An "E" for excellence and a "Kay" for class.

Kay Yow is a winner. She won the World Championship in 1986, the Olympic gold in 1988, four ACC Championships, and made 17 NCAA tournament appearances as coach of the North Carolina State Wolfpack. Total victories: 500. All of that winning accomplished through coaching artistry, a deep morality and an unmistakable touch of class.

COACH: How did you get interested in basketball, and how old were you when you first started playing?

YOW: I was a kid when my father put up a hoop in our backyard, and that's where I started playing. I went on to play on my elementary school and then junior high school teams. Growing up here in North Carolina, I could go outside and play all-year 'round. And that's what I did from the time I could look up and see the hoop.

My parents thought this was a great thing, and that helped, too. Both my parents were very sports-oriented. So they encouraged me to play sports, and they taught me the value of athletics - how it was character-building, how it taught you to work with a team. And I just thought it was the most fun thing in the world.

So I played in the backyard, moved through all the different youth and school leagues, and went as far as I could.

I saw that there was nowhere else for me to go with basketball, no further opportunities in the game for me. My future lay in teaching. Since I majored in English, I decided to become a high school English teacher. At UNC-Greensboro, I minored in library science, so that when I wasn't teaching English I could be the high school librarian. I never thought any more about playing or coaching basketball.

COACH: How did you get back to the game?

YOW: The principal at an archrival high school - Allen Jay High School in High Point, NC needed a basketball coach for the girls' team. He asked me whether I'd be interested in coming over to teach English and coach the team. I was reluctant because of the time commitment involved, but eventually he talked me into it.

So I taught and coached for two years, then became the librarian and coached for two more years. Those four years of coaching made me decide that coaching was what I really wanted to do.

I went back to UNC-Greensboro and got a masters and an undergraduate certification in physical education. I coached one year at Gibsonville High School (my alma mater), while I was in my last year of graduate school, and got an offer to coach at Elon College. My four years prepared me for NC State.

COACH: What made you decide to make a lifetime career out of coaching?

YOW: I really felt that I had an opportunity to touch people physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. In sport, the total person is involved and you have an opportunity to help young people to become outstanding athletes and to help them develop as persons.

In English, I had the opportunity to reach people on some of those levels, but emotions weren't that involved, and socially you didn't have as much interaction as you did with a team. In short, everything that I wanted to do as a teacher I could do as a coach.

Of course, teaching is a service occupation, but coaching is just the ultimate of teaching to me. You had students you could teach and mold and implant so many qualities and characteristics, such as self-control, the setting of goals, and the developing of a plan, belief in themselves, confidence, perseverance - everything that involves the person.

I know a lot of teachers develop a lot of those things, but in sports you can reach those levels more often, and because of the emotional level, catch glimpses of the truer person inside the uniform. A coach can really enjoy helping young people develop qualities that can help them succeed not only in the classroom, but in anything they do in life.

COACH: Where and from whom did you begin to learn what coaching was all about?

YOW: At Allen Jay High School, a man named Jim Swiggett coached both the men's and the women's basketball teams. Jim became something of a mentor to me. He was the first person to help me organize practices and run drills. He sat on the bench with me and helped me with game strategy until I got in the groove and felt that I could do it on my own a little more.

I also went to clinics and read coaching books all the time. I had to. It was the only way to learn when you didn't have college playing or coaching experience, or ever being an assistant coach. I was a head coach, immediately. So I read all the books I could, went to all the clinics I could, worked all the camps I could, talked to all the coaches I could.

COACH: How have you been able to maintain your level of excellence at NC State and Elon College before that?

YOW: The way to maintain excellence, at least the way I've done it, is by always having a great coaching staff and support staff, and being lucky enough to have excellent athletes.

Of course, some of our athletic excellence can be attributed to recruiting. It's a big part. But, again, you have to have a staff that can seek out, identify, and research the good talent. You can do none of this by yourself. What you do is organize the approach and get the right combination of people.

COACH: Does women's basketball present any special recruiting challenges?

YOW: I have a recruiting coordinator on my staff - an assistant coach who helps develop and refine our recruiting plan. She works with it more than anyone else, but everyone on my staff gets involved in recruiting to one degree or another. It's a team approach, a team effort, and when you're lucky enough to have a great staff, you'll do well.

One of the things that makes them great, of course, is their ability to evaluate talent - be able to identify the people who can play well at this level, and be able to make wise choices about the kind of time to spend on each person.

The key lies in focusing on the right people, people you have a better chance of getting to your university. A lot of decisions have to be made on each recruit, but recruiting mostly requires perseverance.

Having a winning program is a big help in recruiting. And you want to make sure your recruiters are personable, honest, down-to-earth, and can be themselves.

COACH: How do you size up the course of the game?

YOW: I definitely think the game has gotten more athletic and more physical. Take strength training. It has become an essential part of every program, a critical part of the preparation to play basketball, not only the inside positions, but all the way to the point guard. You used to look for strength in the inside positions. Today, everyone lifts weights and every position is strong.

As a result, you're seeing a lot faster tempos, more teams pushing the ball in transition, more full-court pressure types of defense. You also see a lot more movement on offense. A while back, a lot of people ran a 1-2-2 set, with two low posts, who just posted up, who didn't really move off the block. You powered the ball in, they powered the ball up.

Today, you're seeing more teams with posts with good range on their shots and some of whom can even shoot the three-pointer. And everyone is looking for that inside player who can score with her back to the basket, with her face to the basket, and from behind the arc - the 6-2, 6-3 post who can step out and shoot the three-point shot as well as step in and make the power moves inside.

