Lookup and the primary belongings you’ll see inside South Carolina’s follow gymnasium are the portraits of the gamers she’s coached, mentored, impressed: first-round WNBA draft picks together with A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston, Alaina Coates, Allisha Grey, Kaela Davis, Laeticia Amihere, Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, Ty Harris and Zia Cooke. They function a reminder to anybody who steps within the gymnasium that, even inside a complete athletic program, The Daybreak Staley Period is, and has at all times been, on the forefront. She’s the one Gamecocks basketball coach—males’s or girls’s—to amass 300 wins, and the one Black head coach in hoops—males’s or girls’s—to win a number of nationwide championships. Look throughout the gymnasium and also you’ll discover there are phrases plastered on the partitions that replicate what she embodies, too: TOUGHNESS, PASSION, FAMILY.
When the legend herself walks in carrying an all-white match, her aura and vitality is mesmerizing. Her presence instructions the complete room. This is similar visionary who simply led her group to an undefeated season and this system’s third nationwide championship, a feat only a few anticipated them to perform. That is the very trailblazer who’s the very best paid Black coach in all of girls’s basketball. That is the Daybreak Staley, the dream service provider who has led not only a program, however the tradition, into a brand new day the place nobody can deny what she’s performed and nobody can doubt that she is among the greats. It’s written within the banners, within the stars, and on this very cowl. She is in cost. The CEO of excellence.
SLAM 250 that includes Daybreak Staley is offered now.
Together with her proper hand man, Champ, prancing a number of steps behind her, Staley exudes calm, cool and picked up as she walks onto set. Biggie is blasting via the audio system within the background, serving as the right anthem for what we’re making an attempt to seize: her aura, her vitality and all that rattling swaggggg. Not solely is that this Daybreak’s first-ever solo SLAM cowl, however it’s the primary time ever that any coach has had their very own cowl for the journal. At this time is about capturing the legacy of somebody who’s method greater than the field scores—however, if we’re talkin’ hoops, a legacy that features 38 straight wins this previous season. The Gamecocks have been out right here destroying groups by upwards of fifty, 60, nah, 80 factors per sport.
As legendary photographer Diwang Valdez snaps away, Staley, who’s now carrying the group’s 2024 Nationwide Champions tee, effortlessly poses in entrance of the digital camera. Simply if you assume the flicks couldn’t get any extra fly, Daybreak turns issues up with one other outfit change. This time she’s rocking a black blazer, tearaway joggers and, in fact, a crisp Louis Vuitton tee. She goes from giving comfortable smiles and playful banter to reworking, as she leans again into the chair she’s now sitting in, crosses her legs and rests her elbow on a basketball. She stares into the lens, giving the identical look that we’ve seen from her on the courtroom. It’s deeply methodical, poetic even. Proper now, Daybreak means enterprise.
That is the face of somebody who has personified energy, resilience and authenticity for many years. Right here, she offers us a glimpse into her thoughts and her magic—a dialog that’s as a lot about basketball as it’s about how she sees individuals, her legacy, and—with true sincerity—herself.
SLAM: You’ve talked about previously the way you didn’t actually have an curiosity in teaching, at the very least early on. Are you able to carry us again to if you have been enjoying within the WNBA and training at Temple on the identical time?
Daybreak Staley: One of the vital gratifying moments of my life was to have the ability to play after which be capable of coach all on the identical time. As a result of it performed on each side of my mind and the eagerness was on full show. If any of the youthful gamers within the WNBA ever have the chance to do each, they might discover that it’s so fulfilling. You’re in a position to get out the aggression of enjoying whereas additionally being a dream service provider for youthful gamers and giving them an expertise that you’re truly dwelling. A whole lot of coaches have to return in time to that place after they have been enjoying, however if you’re in a position to do it in actual time, it’s an computerized respect out of your gamers as a result of they know you’re doing the very factor that you just’re asking them to do and to be disciplined at.
SLAM: You typically discuss with your self not simply as a coach however a “dream service provider.” Are you able to elaborate on what you imply?
DS: Anyone that’s teaching this sport, that’s what you might be. I do know we strive to determine our function in teaching, and it’s simply that: being a dream service provider for younger individuals. Serving to younger individuals discover their ardour [and] work in the direction of that. It’s not at all times basketball—it’s not. For 90 % of them, it’s not basketball. It is determining what you wish to do, as a result of I need individuals to work of their ardour. It’s a lot simpler to work in your ardour if that’s what you do every day. The true world actually is taxing. It pulls you in numerous totally different instructions and if you happen to’re not enthusiastic about it, you aren’t going to offer it your full effort. And possibly half of you is nice sufficient in some cases, however for you as an individual, your achievement is most essential.
So, what does a dream service provider do? That particular person guides, that particular person helps to navigate, that particular person is a listener [and] an observer. That particular person is somebody that’s reliable of not solely the student-athlete however everyone that touches that student-athlete, as a result of it’s not only a one-way road. All younger individuals have individuals of their lives that influence them. I discover that younger individuals speak to their dad and mom each single day…I feel again to once I was their age, I in all probability talked to my mother or my dad possibly twice a month. And when that was? When the funds have been low. However they speak to them each day, so I’m like, OK, nicely, I could have to alter my model. I could must pivot slightly bit as a result of I wish to be the largest voice in my gamers’ heads, and if it’s the dad and mom which have entry in that method, in speaking to their daughters each day, [then] I gotta speak to the dad and mom.
