The Southeast Region of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated purchased 100 tickets to the Ole Miss Women’s Basketball game on Sunday to support the team and the sorority’s members, Coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin and Mimi Reid.
Sigma Gamma Rho was founded by seven educators at Butler University in 1922 and is the youngest of the Divine Nine Black sororities. The sorority is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, and has more than 100,000 members in 500 chapters, including chapters in Bermuda, Belize, Dubai, the Bahamas and South Korea. The sorority will celebrate its centennial year in November.
“We’re coming from several states within the Southeast region,” Scenario Jones, Programs Chair for the Southeast Region of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, said. “Our support is not just for Coach Yo and Mimi, but for the entire Ole Miss Women’s basketball team.”
In a previous tweet, Coach Yo spoke about the 14,000 South Carolina Gamecocks fans who were in attendance and how it played a role in leading the Gamecocks to a victory, calling it a home court advantage.
“We need butts in the seats on Sunday at 2pm against another ranked opponent! IT MATTERS! We need to protect the Home Court! Come support your 5-2 Rebs!!” she wrote in the tweet.
Members of her sorority showed up to do just that, cheer her team on and provide them with that same home court advantage.
“You have to be actionable and tangible,” Jones said. “If we say we’re an organization that is about sisterhood, scholarship, and service, then we show up in a big way (because) our physical presence is needed.”
Although members of the sorority were there to support the team, it was especially important to “show up” for two of its own members. Jones described Coach Yo, referred to as Soror McCuin within the organization, as a “long-standing, vested member for years who has shown herself to be sisterly and a spokesperson for women.”
“One of the things I say she brings to the organization is that commitment to mentorship and the belief in her motto of, ‘No ceilings,’” Jones said.
It is not just what Coach Yo brings to the organization that her sorority is proud of, but also her “niche for developing young girls into young women and her commitment to the sorority’s goal of educating, influencing and inspiring” them, according to Jones.
“Look at her and Mimi’s relationship,” Jones said. “The relationship they’ve built over the course of the years is a testament to her personality and her influence on our sisterhood.”
Reid joined the organization in the fall of 2021, and she is appreciative of the support her sorority has shown her since her initiation.
“They immediately brought me into the sisterhood with open arms and showed me so much love,” Reid said. “Seeing the sea of royal blue and gold walk through the stands was a beautiful sight.”
Jones referred to her as “an amazing young talent who is strong-willed and very determined.”
“What she brings is that full, dynamic circle of a student athlete who’s a part of a service organization,” Jones said. “That says a lot to other young ladies who want to be athletic and also want to be affiliated with a Divine Nine Organization.”
Knowing that she represents the intersection of a student athlete and a Greek member is a huge deal to Reid because she shows that it is possible, while also showing the importance of sisterhood within and outside of sports.
“I have different platforms with different audiences so being able to be seen in both lights is a big deal for me because my sorority supports me as an athlete as well as a soror,” she said. “I’m just grateful to have my wonderful sorors.”
