Two months after cancer forced her away from basketball, North Carolina State coach Kay Yow still fights a disease that won't let her rest. The Hall of Famer showed little sign of backing down Monday as she announced she'd return to the team, even as she adapts to what her body won't let her do. "I'm always anxious to get back with the team but I have to be realistic about it," Yow said.
"I told myself that I don't want to get back with the team and have it be a hindrance. I have to be able to make a contribution." The 64-year-old coach plans to resume her duties today, with her first game likely to be Thursday against ACC rival Virginia.
Yow, first diagnosed with cancer in 1987, left the team in November after doctors found the cancer that first recurred during the 2004-05 season was progressing. Longtime assistant Stephanie Glance has led the Wolfpack (13-7, 2-3 ACC) for the past 16 games. N.
C. State has lost two straight, falling to No.1 Duke and No.
2 North Carolina in the past week. Yow is in her 32nd season as Wolfpack head coach and has a record of 696-321 in 36 seasons. She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and coached the U.
S. women's team to gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. She has led the Wolfpack to four ACC tournament titles, 19 NCAA Tournaments and the 1998 Final Four.
"Kay is such a fixture, a pioneer for women's basketball," said North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell, an assistant to Yow in Seoul. "I don't know anyone who doesn't owe a debt of gratitude to Kay." Still, Dr.
Mark Graham, Yow's longtime oncologist, called her treatments "life-extending" instead of curative. "All of her disease is not gone," he said. Yow's most recent problems began when she felt so exhausted that she had to lie down and rest in the hours leading up to N.
C. State's game against North Carolina-Wilmington on Nov. 17.
Tests later revealed the cancer that forced her to miss two games during the 2004-05 season had progressed. The school announced on Nov. 22 that Yow would go on leave to focus on treatment, which included a combination of chemotherapy and targeted biologic therapies.
But she stayed involved by watching games on TV or reviewing them on DVD. She also attended a few practices so that her players could see that she was OK. "It was very emotional at times," forward Khadijah Whittington said.
"She's a link in our chain and by her not being there, it was hard. It's very uplifting ..
. knowing that she's back. I'm pretty sure we're going to play with more emotion seeing that Coach Yow is on the sideline.
" Yow hopes to go on road trips, though she said she'd have to wear a mask on airplanes to protect her immune system and might have to skip some team functions.
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