Search for 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 whole 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 power is mesmerizing. Her presence instructions the whole 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 best paid Black coach in all of ladies’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 completed and nobody can doubt that she is without doubt one of 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 on the market 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 power and all that rattling swaggggg. Not solely is that this Daybreak’s first-ever solo SLAM cowl, nevertheless it’s the primary time ever that any coach has had their very own cowl for the journal. As we speak is about capturing the legacy of somebody who’s means larger than the field scores—however, if we’re talkin’ hoops, a legacy that features 38 straight wins this previous season. The Gamecocks had been out right here destroying groups by upwards of fifty, 60, nah, 80 factors per recreation.
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 digicam. Simply while 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 gentle 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 prior to now the way you didn’t actually have an curiosity in teaching, no less than early on. Are you able to convey us again to while you had been enjoying within the WNBA and training at Temple on the similar time?
Daybreak Staley: One of the gratifying moments of my life was to have the ability to play after which be capable to coach all on the similar 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 capable of get out the aggression of enjoying whereas additionally being a dream service provider for youthful gamers and giving them an expertise that you’re really dwelling. A number of coaches have to return in time to that place after they had been enjoying, however while you’re capable of do it in actual time, it’s an automated respect out of your gamers as a result of they know you’re doing the very factor that you simply’re asking them to do and to be disciplined at.
SLAM: You usually consult 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 recreation, that’s what you’re. 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 p.c of them, it’s not basketball. It is determining what you need to do, as a result of I would like individuals to work of their ardour. It’s a lot simpler to work in your ardour if that’s what you do each day. The actual world actually is taxing. It pulls you in plenty of completely different instructions and in case you’re not captivated with it, you aren’t going to provide it your full effort. And perhaps half of you is nice sufficient in some situations, however for you as an individual, your achievement is most necessary.
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 all people that touches that student-athlete, as a result of it’s not only a one-way avenue. All younger individuals have individuals of their lives that impression them. I discover that younger individuals speak to their mother and father each single day…I feel again to after I was their age, I most likely talked to my mother or my dad perhaps twice a month. And you understand when that was? When the funds had been low. However they speak to them day-after-day, so I’m like, OK, nicely, I’ll have to alter my fashion. I’ll need to pivot slightly bit as a result of I need to be the largest voice in my gamers’ heads, and if it’s the mother and father which have entry in that means, in speaking to their daughters day-after-day, [then] I gotta speak to the mother and father.
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SLAM: Who had 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 most likely a downfall of mine, nevertheless 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 most likely another coaches, and I like them to provide me suggestions from the surface trying in, as a result of when it’s all stated and completed, I wish to be coated. My thoughts works as a basketball coach more often than not, so I’m at all times in search of basketball issues to show classes to our gamers as a result of I consider that typically they study higher from that standpoint.
After which, if I get recommendation from any individual that’s not within the basketball world, I can stability that and guarantee that I’m giving our gamers what I see, in addition to what any individual else might even see that I’m not overlaying.
SLAM: Has your strategy to teaching modified at everywhere in the years? Are there issues that labored early in your profession that won’t work now and vice versa?
DS: We’re in an period the place we now have to pivot. What labored 24 years in the past is not going to work right this moment. I’ll say this: The core rules of who I’m as an individual and coach doesn’t change. [The] battles I struggle? They alter. Take as an illustration this yr—my strategy was completely completely different than my strategy in simply the latest years. In recent times, we had a bunch of gamers that bought it. They understood the task and what they wanted to do and so they executed on and off the courtroom, in order that they gave us no points. I used to be simply capable of be a basketball coach.
This yr, they had been completely different. They had been youthful, their strategy was completely different. They had been lackluster, they didn’t actually have a plan as people—they might have thought that they had a plan. Their plan was simply to play extra. You may strategy it that means, nevertheless 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 had been outta form. They got here in simply considering, 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] strategy was so much completely 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 may 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 bought 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 variety of the way to achieve success and a lot of methods to strategy issues.
One of many battles that I didn’t struggle that I usually struggle: if all people had the identical sweatsuit on, and one particular person didn’t, I knew that they spoke to that particular person. I knew it. I may see it, I’m [it] and it appears to be like unusual to me…I approached it as a mistake that had been dealt with. However that’s one of many issues I didn’t struggle, as a result of I knew this group had a means of delivering the message that I might ship.
SLAM: As you talked about, the beginning of the season was slightly completely different for you. What do you attribute this yr’s success to?
