Yolanda Moore knew this day would come.
She just didn”t know when it would be.
At 3:30 p.m. today, the words of former University of Mississippi women”s basketball coach Van Chancellor likely will reverberate in Moore”s head when she is announced as the new girls basketball coach at Heritage Academy.
“Coach Chancellor told me a long time ago I was called to coach,” said Moore, a standout at Ole Miss from 1992-96. “It was my senior year (at Ole Miss) and I told him I was going to be a big-time sports broadcaster. He told me, ”I know you have it in your head you know what you”re going to do, but you”re called to coach.” It turns out he was right.”
Moore scored 1,485 points (13.4 points per game) in her career at Ole Miss. She went on to play for Chancellor with the WNBA”s Houston Comets, where she helped the team win championships in 1997 and ”98. She went on to play for the WNBA”s Orlando Miracle in 1999 and then played professional basketball overseas for two years in Europe and Asia.
Chancellor, who stepped down earlier this year as women”s basketball coach at LSU, credited Heritage Academy for making a “tremendous hire.”
“She will do a great job,” Chancellor said. “She is a class person, she knows the game, and she is very articulate. She is everything you could want in a basketball coach.”
Chancellor said Moore, who was first-team All-Southeastern Conference performer in 1994-95 and 1995-96, was a 6-foot-2 post player who played hard, was a tough rebounder, and who could score. He always knew Moore would become a coach and that she would be successful in whatever she decided to do.
“She has class written all over her,” Chancellor said. “I think it will be a great marriage. The people in the community are going to like her.”
Moore, a Parade All-American from Port Gibson High School, will work as a middle school and varsity girls basketball coach at Heritage Academy. She said she will work as a teacher at the school but that her teaching assignment hasn”t been finalized.
Moore will replace Bruce Allsup, who lost his job as girls basketball coach and athletic director in April. Allsup”s position and several others in kindergarten through 12th grade were cut due to financial concerns.
Allsup guided Heritage Academy to an 18-15 record and a runner-up finish in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA, Division II state title game.
Moore said she doesn”t know a lot about Heritage Academy other than the school has a strong academic tradition. She said the enthusiasm Heritage Academy Headmaster Tommy Gunn and athletic director Gary Clark showed in wanting to build a girls basketball program at the school impressed her.
“I never met a high school administrative staff that was as excited and committed to girls basketball as those two,” Moore said.
Moore also is excited to work with a talented class of upcoming players and rising senior Rachel Hollivay, a 6-5 post player, who is one of the nation”s top recruits. She said she will have high expectations of every player and is eager to start the building process.
“I am going to give all of the girls the same thing. I am going to give them the best I have,” Moore said. “I am going to teach them all I have learned and teach them the fundamentals and about the recruiting process. It is going to be a team.”
Moore”s daughter, Courtney, is a senior at Starkville High School. She recently signed a scholarship to play basketball at Meridian Community College.
Moore has another daughter, Ashley Washington, who will be a ninth-grader at Heritage Academy for the 2011-12 school year.
Moore spent half of one season as assistant boys basketball coach at DeSoto Central in 2007. At the time, she also was working on her master”s degree at Alcorn State. She was forced to step away from the job as assistant coach after she was put on bed rest in December 2007 because she was pregnant with twins. The twins (one boy, one girl) will be 3 years old June 30.
She also ran a basketball training development program for girls in grades 6-12 in the DeSoto Central area.
Moore holds a master”s degree in Workforce Education Leadership from Alcorn State. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in Instructional and Work Force Development and a Diversity Training Certificate at Mississippi State.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.