By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 21, 2023 –When Yolett McPhee-McCuin was appointed the ninth women’s basketball coach in the history of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in April of 2018, The Dispatch, a Columbus and Starkville, Mississippi daily newspaper, credited Ole Miss Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Ross Bjork as saying that Yolett “was born to teach.”
“As the daughter of legendary Bahamian basketball coach Gladstone ‘Moon’ McPhee and her mother a teacher, ‘Coach Yo’ has coaching and leadership running through her DNA. Throughout our search process, it became clear to us that coach McCuin is a star in the making, and we better secure her leadership before another program does,” Vice Chancellor Bjork said at the time.
He added: “With her perspective as a collegiate point guard, we know she sees the big picture of what it takes to be successful in the SEC and on the national stage. Coach McCuin’s leadership, style of play, recruiting prowess, energy and passion is what we need to re-establish Ole Miss women’s basketball back to competing for and winning championships.”
Yolett did not succeed in establishing a “miracle winning season” for the Ole Miss women’s basketball team during her first year as head coach — with 9—22 overall record, including only one win in Southeastern Conference games — but since then Vice Chancellor Bjork’s optimism at the time has been proven to be well-founded.
Ole Miss had just 16 wins in McPhee-McCuin’s first two seasons, but after a much-improved 2020–21 season, Ole Miss extended McPhee-McCuin contract through the 2024–25 season on March 10, 2021. Ole Miss finished the season 15–12 and runners-up in the 2021 Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
In 2021–22, Ole Miss improved even further with a 23–9 record and an NCAA Tournament appearance for the first such appearance since 2007.
Then in 2022–23, Ole Miss made a second straight NCAA Tournament. On March 19, 2023, in the second round, Ole Miss as a no. 8 seed upset no. 1 Stanford 54–49, improving to 25–8 and advancing to the Sweet 16 round for the first time since 2007.
As a basketball player in college, McPhee-McCuin played her first two seasons at Miami-Dade Community College. She received her bachelor’s in business management and administration in 2004 from the University of Rhode Island {URI), where she played in 56 games as a junior and as a senior at URI helped the Rams advance to the 2003 Atlantic-10 Conference title game.
The fact that receiving a good education while excelling in sports as a basketball player was high on McPhee-McCuin’s checklist of accomplishments is not happenstance. Her mother, Daisy McPhee, was a career educator and former Principal at highly respected Grand Bahama Catholic High School in Freeport, Grand Bahama.
I don’t know whether there is a connection between her mother’s career as a teacher at Grand Bahama Catholic High and the fact that her father, Gladstone “Moon” McPhee, had a legendary career as one of the greatest basketball coaches in The Bahamas’ sporting history — including many years as head men’s basketball coach at Grand Bahama Catholic High — but it is obvious that the product of their marital union has imbued Yolett with a heavy portion of both of their DNA.
Although I am several years older the Gladstone and his twin-brother Sidney, we have been very close friends from our boyhood years. Both he and Sidney were outstanding in every sport in which they participated. They excelled in cricket and baseball and despite their diminutive size – they are not much taller than five feet – both were also excellent basketball players.
While Sidney decided to pursue a career in the hotel industry, which was commonplace among young Bahamian males when they left school because of the money they were able to made catering to tourists in our hotels, Gladstone continued to be very active in sports, eventually deciding on a career “teaching” basketball as its popularity increased in The Bahamas.
I have advocated several in the past that Gladstone’s success as a coach in Grand Bahama and nationally should have long ago qualified him to be recognized by the Government of The Bahamas for one of the major national honours that over the years successive governments have reserved for politicians and financial donors to their respective political parties.
In virtually all of The Bahamas’ sister West Indian countries with a shared British Colonial background, there are many examples of sports stars who were Knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II or who were recipients of other high British honours.
Of course, the late Sir Durward Knowles, who won a gold medal for The Bahamas in sailing in the Olympics in the 1950s, was subsequently was Knighted by Her Majesty on the recommendation of the Government, but when one takes into consideration the extraordinary accomplishments of the late Tommy Robinson in track and field and Andre Rodgers, the first Bahamian to play professional baseball, the conclusion has got to be reached that the value system used to determine which Bahamians qualify for recognition for their accomplishments seriously needs to be revised.
Clearly, the iconic status of Gladstone “Moon” McPhee’s legacy as an outstanding basketball coach is being duplicated by his daughter Yolett McPhee-McCuin, who is following in his footsteps as she lays a solid foundation for her own legacy as a great basketball coach.
CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO: Here’s another reason why my very good friend Gladstone “Moon” McPhee should be proud of his daughter Yolett (Coach Yo) McPhee.
https://www.facebook.com/645495011/videos/785390613314772/
