THOUGHTS THIS MORNING OF COACH YOW

Today is our Breast Cancer Awareness game -- our Play 4Kay game.

In March of 2007 I was serving as the interim head coach for the LSU Lady Tigers in the NCAA Tournament and we had advanced to the Regionals in Fresno, California.  Another of the regional participants was Coach Kay Yow and her North Carolina State team.  I was sitting in my hotel room with my wife and were watching a moving piece on ESPN on Coach Yow and her battle with breast cancer talking about how Coach Yow had actually had a chemo treatment on the team plane from Raleigh, NC to Fresno.  It was very moving and I can remember as if it were yesterday my wife Sherie, with tears in her eyes, saying "She must be an amazing woman."

Three months later Sherie was diagnosed with breast cancer.  When we spoke about the various options, Sherie simply said, "I hope I'm as tough as Coach Yow."

During the 2008 Final Four in Tampa, my wife and I were honored to speak at the inaugural Kay Yow Foundation press conference and for the first time Sherie got to meet her new hero.  I had known Coach Yow for sometime, working her camps.  But I will never forget how she treated Sherie that day -- as if they were old friends.  She gave Sherie confidence and hope in her battle.

When I spoke that day I said the following:

"We often ask ourselves why would God put a particular person through any tough trials and tribulations."  I then looked at Coach Yow and said, "I know why he pick you though.  In this very difficult battle against breast cancer we needed a leader of courage and inspiration.  So many of us thank you the being a light that guides through tough times."

Coach Yow continues to be the light for so many of us and while I often think of her and what she means to so many, I'm thinking a little more about her today.

Thank you Coach Yow!

ULTIMATE COACHES' CLINIC: KAY YOW

In 2008, Pat Williams, the GM of the Orlando Magic and a tremendous motivational speaker put out a book, "The Ultimate Coaches' Clinic." It is a fascinating book because of the style Pat utilized. He surveyed over 1000 coaches and administrators for insights to what is important to successfully do their job. It is a great book to own and I highly recommend it. Here are some thoughts from one of my heroes -- Kay Yow.


• Your attitude is the key. Keep up your enthusiasm and optimism through the tough times.

• Never criticize your players publicly.

• Preparation and hard work are important.

• Deal with your players with love and truth. That is how you win their confidence.

• Help your players believe in themselves. Without confidence, people can’t perform.

• Nobody follows a leader with just words. They hear it, but they must see it too. Then you’re in business. The leader sets the tone. A leader is a role model.

THINKING OF YOU TODAY COACH YOW

"I feel like I had zero control over getting cancer, but I have 100 percent control over how I will respond to dealing with cancer."
-Coach Kay Yow

I can vividly remember coaching at LSU and being in the regionals in Fresno, California along with UConn, Florida State and North Carolina State.  I was sitting in my hotel room with my wife Sherie and we were watching ESPN doing a special on Coach Yow and her battle with breast cancer.  The report talked about the struggles and pain of treatment as well as her fight to continue to coach her team.  Part of the report was her actually having a treatment in the charter plane on the way to Fresno.  Sherie looked at me and simply said, "What an amazing woman."

Though her camps and recruiting and working for Coach Gunter, I had come to know Coach Yow on a professional basis -- and "professional" would be a great way to describe her.  She coached the game with great integrity -- always willing to help anyone in any way.

Two months after watching that special on ESPN, Sherie was diagnosed with breast cancer and Kay Yow immediately became a much larger hero for her.  We discussed it in our home and decided to take Sherie's fight public to help raise awareness and support for this horrible disease.  We begin in our own small way working for and assisting local organizations along with the Kay Yow Foundation.  The following year at Final Four in Tampa, Sherie and I had the privilege and honor to speak at the tip-off luncheon for the Kow Yow Foundation.

For Sherie, it was a double thrill because she finally got the opportunity to meet Coach Yow who treated her as if she had known her all her life -- a trait that both made her and Coach Gunter special.  As for me? Well Coach Yow wanted to talk basketball.  "Tell me about your team?"

During my address at the tip-off I said the following:

"It is always difficult during these times to understand why God would allow something as horrible as cancer to evade those we love."  I then looked at Coach Yow and said, "But I know why he picked you.  And while the burden is more than I can understand I am so thankful for your courage and leadership.  I only hope you know what you mean to so many.  We love you."
 
