Nels Hawkinson is a name many coaches will know, but will be familar to fans only because of what he organizes. Paradise Jam, for instance.

He wrote of his memories of Kay Yow.

Who’s Your Hero???

Looking back twenty- four years ago I recall attending my very first Women’s Final Four. I was a women’s Division 2/NAIA coach at Seattle Pacific University. The event was not what it is today, being more intimate with fewer folks at the convention.

Like many of us at our first Final Four, I was just trying to soak up as much of the excitement as possible. The highlight of that trip was attending an FCA small get together and seeing some of the “successful” coaches I had heard so much about. That was the night I first met Coach Kay Yow. She sought me out and inquired as to who I was and welcomed me and we visited. I could not believe she was talking to me. Then out of the blue, she asked me to close our time in prayer. I will never forget how scared and nervous I was. So nervous, I needed to pray about what I had to pray about.

Over the years, we’ve shared meals, cliff diving on a Greek island, the beaches of St Thomas, Final Fours, and ACC basketball games. Kay was always about others, when it could have been so easy to just be about herself.

I have some great coaching friends that I admire, however Coach Yow has always been my one true “Hero”. Now she is gone and I miss her already. We all do. Those angels must be having quite a party this week.