Fittingly, during the regular season home finale, the O’Bannon High School family retired jersey #10, once worn by four-year-starter and slain Greenville police officer Myiesha Stewart. Family, friends, school officials and first responders looked on during the somber yet celebratory ceremony as a ten-minute video clip of Stewart’s high school high lights played on a big screen along the baseline underneath the east basket. “I witnessed Myiesha play from the eight grade through her senior year," said O’Bannon principal Willie Goins. “No one will ever wear number 10 again and the jersey will be on display in the gym for all to see.”
The ceremony featured students and coaches wearing grey t-shirts with Stewart’s number on the back. Adding to the gravity of the occasion, they gathered at halfcourt around a painting of Stewart as the jersey sat on a tripod waiting to be uncovered. Various speakers including Greenville Police Chief Marcus Turner made remarks about the late basketball star and rising star in law enforcement. “Obviously, Myiesha was a great basketball player,” Turner said. “She was also a great police officer. It’s been only a couple of months since she passed and we are still going through it at the police department. As the school retires her jersey number, we too at the police department will keep her memory alive by retiring her badge number.”
Goins told the attendees that in all of Stewart’s time at O’Bannon she was never tardy to class. Her father Michael shared that his daughter’s fellow teammates had to get use to her no nonsense approach to playing the game that she loved. Stewart was all business on the court off the court and in her profession. “It’s apt that she wore this number during her basketball career,” said Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons,” The number ten represents perfection and completion. That is what she strived to be as a basketball player and as an officer.”
During the ceremony, for the most part, the attendees held their emotions in check. But a couple of onlookers had to be taken away to private areas to gather themselves. A feeling of calm and joy fell upon the crowd as Western Line Superintendent Lawrence Hudson and athletics director Lynn Lang unveiled the jersey, displayed it to the home and visiting crowds and presented it to Michael Stewart before returning it to the tripod.
“I knew that Myiesha was going to be good in basketball early on,” Stewart said. “She played for coach (Lindsey) Rucker and finished her junior varsity season on a Tuesday as an eighth grader and was starting for the varsity the following Friday. I was the type of basketball parent who never interfered with what the coach was trying to teach my daughter. And when she decided that she wanted to be a police officer, I supported her decision. This is truly an honor for O’Bannon to remember my daughter in this way,”
Adding to the significance of the occasion another legendary number ten, Tyrone Davis, attended the ceremony. “This is great,” Davis said. “That was also my jersey number.”