WE STILL LOVE YOU!
http://www.kayyow.com/

WISDOM FOR THE BUSYCOACH

Stephanie Zonar has been a hero of mine since she wrote "Leader of the Pack," a very touching book about the courageous Kay Yow.  It's a very well written tale of how Coach Yow not only shaped the young women she coached at North Carolina State, but how through her incredible will and determination, she galvanized a nation through women's basketball to fight against breast cancer.  Stephanie has gave portions of the book sales to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.

Stephanie has a great website (http://lifebeyondsport.com/) with an inspiring blog and has travelled the nation to work with teams.

And now she has a new book out and I love it -- I believe it should be in every coach's library.

"Wisdom for the BusyCoach" -- is just that -- a book filled with short passages on a variety of subjects that can help us with our teams and more importantly -- with ourselves.

Each topic starts with a quote such as:
“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

—Goethe

That is followed with a passage of wisdom:
Sometimes BusyCoaches long for their players to “grow up.” You recruited them because you saw the potential, yet the road to maturity can take so, so long. When you refuse to coddle or make excuses for your athletes, but instead consistently expect them to exhibit character qualities like discipline, commitment and responsibility, you give them tools to achieve greatness. When you hold them accountable for their actions, you create a culture in which maturity will grow.

And then an action question:
Do you respond to your players based on where they are or where you want them to be? How will you help them reach their potential?

Followed by a biblical scripture on that subject:
“Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.”
—1 Thessalonians 5:11

Another great quality of the book is the index in the back.  Looking for a particular word such as "attitude?"  Go the index and find the pages that have passages regarding "attitude."  In fact, there are over 70 such words including character, persistence, respect, vision, honor, balance and many more.

To appreciate Stephanie's perspective of our profession, you need not go any further than her dedication:

Dedicated to my coaching buddies who model excellence, impart wisdom and teach athletes so much more than x’s and o’s. Thank you for tirelessly investing in the next generation of athletes.

Purchase this book at: http://www.lifebeyondsport.com/mybooks

SAYING GOOD BYE AND THANKS TO A COURAGEOUS WOMAN

RuthAnn Lobo, who fought a public battle with breast cancer during her daughter Rebecca Lobo's time at UConn, died of the disease Tuesday, the university announced.

Our prayers and thoughts go out to Rebecca and her family.  Rebecca reached out to me during my wife's battle with breast cancer and her mom fought a brave and public fight against this horrible disease providing tremendous strength and inspiration for my wife and I and no double countless others.

Lobo, 67, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, Rebecca's junior year with the Huskies. She recently suffered a reoccurrence of the disease.

Together, RuthAnn and Rebecca wrote "The Home Team", a book chronicling Rebecca's basketball career and her mom's fight with breast cancer, which included a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.

Both women became outspoken advocates for other women battling breast cancer, and worked with the WNBA to create a forum for women to discuss the disease.

RuthAnn received many awards, including the Maria Miller Stewart Award for mentoring young girls and boys and advocating equality for girls in education, and the Susan G. Komen Award, Connecticut Chapter. The award has since been renamed the Komen RuthAnn Lobo Award in her honor. A long-time educator, she was also a finalist for Connecticut Teacher of the Year.

COACH JANICE RICHARD: AN AMAZING COMPETITOR

I was very saddened today to learn of the passing of Coach Janice Richard, the women's basketball coach at Louisiana College.  Coach Richard died yesterday following a five-year battle with breast cancer.  I got to know Coach Richard through efforts to create greater awareness for breast cancer and found her to be an amazing person of strength.  She was an tremendous competitor.  My thoughts and prayers today are directed to her family and friends and for her team.  It is hard to imagine the loss they feel this morning but I guarantee that they have been extremely blessed to have her in their life and to learn from her amazing courage.

http://bit.ly/gdjIiU

STEPHANIE ZONARS ON COACH WOODEN'S LESSON OF HELPING OTHERS

The following is an excellent post of lessons learned from Coach John Wooden written by Stephanie Zonars.  It is ironic that I post something of Stephanie's as we enter Breast Cancer Awareness Month as I became a huge fan of hers reading her book "Leader of the Pack" -- a story she wrote about Kay Yow and her brave battle with this dreaded disease.  Stephanie has a very inspirational website and I would encourage all to check it out: http://www.lifebeyondsport.com/

Here's is Stephanie's post on one of Coach Wooden's core principles:

Coach Wooden used to say “You cannot have a perfect day without helping others with no thought of getting something in return.” Indeed, helping others puts a smile on our face and a spring in our step!