DS: We’ve had the most effective group within the nation previous to this yr, I might say for years. The perfect group within the nation and this one ended up being the most effective group within the nation by the use of default, so to talk. However it was a means 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 must be beginning—for some time, they might’ve stated, I’m the It. I must be beginning. Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I may play with the most effective 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 children simply allowed the older gamers to information them to the purpose the place they had been so assured getting into the basketball recreation that they knew that they had been going to make an impression. And so they stored holding one another accountable. Ashlyn [Watkins] discovered her superpower, and her superpower is on each side of the basketball, nevertheless it was additionally main. Her voice was prevalent in huddles, and it bought to the purpose the place they didn’t need to lose. It wasn’t even being undefeated, they only didn’t need to lose. It was nothing about successful every recreation, however within the second of every recreation, they didn’t need to lose. So, they might hear to one another and so they had been very coachable, after which we simply bought momentum. We stored pushing via after which after we bought to the Closing 4, they had been like, We gonna win this factor.
Earlier than the nationwide championship recreation, they had been speaking main money ish. The coaches’ locker room is linked to the large locker room, and we don’t go in there [to] allow them to have their house. I’m too near the state of affairs, I don’t need 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 any individual out as a result of they had been speaking. And I do know they’re hyping themselves up, however as coaches, you understand, we gotta go on the market and face Caitlin [Clark] and them. Like, they bought themselves right here, they bought momentum.
As coaches, too, we might ask one another, You ingesting the Kool-Help? We’d actually ask one another. So, for essentially the most half we had been like, Nah, we ain’t ingesting it. In direction of the top of the yr, we requested, How about now? You ingesting the Kool-Help? I’m like, I’m sippin’. I ain’t taking a giant 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 setting to be round them. They only performed unfastened. I instructed this to a buddy, I stated, “They performed free.”…So, I feel that was actually sort of cool for them to take us coaches down their journey. It’s normally, like, our journey—how we need to direct them and information them. Nah. Nah, we bought on their prepare and we rode their coattails.
SLAM: Now that you simply’ve achieved all of it—going undefeated, successful your third chip—how does it really feel?
DS: It feels nice, like severely. It’s unbelievable to me…[The] 2022 [team] seemed the half. They seemed 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 pleased…I need to share our story. I need to share the nice, the unhealthy, the ugly but additionally the chance of another person doing what we did—I need to give them hope, as a result of we didn’t appear like a nationwide championship group at the start of the season. We seemed like many of the groups within the nation, so we’re relatable to many of the groups. If we may do it, anyone may do it.
SLAM: Your legacy reaches far past Xs and Os, wins and losses. We may go on and on, however what do you, Daybreak Staley, need your legacy to be?
DS: I would like my legacy to be an “odds beater.” I’m an odds beater. The chances 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 recreation, I do know that I don’t care a few private legacy. I need to let my gamers speak concerning the legacy that they had been capable of really feel day-after-day from our teaching employees. I don’t need to say something, they are saying it. Traditionally talking, you don’t actually hear my title as being an important coach, whether or not it’s X-ing and O-ing. I’m most likely 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 most likely 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 need 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 might say now. It was tremendous cool to me after 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 recreation, 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 recreation has simply come out of nowhere and now all people is falling in love with it, after we know completely different. We all know that again after I was enjoying in ’88, in school, in ’89, individuals had been watching. They might tune in. I do know it as a result of I do know after I go to completely different locations, I’m extra identified for taking part in at Virginia than something. So, they had been watching it.
So, what occurs between then and now? Resolution makers are making some actually good calls on the subject of our recreation…They know that girls’s basketball is a mainstay. So, the largest distinction now’s we’re being handled like an actual sport. The nice, the unhealthy and the ugly as a result of in sports activities you’ve gotten storylines, like a Caitlin Clark. In our recreation you’ve gotten storylines of us being undefeated, successful a nationwide championship. You’ve bought Juju [Watkins], Hannah [Hidalgo], MiLaysia [Fulwiley], all of those storylines which are being performed out now as a result of the followers need an increasing number of and extra. And now, lastly, and perhaps, it’s the brand new negotiated TV deal that’s permitting us to proceed to develop. Perhaps there’s any individual within the room that’s ensuring that we now have completely different individuals telling our tales. You bought Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike, Aliyah Boston, [Andraya] Carter, Carolyn Peck…I believed that entire crew broke basketball down like no different. Wasn’t biased, as a result of we gotta get the bias out of our recreation. So, you noticed what occurs when it’s unbiased. It was completely lovely.
SLAM: You don’t look like the kind to chase milestones or historical past, it simply kind of finds its strategy 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 wished out of this recreation: I wished 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 need to go in as a coach.
Portraits by Diwang Valdez. Motion photographs through Getty Pictures.
