Kay Yow... I might not have been a huge women's b-ball fan but I was a Coach Yow fan.

I will admit, I didn't know Coach Yow as well as many others. I did know her well enough for her to know my name, and for her to give me personal advice on several occasions. I will always remember her as an honest and Christian lady who went out of her way to help everyone else around her.

There are people in everyone's lives that leave an everlasting influence. Coach Yow was one of those people for me. Sadly I was a stupid teenager or college know-it-all when I mostly knew her. I never took her lessons to heart... until later. And Coach Yow had a lot to teach.

These days Coach Yow is primarily known for her courage in the face of cancer. It is one of many great things she has done. I remember her for something more. I heard her talk many times about her mission in life. It wasn't one of coaching, inspiring, or mentoring others. That all came with her true mission, to do God's will. All of the rest fell into her overall mission of being a Christian. I remember myself getting into trouble with NC State for a cartoon I published in the newspaper. Most people saw it as humor but a loud few decided they should threaten me until I apologised. I was too cocky to give a real appology, and shot back with a sarcastic and empty editorial apology. A few days later Coach Yow called me and told me something I didn't understand then. She said "Being a Christian means not reacting to anger with anger." She wasn't saying it's not right to fight back. She explained that you don't win friends by making enemies, and you don't win for God by reacting in anger. I just acted like a typical college genius and thought to myself, "whatever". I'm sad I didn't listen closer.

I also remember when I asked her about doubt, being a Christian. She retold a story I had heard before about her being the coach in the Olympics. She helped smuggle hundreds of bibles into Russia to give to the secret Christians in the USSR. She said she knew the consequences (losing the coaching job, going to jail in Russia, and being chastized) and had done it anyway. Coach Yow said she never had a doubt about what she needed to do. The lesson was that all Christians have doubts, but when it comes to God's will there is no doubt.

Still I know that Kay Yow is above watching everyone she loved... meaning everyone she ever met. I just feel that the single focus on Coach Yow's fight against cancer does a slight disservice to her whole story. She was a Christian, cancer victim, a mentor, and much more.