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Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools employees plan to attend the funeral of former N.C. State women's basketball coach Kay Yow today.
CMS assistant director of athletics Sue Doran once worked with Yow at N.C. State and has known the family for nearly 30 years. Mallard Creek Principal Kit Rea played softball and volleyball for Yow at N.C. State in 1976 and '77.
Yow, who won more than 700 basketball games in 38 seasons, died Saturday after a long fight with breast cancer. Doran, 52, visited Yow in a Raleigh hospital on Martin Luther King Day. Doran was an assistant coach under Kay Yow's sister, Susan, for 20 years at several schools. Doran also worked at Maryland, under Yow's sister Debbie, who is athletics director.
Doran spent several seasons at N.C. State working with Kay Yow as director of women's basketball operations.
“I used to joke with the family about this,” Doran said, “but I was the fourth Yow daughter in the family. I was extremely close to that family through the years.”
Doran said she would miss her dear friend.
“For the last 28 years, she's been a part of my life,” Doran said.
Rea, 50, was going through some boxes at home last weekend when she ran across an old browning piece of paper. It was a note from Yow, written when Rea was playing for her in the '70s.
It had “Winner,” written on it, along with a personal note. Rea said it was a “warm coincidence” that she found it when she did.
“She was such a special lady,” Rea said. “I probably took more from her and how she worked with us and used that in how I tried to work with the kids I coached for 17 years than anything else. She was just unbelievable.”