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SLAM: Who have been your mentors? And did any coaches encourage you?
DS: I actually didn’t have teaching mentors. I’m extra of a non-public particular person. I don’t like to indicate weak point, and that’s in all probability a downfall of mine, however it’s the very factor that retains me going, as a result of it has me working. It at all times has me getting ready for the worst, and I don’t wish to take my issues to anyone else. I’ll say I’ve individuals in my life that I bounce issues off that [are not] as near the sport as in all probability another coaches, and I like them to offer me suggestions from the surface trying in, as a result of when it’s all stated and performed, I wish to be coated. My thoughts works as a basketball coach more often than not, so I’m at all times searching for basketball issues to show classes to our gamers as a result of I consider that generally they study higher from that standpoint.
After which, if I get recommendation from someone that’s not within the basketball world, I can steadiness that and guarantee that I’m giving our gamers what I see, in addition to what someone else might even see that I’m not protecting.
SLAM: Has your method to teaching modified at everywhere in the years? Are there issues that labored early in your profession that will not work now and vice versa?
DS: We’re in an period the place we’ve got to pivot. What labored 24 years in the past is not going to work right this moment. I’ll say this: The core ideas of who I’m as an individual and coach doesn’t change. [The] battles I battle? They modify. Take for example this 12 months—my method was solely totally different than my method in simply the current years. Lately, we had a gaggle of gamers that obtained it. They understood the task and what they wanted to do they usually executed on and off the courtroom, so that they gave us no points. I used to be simply in a position to be a basketball coach.
This 12 months, they have been totally different. They have been youthful, their method was totally different. They have been lackluster, they didn’t actually have a plan as people—they might have thought they’d a plan. Their plan was simply to play extra. You’ll be able to method it that method, however it’s shallow, so that you gotta put one thing behind it. We labored from a spot that we hadn’t labored from in a very long time, which was, Hit the bottom working. We couldn’t [even do that] as a result of they couldn’t run, they have been outta form. They got here in simply pondering, I wanna play. I sat for a very long time. It’s my time. Nicely, their time, and who they thought was taking their time, [the] method was quite a bit totally different. Zia, Aliyah, Brea [Beal], all of them got here in form. Each time that we needed to come again in the summertime, so we might hit the bottom working…It was extra of making higher self-discipline and habits, as a result of they hadn’t fashioned it to the diploma of them being able to rock and roll. So, I checked out it as a problem, and as soon as I checked out it [as that], I obtained extra passionate behind it as a result of I’m drawn to challenges. It was cool as a result of they did educate me [that] there are a selection of the way to achieve success and quite a lot of methods to method issues.
One of many battles that I didn’t battle that I usually battle: if everyone had the identical sweatsuit on, and one particular person didn’t, I knew that they spoke to that particular person. I knew it. I might see it, I’m taking a look at [it] and it seems unusual to me…I approached it as a mistake that had been dealt with. However that’s one of many issues I didn’t battle, as a result of I knew this group had a method of delivering the message that I’d ship.
SLAM: As you talked about, the beginning of the season was slightly totally different for you. What do you attribute this 12 months’s success to?
DS: We’ve had one of the best group within the nation previous to this 12 months, I’d say for years. The very best group within the nation and this one ended up being one of the best group within the nation by the use of default, so to talk. Nevertheless it was a method that was fashioned by them and I’ll give all of them the credit score as a result of they might’ve balked, they might’ve stated, I needs to be beginning—for some time, they might’ve stated, I’m the It. I needs to be beginning. Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I might play with one of the best of them. Let me get a few of Breezy’s time. Let me get a few of Raven’s time. [But] they didn’t. Truly, the kids simply allowed the older gamers to information them to the purpose the place they have been so assured coming into the basketball sport that they knew that they have been going to make an influence. They usually stored holding one another accountable. Ashlyn [Watkins] discovered her superpower, and her superpower is on each side of the basketball, however it was additionally main. Her voice was prevalent in huddles, and it obtained to the purpose the place they didn’t wish to lose. It wasn’t even being undefeated, they only didn’t wish to lose. It was nothing about successful every sport, however within the second of every sport, they didn’t wish to lose. So, they might hear to one another they usually have been very coachable, after which we simply obtained momentum. We stored pushing via after which once we obtained to the Ultimate 4, they have been like, We gonna win this factor.
Earlier than the nationwide championship sport, they have been speaking main money ish. The coaches’ locker room is related to the large locker room, and we don’t go in there [to] allow them to have their house. I’m too near the scenario, I don’t wish to hear them, [but] they’re like, We’re going to kick their A, and I’m like, Lord, they don’t know what they don’t know. Both we’re going to get blown out, or we’re going to blow someone out as a result of they have been speaking. And I do know they’re hyping themselves up, however as coaches, , we gotta go on the market and face Caitlin [Clark] and them. Like, they obtained themselves right here, they obtained momentum.
