 1997 season, she reluctantly accepted an offer as an assistant coach with the WNBA's Cleveland Rockers. "I didn't want to go, at first, but after three years I really loved it," she recalled. Then, the Rock- ers cleaned house (the franchise folded shortly thereafter), and Yow moved to Charlotte to become an assistant to T.R. Dunn for the Sting, a stay that lasted just one season. A f t e r s p e n d i n g most of 2001 travel- ing with NC State and doing some radio analysis, Yow — despite advice from her sisters not to go — took over at Providence for what she admits now was "Probably the worst deci- sion I've made. Providence was just a bad situation." A short coaching stint followed at the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, and then Yow moved to Raleigh. She spent the remain- der of 2006 and part of 2007 living with Kay, whose breast cancer had returned and forced her to miss a large part of the 2006- 07 season before returning to lead NC State to upsets of Duke and North Carolina and its last Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. Yow then had a six-year stay at Belmont Abbey, before accepting a move to Queens University, back in Charlotte, in 2013. "Probably my second baddest move," she recalled. "They had all the bells and whistles of a new program with new fa- cilities, and they'd been in the same con- ference as Belmont, so the AD at Queens had known of me for six years." But a change in ad- ministration in 2016 led to a non-renewal of her contract last March. Though her long years of coaching at both the college and pro levels have made her financially secure, and she's content (for now) to help out other coaches, scout, and participate in the John Maxwell leader- ship course, the 63-year-old and youngest of the Yow siblings is still waiting for one final chance to roam the sidelines for a basketball team. "I don't have a passion to do anything else," she explained. "If the right assistant's job at a D-I program opened up, I might consider it. But I'm also a homebody. I have a house here in Charlotte that's paid for, and I don't want to go just anywhere. And the longer I'm away, the easier it's becoming." Looking back, Yow says she really wouldn't change much in a career that, ironically, overshadowed her sisters when it came to playing accolades. "I wish I'd had more foresight as far as job selection," she admitted, "but I believe everything happens for a reason. "I have great faith that there's a reason for me to be where I am right now. I may not know the why, but I'm okay with it. "My family has always supported me in everything I've done — there was never any feeling of jealousy. The people that I've known and worked with day to day know and respect me and what I have the ability to do, and that's what gets me through." Susan Yow was enshrined in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame last year. Her number, 14, is one of six hanging in the rafters of Reynolds Coliseum, joining those of Pack all-time standouts Genia Beasley, Linda Page, Treena Trice (Hill), Andrea Stinson and Chasity Melvin. The number has also been retired at Eastern Guilford High School. "Kay kept trying to tell me they retired it because the last Yow girl had finished there," Susan said. "But I told her it was for me." A fitting tribute for the Yow family's final contribution to North Carolina bas- ketball lore — and, arguably, its best hoops player. ■ Yow sisters Debbie (left) and Susan honor their older sister in 2012 when Kay was inducted as part of the first class in the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN "I really hadn't done much with basketball before junior high, just your normal neighborhood activities. But after I played my first organized game, I knew that's what I wanted to do." ■ Susan Yow