People with a “help others” mentality stand out more than ever in our me-focused, selfish culture. I’m sad to say that I can sometimes be so consumed with my own agenda and to-do’s that I’m completely oblivious to the needs of the people around me.

One of my favorite commercials shows how a simple act of kindness has a domino effect a it inspires onlookers to help others too. It reminds me that it doesn’t take much to make a big impact on an individual, a team or a community.

So what does it take to develop a “help others” mentality? Three simple suggestions:

Open your eyes: Become more observant. Notice the people and circumstances around you. Is someone approaching a door with a heavy load in tow? Did you just pass a broken down car and a woman walking with two small kids? Part of the joy of helping comes from responding before being asked.

Open your ears: Listen for clues. We are socialized to think that asking for help shows weakness, so many people may not ask directly, but will drop hints and hope someone picks up on them. Listen for statements like:

• “I probably shouldn’t have booked such an early flight because no one will want to take me to the airport at that hour."

• “I wish I knew how to use that excel program on the computer.”

Make it a game: Win every day. Play your own version of Where’s Waldo to see if you can find at least one person each day to help. The only way to fight our natural bent toward selfishness is to intentionally focus elsewhere.

REFRAMING ADVERSITY

"Kites rise against the wind, not with it."
-Kay Yow

Coach Yow mastered the art of reframing adversity. No matter what obstacle she faced, she found a way to use it as a motivator to propel her forward, not allowing it to keep her stuck.

Kites rise when the wind comes against them. The same is true for your team, BusyCoach. Your players’ greatest opportunity to rise to their potential happens when the team faces adversity.

If your starter goes down with a season-ending injury, for example, and you reframe it as an opportunity for others to step up, you just might see your role-playing sub turn into a conference player-of-the-week.

What adversity is your team facing today? How will you reframe it to help them overcome?

From Stephanie Zonars and "Wisdom for the BusyCoach"

I'm obviously a big fan of Stephanie's book on Coach Yow: http://bit.ly/cG2mFc

GIVING MORE THAN THAT

After being inspired by Rashanda McCants and her mother today (http://bit.ly/bd8C6), I thought I'd share another story from "Leader of the Pack: The Legacy of Legendary Coach Kay Yow." the book was written by Stephanie Zonars and a portion of the proceeds go to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund. This story comes from Claudia Kreicker Dozier who played for Coach Yow from 1980-1984.

"It was my senior year, 1984. We just suffered a heartbreaking over-time loss to No. 4 Old Dominion on their home court. A win would have put us in the Elite Eight. Instead, our season was over. I struggled to take my uniform off after the game, as it reminded me that our class had failed to bring Coach Yow a NCAA or Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title. I took that failure personally.

As a senior co-captain, I felt like I owed Coach Yow an apology for failing that mission. On the bus ride home the next morning, I fought back tears as I walked to the front. I was surprised to find her peacefully reading a basketball instructional book. I chit-chatted until my heart could bear it no more. Then, through tears and brokenness, I shared my sorrow at failing to help bring her a national title. She looked at me with loving surprise and said, 'But Claudia, you gave me so much more than that.'"

In that short passage, I took away a few things.

1. For a player playing in her last collegiate game to care more about her coach than herself speaks to the character of the player but more importantly to how the player obviously had been treated by Coach Yow.

2. I loved the fact that less than 24 hours after a tough loss that Coach Yow was reading a basketball book -- the Hall of Famer still dedicated to learning.

3. And of course, the grace and dignity in her statement, "...you gave me so much more than that."

When you talk about Coach Yow, you can certainly say the same thing. She gave us so much more than that!

You can find out more about Stephanie Zonars as well as order an advanced copy Leader of the Pack at: http://www.lifebeyondsport.com/

Again, it should be noted that partial proceeds of the book sales go to the Kay You/WBCA Cancer Fund.

INTELLIGENT IGNORANCE

I had a wonderful surprise in my office yesterday when I open the mail on my desk to find a copy of "Leader of the Pack: The Legacy of Legendary Coach Kay Yow." Accompanying it was a note from Stephanie Zonars, the author of the book. I took the book home with me and started reading it and couldn't put it down until I finished it. It is a remarkable book about an incredible woman. Stephanie took the time to contact 35 former players and assistant coaches and gave them each a section in the book to talk about the life lessons they had learned playing for Coach Yow. Stephanie then took each chapter and summarized it spiritually in a way that Coach Yow, a devout Christian, would be proud. There are many great stories in this book and I'm going to share one with you today, but I walked away from reading this book being reminded of the powerful responsibility we have as a coaches and the amazing influence we can cast over those the compete for us. It should be our goal as coaches to leave a legacy as strong as that of Coach Yow. Congratulations to Stephanie on a wonderful book.