As coaches, too, we might ask one another, You ingesting the Kool-Support? We might actually ask one another. So, for essentially the most half we have been like, Nah, we ain’t ingesting it. In direction of the tip of the 12 months, we requested, How about now? You ingesting the Kool-Support? I’m like, I’m sippin’. I ain’t taking an enormous gulp, however I’m sippin’. As a result of they’re placing it on show. I feel, simply total as I replicate, it was a brilliant cool journey and atmosphere to be round them. They only performed unfastened. I informed this to a buddy, I stated, “They performed free.”…So, I feel that was actually type of cool for them to take us coaches down their journey. It’s often, like, our journey—how we wish to direct them and information them. Nah. Nah, we obtained on their practice and we rode their coattails.
SLAM: Now that you just’ve achieved all of it—going undefeated, successful your third chip—how does it really feel?
DS: It feels nice, like significantly. It’s unbelievable to me…[The] 2022 [team] appeared the half. They appeared the half, they performed the half. They performed simply freer, however with strain. After which this group was simply in contrast to any of them. I don’t assume anyone noticed it coming. We didn’t see it coming, in order that’s what I like about it. I’m sitting [here] and I’m completely happy…I wish to share our story. I wish to share the nice, the dangerous, the ugly but in addition the probability of another person doing what we did—I wish to give them hope, as a result of we didn’t appear like a nationwide championship group in the beginning of the season. We appeared like a lot of the groups within the nation, so we’re relatable to a lot of the groups. If we might do it, anyone might do it.
SLAM: Your legacy reaches far past Xs and Os, wins and losses. We might go on and on, however what do you, Daybreak Staley, need your legacy to be?
DS: I need my legacy to be an “odds beater.” I’m an odds beater. The percentages stated that I wouldn’t be an Olympian, I wouldn’t be the top coach of an Olympic group. To have coached 24 years on this sport, I do know that I don’t care a couple of private legacy. I wish to let my gamers speak concerning the legacy that they have been in a position to really feel each day from our teaching employees. I don’t must say something, they are saying it. Traditionally talking, you don’t actually hear my title as being a fantastic coach, whether or not it’s X-ing and O-ing. I’m in all probability identified to be a participant’s coach, no matter meaning. However to win three nationwide championships, to not be an X and O coach and solely be a participant’s coach, I feel we’re doing fairly good. If the X-ing and O-ing coaches aren’t successful nationwide championships, I do know they might in all probability flip it and be a participant’s coach, if it produces nationwide championships. I actually don’t care about any of that, however what I do care about is our gamers, their experiences [and] their legacy, as a result of the extra of a legacy they’ve, it comes again. I simply wish to do proper by our gamers.
SLAM: You’ve seen girls’s basketball skyrocket from a enterprise standpoint, beginning out of your enjoying days to what it’s right this moment. What has it been wish to see this transformation in actual time?
DS: Girls’s basketball is tremendous cool, now. I’d say now. It was tremendous cool to me once I was rising up enjoying it and going to varsity as a result of I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Now that I do know what I find out about our sport, one, we’ve been deliberately held again. I do know that as a result of it simply doesn’t come out of nowhere. It looks as if our sport has simply come out of nowhere and now everyone is falling in love with it, once we know totally different. We all know that again once I was enjoying in ’88, in school, in ’89, individuals have been watching. They might tune in. I do know it as a result of I do know once I go to totally different locations, I’m extra identified for enjoying at Virginia than something. So, they have been watching it.
So, what occurs between then and now? Resolution makers are making some actually good calls relating to our sport…They know that ladies’s basketball is a mainstay. So, the largest distinction now’s we’re being handled like an actual sport. The nice, the dangerous and the ugly as a result of in sports activities you’ve got storylines, like a Caitlin Clark. In our sport you’ve got storylines of us being undefeated, successful a nationwide championship. You’ve obtained Juju [Watkins], Hannah [Hidalgo], MiLaysia [Fulwiley], all of those storylines which are being performed out now as a result of the followers need increasingly more and extra. And now, lastly, and possibly, it’s the brand new negotiated TV deal that’s permitting us to proceed to develop. Perhaps there’s someone within the room that’s ensuring that we’ve got totally different individuals telling our tales. You bought Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike, Aliyah Boston, [Andraya] Carter, Carolyn Peck…I assumed that complete crew broke basketball down like no different. Wasn’t biased, as a result of we gotta get the bias out of our sport. So, you noticed what occurs when it’s unbiased. It was completely stunning.
SLAM: You don’t look like the kind to chase milestones or historical past, it simply type of finds its approach to you. With that being stated, is there something that you’ve got your eyes set on earlier than you bow out of teaching?
DS: Selfishly, it’s only one factor that I needed out of this sport: I needed to be a Corridor of Famer. So, I went in [to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame] in 2013 as a participant. Now, I do wish to go in as a coach.
Portraits by Diwang Valdez. Motion photographs by way of Getty Photos.