Ball-handling skills have greatly improved at the guard positions, and, of course, the three-point shot has encouraged a lot of the smaller players to stay in the game.

COACH: Do you feel that the three-point shot is being overused, or do you consider it a vital part of your offense?

YOW: The three-point shot is very valuable. If you have some great three-point shooters, you really can stretch the defense and bring them out. Otherwise, the defense can pack more into the lane. If you have great post players, but no threat on the perimeter, it can get very difficult to get the ball inside. The three-point shot is a very powerful complement to your inside game.

COACH: Do you spend as much time on the fundamentals as you did during your early coaching days?

YOW: I still spend a lot of time on fundamentals. If you don't know how to do such things as defend a back screen, a down screen, help and recover on penetration, box out, you can't move on in the game. You have to be fundamentally sound to be able to do these things.

You can't depend on athleticism alone. Down the road somewhere the game will catch up with you. Athleticism and fundamentals make the complete player.

COACH: You've been hugely successful in both the NCAA and international competition. What special challenges does preparing for international ball present?

YOW: Up until the time that Tara had the national team, we had a very short time to prepare. Maybe six weeks to prepare for the Olympics, or three weeks to prepare for the World Championships. You could only put in a few things, a few options on offense.

We always felt that we needed a lot more time on defense. We could then play great team defense and put everyone on the same wavelength.

Once you got that set, you have to streamline and simplify your offense.

I always wanted to play an up-tempo game against international opponents. I felt that Americans could run the floor in transition as well as or better than anyone else, and that we should exploit our athleticism, on the floor and off the boards. Play hard on defense, and be unselfish with the ball.

We also reminded everyone of our mission - to win the gold medal. And if we stick together and play together, everybody will be rewarded and remembered.

COACH: How do you feel about the new professional leagues, the ABL and the NWBA?

YOW: I'm very happy about it. It will mean a lot to our outstanding players, playing here rather than going overseas.

When I started watching the ABL games, I wasn't impressed, but I believe that as the season progressed, the play got better and better. I was also glad to see big crowds at some of the sites. I think, given a good shot, the play will continue to improve and rise to a high level.

COACH: Do you think the pro leagues will affect the college game?

YOW: The players with pro potential will probably become more serious about their game and spend more time working at it. That might be a cause of concern in that they might begin spending less time on academics. We wouldn't want that to happen. And with two pro leagues, we might expect a rise in the number of outstanding players who come out early.

COACH: There are some critics who believe that the talent pool of players isn't deep enough to support one pro league, let alone two. Do you agree?

YOW: I believe that could be a concern. You have to have a broad enough base of quality talent for a professional league. Maybe two leagues are a bit much. Both leagues have eight teams; which is equivalent to a 16-team league. It's a tough call to make. We'll have to watch and see what happens with the NWBA this summer, then we'll know a lot more.

COACH: Did our great Olympic women's team change the game?

YOW: The '96 team provided a great example of work ethic and passion for the game. Everybody who watched them play or even practice saw a team going as hard as it could be all the time: a team playing together, unselfishly, and with a love of the game. It made a big, classy statement, and provided a very positive showcase for our game. The players conducted themselves in tough, classy ways, both as athletes and people.

COACH: Do you believe there are enough opportunities for women who want to go into coaching?

YOW: Basically, the only coaching opportunities we have are with women's teams, and we're challenged by men for those opportunities.

It would be really nice if we could be considered for more jobs. The men have 100% of the men's jobs and some of the women's jobs. Now I know that the men feel that they are not given an even shake at coaching women's teams, and in some cases that's true, but, overall, they are still considered for all coaching jobs, while the women are confined to the women's jobs.

COACH: Is it important for a women's team to have a woman coach, or does that really matter?

YOW: I believe that the key consideration should be the person.

At this point in time, the game would probably be better off having men coach men and women coach women. Nevertheless, there are coaches out there who could do a tremendous job coaching any kind of team.

I know there are women who could definitely coach men's teams.

COACH: How do you perceive the ethics in the coaching situation?

YOW: A coach has to review all the potential problems in his or her mind and come up with the answers to them before he or she is actually confronted by the difficulties.

I know that if I were approached by someone who asked me to cut some corners in recruiting or do something less than straightforward, I would know exactly how to respond - right now. Anytime you know the answer to a situation, you're not going to have to sit around wondering what to say. Preparation is the key.

And what I'm going to do must be based on my belief that you can't ever compromise ethics. People say, "Don't worry, no one will ever know about it." Well, someone will know about it.

I recently read a story about a man who was taking his two young sons to a movie, and the guy in the box office told him the movie was three dollars for adults and free for any kids under six years old. So the man hands over six dollars, as one of his sons is three and the other is seven.

The clerk tells him he could have gotten in for three, because no one could have known his son was seven. The father answered: "My son would have known."

That is what I mean by "setting an example."

You have to think through things like that and know that no matter how much you want something, your answer might have to be, "No, not that way." And if you haven't figured it all out ahead of time, you are not going to be ready when the problem comes up. For me, that has always been the best way.

All people need that kind of plan because they are going to get into some difficult situations in their lifetime and they must be ready to handle them when they happen.

The decisions will be tough enough to make, but, boy, if you have never thought them through, you are going to make rash decisions, or, just as easily, the wrong decisions.

KAY YOW (and How!)

Kay Yow finished her 21st season at North Carolina State a year ago with 451 victories and a career record of 506 - making her the sixth winningest active women's coach. Among her other major triumphs:

* A member of the Women's Hall of Fame;

* Coached the USA team to a gold medal performance in the 1988 Olympics;

* Coach of the Year in 1988;

* Has won four ACC championships and coached nine elite national teams in international competition.