The following comes from Kerri Hobbs Gatling who played for the Wolfpack from 1986 to 1990.

"When I think of Coach Yow, many of her familiar sayings come to mind:

'When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.'

'When life kicks you, let it kick you forward.'

'Don't wallow in self-pity, switch your feet and get out.'

'Attitude is everything.'

There's another, however, that stood out to me then and even today influences my daily life: 'Use intelligence ignorance.' Upon first glance, these two words -- intelligent and ignorance -- don't even seem to work together. How can someone operate intelligently, if he is ignorant?

Intelligent ignorance happens when we focus our mind on a goal and prohibit the thoughts and opinions of others from impeding us. In other words, to exhibit intelligence can sometimes mean remaining ignorant of others' opinions and turning a deaf ear to people who tell us we can't reach our goals because we are women, African American, from a single parent home, a single parent ourselves, from low socioeconomic status or a host of other labels.

With intelligent ignorance, I learned that many aspects of the game aren't captured on the stat sheet. Intelligent ignorance takes into account game-changing intangibles like work ethic and attitude, and literally ignores any consideration of losing.

Coach Yow taught me that practicing intelligent ignorance brings freedom to live without the limitations that others may place on me. It allows me to approach situations with an open mind and gives me the freedom to ignore naysayers. I find that even now as a wife, mother and professional, operating in intelligent ignorance helps me to achieve great things."

You can find out more about Stephanie Zonars as well as order an advanced copy Leader of the Pack at: http://www.lifebeyondsport.com/

It should be noted that partial proceeds of the book sales go to the Kay You/WBCA Cancer Fund.

COACH SHARP TO LEAD KAY YOW/WBCA CANCER FUND

Great news from the WBCA! We've landed a great leader to guide the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.

ATLANTA -The Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund®, in partnership with The V Foundation for Cancer Research, announces Marsha Sharp, avid women’s basketball pioneer, as the first executive director of the Fund.

“Of all of the experiences that I have had the opportunity to be a part of throughout the years, this has to be one of the most meaningful honors that I have received,” Sharp said. “It is an opportunity to give back, to help others and to carry out a vision that can make a difference in millions of lives across the globe. I look forward to embracing this challenge and helping to find a cure for cancer through the research that is made possible through this Fund.”

Sharp, most known for her 24-year tenure at the helm of the Texas Tech women’s basketball program, created a dynasty throughout West Texas and the entire country. She led her teams to remarkable success during her time with the Lady Raiders, including the 1993 National Championship. Sharp has been recognized for her accomplishments by being inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 1999, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2000, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Texas Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

She was named the Russell Athletic/WBCA National Coach of the Year in 1994 and SWC/Big 12 Coach of the Year seven times. She served on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Board of Directors and was its president from 2001-03.

Retirement from the coaching arena has only left more time and energy to expand Sharp’s career and pursue her other passions, both locally and nationally. She has served on the Women’s Protective Services board and co-sponsored the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Gala. She currently is president of the YWCA board of directors, serves on the Carillon Senior LifeCare Community board of directors, and the LISD School for Young Women Leaders advisory council. She has also been a TV color analyst for the San Antonio Silver Stars of the WNBA and director of a groundbreaking camp called Hoops and Leaders for elementary age boys and girls. Sharp also founded the United Future Leaders Program through Texas Tech University which promotes civility, ethics, leadership, and service qualities among West Texas youth.

About the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund

The Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund is a 501 c(3) charitable organization committed to being a part of finding an answer in the fight against women’s cancers through raising money for scientific research, assisting the underserved and unifying people for a common cause. Donations can be made at www.JimmyV.org or by calling 1-800-4JimmyV. All donations are tax deductible. For more information, visit www.wbca.org/kayyowwbcacancerfund.asp.

About The V Foundation

The V Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to saving lives by helping to find a cure for cancer. The Foundation seeks to make a difference by generating broad-based support for cancer research and by creating an urgent awareness among all Americans of the importance of the war against cancer. The V Foundation performs these dual roles through advocacy, education, fundraising and philanthropy.

About the WBCA

Founded in 1981, the WBCA promotes women’s basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster and promote the development of the game as a sport for women and girls. For additional information about the WBCA, please visit wbca.org.