Playing girls basketball at Gibsonville High School
Yow describes her experiences with playing basketball at Gibsonville High School during the late 1950s. Noting that not all schools in the area had athletics programs for girls, Yow argues that girls sports were equally as popular as boys sports in the community. She goes on to explain that for her, the appeal of athletics was in the challenge to excel and in confidence-building.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Sandra Kay Yow, June 22, 2005. Interview G-0244. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- PAMELA GRUNDY:
-
Let's go back to basketball for a minute. In Gibsonville
obviously the high schools and I guess the junior highs had a
boy's team and a girl's team. Was there a
difference in how those two teams were viewed?
- SANDRA KAY YOW:
-
Well, it's interesting because I went to Gibsonville High
School which was a Guilford County high school. Just six miles away was
Burlington, and Walter Williams High School in Burlington was a city
school. There were no teams for girls at Walter Williams High School,
but six miles away in a county school [there were]. In Alamance, where
Burlington is, they had county schools, and they had teams, but not the
city school. It's interesting because if I had just lived six
miles away within a city, I would not have had the opportunity to play.
But because I went to Gibsonville High School, a county school, I had
that opportunity. The gym was packed for both the boy's and
the girl's games. At that time you played the
girl's varsity and the boy's varsity games
together, and then the JV's played their games together. It
was packed for both, just supported. The community and the town
supported both teams. I felt we had a great opportunity, and high school
would not have been anything like high school to me if I
hadn't been playing basketball. It added something to that
total experience that was unbelievable, and if I hadn't had
it, I would have missed so much. But there weren't college
teams so I was never thinking about really going to college. I just
accepted it didn't exist. I didn't expect it. I
mean that's the way that was. So when I was in college I
always felt like something was missing, and it wasn't until
after I graduated from college, [when] I got a job and I started
coaching that I realized it had been sports.
That's what it had been all along. That's what I
was missing, and I didn't understand that when I was in
college.
- PAMELA GRUNDY:
-
What did you like about basketball? Why did you like it so much?
- SANDRA KAY YOW:
-
I think that I like basketball. That just happens to be my sport. It
could have been another sport, but I think it was just the challenge
that sport brings. I thrive on the challenge of it. Working to become
the best that you can become, to develop whatever talents you have to
your potential, and then to go out and test them against someone else.
It's just a challenge, and it's fun. I just have a
love for competition, and I feel it's a love in the right
direction because I think competing with people rather than against
people, it's just a mindset. It's how you arrange
your mind about competition. I don't think you can perform as
well when you go out with a mindset, 'I'm going to
complete against these people.' It's nothing
against anybody that you're competing with, but
that's what you're doing, competing with them. You
just give the best that you have and they give the best they have, and
if at the end you've even gotten a little bit better because
of that experience in itself. You know there can be only one winner on
the score board, but there could be all winners, as people. I realized
this early on: if you give the best that you have that when
it's all said and done you may have a disappointment on the
score board, but there are other ways to win. Trying and giving your
best is the greatest way to win because you may be disappointed, but
really if you did give your best and you played really well, after a
period of time you feel good, long term, that you did that. It was sort
of like striving to be valedictorian. It is the same type of thing. In
the end you want to be able to, as people say, 'look yourself
in the mirror and just know that you've given your
best.' It's just exciting.
It's a game. It doesn't really count in the course
of life in a lot of ways. It's not a life and death
situation, but sometimes it can seem like it a little. But
it's almost like some parts of sport are practice for real
life. You're working on developing certain qualities and
characteristics that can help you succeed in life and no matter what you
do. You learn about discipline. If you really want to compete and be
good you have to learn about discipline, and you understand commitment
to excellence, and sacrifice, and dedication, and just like hard work,
and the important part that enthusiasm plays in success. You start to
learn about the ability to work with people, being a great team person,
and also being a leader. You just learn so much in sports.