Two Sports. One Legendary Legacy: WNBA Phoenix Mercury Celebrates Coach Umeki Webb

The Texas Elite Spartans proudly celebrate one of our own, Coach Umeki “Meek” Webb, who was honored this past weekend as an original member of the Phoenix Mercury and one of the women who helped launch the WNBA nearly 30 years ago.

Photo credit Phoenix Mercury

Webb joined her former teammates at center court on August 1 as the Mercury recognized the franchise’s inaugural 1997 team during a halftime ceremony in Phoenix. The reunion took place before a sold-out crowd and served as both a celebration of the women who built the foundation and a powerful reminder of how far women’s professional sports have come.

For the Spartans, the moment was deeply personal.

Today, Webb serves as the Texas Elite Spartans’ wide receivers and tight ends coach. Before joining the coaching staff, she was an original member of the Spartans, a WNFC All-Pro and one of the most versatile and respected players in women’s tackle football.

Long before she began developing the next generation of Spartans, however, Coach Meek was already making history on the basketball court.

A Dallas native and graduate of Justin F. Kimball High School, Webb starred at North Carolina State before being selected by the Phoenix Mercury with the 24th overall pick in the inaugural 1997 WNBA Draft. She played two seasons in Phoenix, helping the Mercury reach the playoffs during the league’s first season and advance to the WNBA Finals in 1998. She later played for the Miami Sol and competed professionally overseas.

Webb was not simply present at the beginning of the WNBA. She contributed immediately.

As a rookie, she started 17 games, averaged more than 27 minutes per contest and finished among the league’s leaders in steals. Her athleticism, toughness, intelligence and ability to impact every part of the game helped establish the competitive identity of one of the WNBA’s original eight franchises.

Those same qualities would eventually make her a dominant football player.

When Webb began playing tackle football in 2008, the transition came naturally. She initially used her size, speed, hands and basketball background to become a dangerous receiver before expanding her role to tight end and offensive line.

That selflessness became one of the defining characteristics of her football career.

Coach Meek was never concerned with attention or individual recognition. She cared about winning, serving her teammates and helping establish a standard that would last beyond any one player or season. As one of the original Spartans, she helped transform

Texas Elite from an ambitious new program into one of the most successful and recognizable organizations in women’s tackle football.

Her legacy now continues through coaching.

Every route she teaches, every correction she makes and every athlete she encourages carries the perspective of someone who has competed at the highest level in two professional sports. Our receivers and tight ends are learning from more than a coach.

They are learning from a pioneer who understands what it means to enter spaces that were not originally built for women and leave those spaces stronger for the women coming behind her.

That is what made the Mercury reunion so meaningful.

The members of the 1997 team entered the WNBA without knowing whether the league would survive, how the public would respond or what opportunities would exist for future generations. They competed in an era of smaller salaries, commercial travel, limited resources and constant questions about the viability of women’s professional sports. Nearly three decades later, they returned to an arena filled with fans who understood that the WNBA’s current growth was made possible by the courage and commitment of its earliest players.

Coach Meek has played that pioneering role twice.

She helped establish one of the original franchises in the WNBA, and she later became part of the original foundation of the Texas Elite Spartans. In basketball and football, she has competed, sacrificed, led and created opportunities that did not previously exist.

Her impact also extends far beyond professional sports. Through her work with Texas Elite and throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth community, Webb continues to mentor athletes, support families and demonstrate what lifelong leadership looks like. She has shown generations of girls that their athletic identity does not have to fit inside one box, one sport or anyone else’s expectations.

She is a basketball pioneer.

She is a football champion.

She is a coach, mentor, teammate and servant leader.

Most importantly to us, she is ELITE. The entire Texas Elite Spartans organization congratulates Coach Meek on being honored by the Phoenix Mercury. We are proud of everything she accomplished on the basketball court, grateful for everything she has given to our football program and honored to have her continuing to shape the future of our athletes.

Legends do not simply leave behind statistics and trophies. They build foundations strong enough for other people to stand on. Coach Meek has spent her life doing exactly that, in both games.