A Conversation With
Head Coach
Joye Lee-McNelis
You have been a head coach for 20 years
and you’re starting 21. How do you feel
about that?
“Old, hahaha. You think back to the first
20 years of your life and all the things you
experienced – all the fun times and memories. You thought at that time that life was
challenging. Those were the best years of
your life. The next 20 years of being a head
coach has been an experience that will last
a lifetime. I truly believe that the people in
the first 20 years of my life helped mold me
and taught me life lessons about experiences. These are the people that impacted my
life and helped me to be where I am today.”
Did you learn anything interesting your
first year as a head coach?
“That first team I coached a Memphis
was a team that taught me a lot about life.
They also taught me a lot in general. An
example was the first time I took the players
to the south campus to lift weights. I was
getting directions the very first day of where
to turn to get to south campus. I said ‘I have
to take a right at the light.’ (I guess it was
real country). Kiva Becton said, ‘Coach, it’s
not right at the light, you’re in the city now.’
That group of players taught me a lot about
being a head coach. I have stayed in touch
with many of those players and they have
made a difference in my life. I learned a lot.
My staff learned a lot. My staff was Michael
Ladner and Angela Scott. Back then you had
two assistant coaches and a secretary and
me and that was it. Now you have a lot more
coaches and you work just as hard. When
you look back on the players that I’ve had
the opportunity to coach, the staff I’ve had
an opportunity to work with, the support
staff, the presidents of the University, athletic
directors that I’ve had an opportunity to work
with, senior women administrators, all those
people have truly impacted my life.”
Who has impacted your life the most during your 20 years?
“When you look at my 20 years, a lot
of people have impacted my life. However,
there has been three individuals who have
allowed me to do what I’ve been able to do
and that is to live a dream of being a college
coach. My parents and my husband, Dennis.
Without my parents helping me take care of
my children and without them meeting me
many times halfway from Memphis to get
my kids and take care of my kids, I could not
have done this. I could not have done this
without the support of my husband, who got
up early and got kids where they needed to
be while I was on the road. My husband and
my parents have been, without a doubt, the
three people who have really allowed me to
be able to coach for this many years, and I’m
very appreciative of that.”
Could you name or pick five players over
the past 20 years that stand out?
“I still say, to this day, the best player
or the top two players I ever coached
at this point were Tamika Whitmore and
LaTonya Johnson. They were two players
who were very good high school players.
They had a lot of accolades, but they were
two players, on the basketball court, that
competed every single day. That’s why the
both were able to play in the WNBA. That’s
why Tamika was able to play 12 years in
Europe and 12 years in the WNBA. They
possessed something inside of them that
you can’t ever evaluate, can’t ever take
away. It was the will to compete. I think
that’s what made the two of them very, very
special players. When you look at players
in the classroom that have been extremely
successful, the two players that come to
mind is Heather Newlon that played for me
at Memphis and Kendra Reed who played
at Southern Miss. Heather was a starter as
a freshman and now she is a doctor. She
graduated and went to physical therapy
school. She started practice as a physi-
cal therapist, decided she wanted to be
a doctor, and went back to med school.
Kendra Reed is another young lady who
was inducted into the University Hall of
Fame at Southern Miss. She is pursuing her
degree in the medical field as well. Those
two young ladies came in on a mission
to achieve the highest level they could
achieve in the academic field. You have
players who come in that were raw as raw
could be, as a student, as a person and as
an athlete. The two players that come to
mind are Nicole Murry and Pauline Love.
I truly believe that their universities have
helped them grow and mature as peo-
ple and are very successful today. Nicole
Murry started for me at point guard at
Memphis. She grew up in a very rough area
in New Orleans, did not have a lot of sup-
port, came into Memphis and re-wrote the
record book and graduated in four years.
The young lady from here at Southern Miss
is Pauline Love who came from very similar
situation that Nicole came from, but made
it in life because both of those young ladies
took advantage of an opportunity to make
a difference in their lives so they could bet-
ter themselves. Those two young ladies had
opportunities and they took advantage of
them to get a college degree, to grow and
mature as young ladies and have some suc-
cess on the basketball court.”
Are they any good stories you want to
share about your children when they were
so young?
“I can remember the time we played at
Oregon State. We lost two games on last
second shots and Whitney was four years old
and she walked into the locker room while we
were standing outside. She walked up to me
and said ‘Mommy, I need to talk to the team.’
She walked in and said, ‘Be at my house at 6
o’clock in the morning and I’ll teach y’all how
to win.’ Obviously, she didn’t understand that
we were in Oregon and it was a long way
from the house. Another special memory was
when we were playing in the Conference USA
Tournament at Tulane. I’m walking down the
side line when we were playing Marquette
and somebody grabs my leg. I look down and
Connor has crawled underneath the bench,
grabbed my leg. And I asked, ‘Where is your
father?’ He said, “Mommy you need to tell
Pic-a-Dee (which was our point guard, her
name was Heather Phillips, we called her HP,
he called her Pic-a-Dee) not to give the ball to
the other team.”
Looking back over the 20 years, is there
anything you would change?
“I look back over my career and I don’t
think there is anything I would change. I do
think as a young head coach, being a mother,
I think that very early trying to get the program
off the ground at Memphis, I was a little crazy
in the hours that I spent there. If there was one
thing I could change, it would be that. I felt like
I didn’t give Whitney the attention she needed
as a young child; However, God has put her in
situations where she was able to play for me,
now she works with me, that she was able to
be a part of all that.”
