After a hurricane, coach Tynesha Lewis leaned on a bond built at Black colleges

By Mia Berry

When Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina in September, floods left UNC Asheville’s campus without power and potable water, displacing the women’s basketball team a month before the start of its season. As first-year coach Tynesha Lewis mulled how to move forward, a fellow coach in the women’s basketball community proposed a solution.

After hearing about the devastation the hurricane caused in the Asheville community, Tomekia Reed, the first-year coach at UNC Charlotte, reached out to Lewis to offer her help.

Reed and Lewis, who both previously led winning women’s basketball programs at historically Black universities, met in 2022 at a symposium where they bonded over their coaching experiences and shared membership in Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Reed guided Jackson State University to three Southwestern Athletic Conference championships in four years, and Lewis compiled a 61-29 record over three seasons at Elizabeth City State University and won the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) tournament championship in 2023.

Although Lewis initially wasn’t sure what Reed could do, after several conversations Reed suggested that UNC Charlotte share its practice facilities with UNC Asheville for three weeks, allowing Lewis and her team to prepare for the upcoming season. UNC Charlotte is in the American Athletic Conference while UNC Asheville is part of the Big South Conference.

“For us to come together on two different fronts and two different conferences, but we still [have] the HBCU connection, it’s a good tale of where we are and where we’re headed and the power in HBCUs,” Reed said.

Reed recalled instances at Jackson State where she had to call on fellow coaches and the community to assist her program, and as a result she has always wanted to foster relationships with other female coaches built on supporting each other.

“We have to do the very best that we can and be great managers of all our resources and the players that come under us and look out for each other and make sure we stay afloat,” Reed said.

Rallied by Reed, several coaching associations, the Charlotte Hornets and the NCAA came together to help Lewis. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, who is a former WNBA teammate of Lewis’, also reached out and encouraged support for her on social media.

“Women of color have been absolutely amazing to me, period,” Lewis said. “Tomekia has just been one of them. She’s the one who sounded the alarm when all this stuff went down with Hurricane Helene. She connected me with everybody, Black Coaches Association and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. … I still got boxes in my office now from all the stuff that was sent to her for us.”

Lewis said she is grateful for all Reed has done and how she continues to check in. While at Division II Elizabeth City State, Lewis admired Reed’s prowess as a coach at Division I Jackson State. Now, that admiration has deepened.

“It’s always good to see someone where you desire to be. People are big on if you see it, that you can believe it can happen,” Lewis said. “Just the way she carries herself. She’s super-intense. But she always takes care of her staff and her players. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to look up to her?”

After weeks of sharing practice space and resources, Lewis and Reed had the opportunity to face off against each other for the first time as coaches. After beginning its season on the road in early November, Lewis’ UNC Asheville team returned to campus to play its home opener at Kimmel Arena on Nov. 15 — a 59-47 loss to Reed’s UNC Charlotte. The game had been scheduled before either coach took the reins at their respective new schools in April.

“I knew her team is gonna play hard,” Lewis said. “They gonna be tough, they’re gonna rebound. … They’re gonna be well-coached. So that was pretty cool.

“It was just super-exciting just how it worked out that she ended up there and I ended up here.”

Reed earned her first program victory Oct. 30 in her debut game at Charlotte. Despite leaving the SWAC, Reed is still receiving encouragement from coaches in the HBCU conference.

“Coach [Margaret] Richards at Jackson State said, ‘Coach, do this for all of us. You’re representing for all of us.’ I carry that on my back because I know my success is going to open up the door for other coaches to have an opportunity to come to this level,” Reed said.

While her program pursues its first win of the season, Lewis is happy to have her team back on campus after weeks of living in a hotel. During each game, Lewis has seen growth in her players and believes they will be playing great basketball before Big South Conference play begins in January.

Like Reed, Lewis wants to succeed at UNC Asheville to help other HBCU coaches get opportunities.

“I’m taking it seriously … because the next CIAA coach that decides to go mid-major, low major, Division I, they’re gonna say, ‘Hey, Tomekia did well at UNC Charlotte. Tynesha Lewis did well at UNC Asheville. Why not give them a real look?’ ” Lewis said. “I’m excited about what I’m going to do here so that it paves the way for those to come after me.”