Shanae Govan has established herself as a young, successful rookie coach, mentor, and newly published author of her first book entitled, Purpose In Adversity, which released this past December in 2016. Govan has used her educational background in Social Work to help her shape the lives of her players through the scope of coaching, mentoring, and advocating on and off the court. She attended Delta State University, where she was the starting point guard on the Nationally Ranked Women’s Basketball team. Govan served actively on her basketball team, as well as in her Chapter of Social Work profession during her stint at DSU. Govan went on to begin her career as a head girls’ basketball coach at a local private school in Clarksdale, Mississippi. As a coach, Govan has had much early success, guiding her teams to consecutively successful seasons after long decades of the program not flourishing. During her first year of coaching, she was featured in the Delta Business Journal as one of the Top 2014 Minority Business Leaders in the Mississippi Delta. Of the 20 business leaders featured, Govan was nominated as the youngest at 22. She served as the first African American coach and teacher in 44 years at her local school. Now, she has found herself back home in her small rural community, Crossett Arkansas where she serves as the head girls’ basketball coach of the Crossett Lady Eagles. After her first couple of years in the coaching profession, Govan transitioned to motivational speaking and mentoring young adolescents. Govan had the honor of speaking at the 2015 Juneteenth Celebration which was her first official speaking engagement; thus forward, her stint in traveling and empowering the “Now Generation” as she calls it, took off swiftly. She’s spoken at several Youth Days at local churches, along with Single Conferences’, and elementary and high schools. In 2016, Govan established Purpose In Adversity, her first book that was ranked in the Top 10 landing at #8 in the Religious & Spirituality section of her publishing company Lulu Press within the first two weeks of it hitting the market. Her book has now been released on some of the largest distributions like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BooksAMillion, and iTunes. She has been fortunate to host five book signings where she’s now sold over 500 copies of Purpose In Adversity.  Govan strategically wrote the book to minister to the neglected, cast out, forgotten, scared, hopeless, and scarred reassuring them that there comes a decisive shift in one’s life to dismantle oneself from the victimization of being haunted by their past, and becoming new through the maturation of whom God has designed for individuals to be. Govan’s desire is to continue to lead Millennials to live in purpose on purpose, while finding purpose in their adversity. Her influence and versatility has given her the opportunity to reach out to a diverse populated culture. Govan’s commitment is to always instilled integrity, great character, and a work-ethic among her players, and the adolescents she mentors to produce these individuals to their maximum potential not just as athletes, but as successful people in order to properly matriculate and advance in the world. Govan embodies this great saying in her work and life; “It’s bigger than the game of basketball, this is about the game of Life.”