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PAMELA GRUNDY:

Do you think that there are ways in which that's particularly important for young women given other things that young women are taught by culture and society about what they ought to be?

SANDRA KAY YOW:

Well, I think in sports, to be successful you have to be more assertive. You have to be more aggressive. You can't be passive and not make decisions, and just lay back. You have to step up. You have to bring something to the table so to speak, and you have to be a contributing member. People are depending on you to contribute your talents and your abilities to the team so that we can be the best that we can be. I would think one of the biggest qualities is aggressiveness, because how can you play the game of basketball well and at a high level and not be aggressive? But you can learn. There are times to be aggressive. There are times to be more aggressive. There are times to be less aggressive, and that is all within sport itself. When you step off the court from practice then there's no need for the kind of aggressiveness that you needed when you were tackling that task on the court. But you may find in life other tasks that you need to be more aggressive, more assertive in order to have the results and the outcome that you need and that you want. But you have learned how to be aggressive and assertive when you were playing basketball. So I think that you definitely can transfer these qualities and abilities from one area to another.

PAMELA GRUNDY:

And you those are particular qualities that are especially good for young women to learn, needing to learn?

SANDRA KAY YOW:

I think so, yes. For women I do, because discipline and commitment is across the board for everybody, and guys tend to be more aggressive and more assertive. They may learn through sports to be less so, because you have to have self control. You absolutely have to have self control so it can work both ways, and you have to have respect for authority. You have officials in the game, and you have coaches, and you represent not only yourself, your family, your team, your university, your athletic department, you represent all of these things so you learn expectations for when you represent. So, yes, I would think aggressiveness and assertiveness just come to my mind immediately as a little different qualities than a lot of people think of women possessing.