Malone’s Skeete going to OW

By Dustin Kent

Published: May 24, 2008

After three seasons as head coach of the Malone Lady Tigers, Vernette Skeete is moving on to the junior college level.

The 24-year-old Lady Tigers coach accepted an assistant coaching position at Okaloosa-Walton under new head coach Bart Walker.

Skeete led the Lady Tigers to the playoffs in each of her three seasons and was a basket away from a state championship in 2007, when Malone fell to Pine Castle Christian 38-37 in the 1A state title game.

However, the opportunity to coach in the Panhandle Conference proved too good to pass on, according to Skeete.

“Okaloosa-Walton is a great program and coach Walker is a great coach,” she said. “They really want to be successful and that’s something I want to be a part of, to build that program back up in one of the best conferences in the nation.

“I’m very excited about it. This is going to be a great challenge.”

While she said she enjoyed her time at Malone very much, Skeete said the decision to leave wasn’t as difficult as one might think.

“It was hard with the kids here and me having watched them grow up,” she said, “but it was not as hard as you might assume. We always talked about being successful on and off the court, so what better than for me to be an example for them.

“I think (the players) understood. They’ll miss me, but they’re happy for me.”
Skeete, whose teams made it to at least the second round of the playoffs in each of her three seasons, said that her coaching experience at Malone taught her a lot.

“I think I learned about patience and how to better motivate people,” she said. “I’ve always been the type of person to work so hard, so I assumed everyone else did too. I just couldn’t understand it when someone wasn’t like that.

“But I think I gained the ability to teach faith and perseverance to players, which is a hard thing to do, but it’s very important. I think I learned how to mold these girls on and off the court.”

Okaloosa-Walton went 19-9 in the 2007-08 season under Brittney Ezell.

Three of those nine defeats came at the hands of Gulf Coast and coach Roonie Scovel, who Skeete played for when she was a Lady Commodore.

Skeete said she was excited about the chance to compete with her old coach, who she said gave her blessing on the move to OW.

“Coach Scovel is a great woman,” Skeete said. “We talked about it and she wished me the best.”

“Then she said, ‘we’ll whip your tail,’” Skeete joked.

Malone has not yet decided on who will succeed Skeete as the next Lady Tigers coach.