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 ladies’s—to amass 300 wins, and the one Black head coach in hoops—males’s or ladies’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 mirror what she embodies, too: TOUGHNESS, PASSION, FAMILY.
When the legend herself walks in sporting an all-white match, her aura and vitality is mesmerizing. Her presence instructions your complete room. This is identical visionary who simply led her staff 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 carried out and nobody can doubt that she is likely 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 offered now.
Along with her proper hand man, Champ, prancing a couple 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, but it surely’s the primary time ever that any coach has had their very own cowl for the journal. Immediately is about capturing the legacy of somebody who’s manner 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 sport.
As legendary photographer Diwang Valdez snaps away, Staley, who’s now sporting the staff’s 2024 Nationwide Champions tee, effortlessly poses in entrance of the digicam. 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 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 provides 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 folks, 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 if you had 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 have the ability to 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’d 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 number of coaches have to return in time to that place once they had 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 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 sport, that’s what you might be. I do know we strive to determine our objective in teaching, and it’s simply that: being a dream service provider for younger folks. Serving to younger folks discover their ardour [and] work in 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 folks to work of their ardour. It’s a lot simpler to work in your ardour if that’s what you do every day. The actual world actually is taxing. It pulls you in a whole lot of completely different instructions and should you’re not obsessed with it, you aren’t going to provide it your full effort. And perhaps half of you is sweet sufficient in some situations, however for you as an individual, your achievement is most necessary.
So, what does a dream service provider do? That individual guides, that individual helps to navigate, that individual is a listener [and] an observer. That individual 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 folks have folks of their lives that affect them. I discover that younger folks speak to their mother and father each single day…I believe again to once I was their age, I in all probability talked to my mother or my dad perhaps twice a month. And you realize when that was? When the funds had been low. However they speak to them every single day, so I’m like, OK, nicely, I could have to vary my fashion. I could must pivot just a little bit as a result of I need to be the most important voice in my gamers’ heads, and if it’s the mother and father which have entry in that manner, in speaking to their daughters every single 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 individual. I don’t like to indicate weak spot, and that’s in all probability a downfall of mine, but it surely’s the very factor that retains me going, as a result of it has me working. It at all times has me making ready for the worst, and I don’t prefer to take my issues to anyone else. I’ll say I’ve folks 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 provide me suggestions from the skin trying in, as a result of when it’s all stated and carried out, I prefer to be lined. 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 typically they study higher from that standpoint.
After which, if I get recommendation from any person that’s not within the basketball world, I can steadiness that and ensure that I’m giving our gamers what I see, in addition to what any person else may even see that I’m not protecting.
SLAM: Has your strategy 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 now have to pivot. What labored 24 years in the past won’t work right now. 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 for example this 12 months—my strategy was totally completely different than my strategy in simply the latest years. Lately, we had a gaggle of gamers that acquired it. They understood the task and what they wanted to do and so they 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 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 could have thought they’d a plan. Their plan was simply to play extra. You possibly can strategy it that manner, but it surely’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 operating. We couldn’t [even do that] as a result of they couldn’t run, they had been outta form. They got here in simply pondering, I wanna play. I sat for a very long time. It’s my time. Properly, their time, and who they thought was taking their time, [the] strategy was loads 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 operating…It was extra of making higher self-discipline and habits, as a result of they hadn’t shaped 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 acquired extra passionate behind it as a result of I’m drawn to challenges. It was cool as a result of they did train 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 everyone had the identical sweatsuit on, and one individual didn’t, I knew that they spoke to that individual. I knew it. I may 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 struggle, as a result of I knew this staff had a manner of delivering the message that I’d ship.
SLAM: As you talked about, the beginning of the season was just a little completely different for you. What do you attribute this 12 months’s success to?
DS: We’ve had the perfect staff within the nation previous to this 12 months, I’d say for years. One of the best staff within the nation and this one ended up being the perfect staff within the nation by the use of default, so to talk. However it was a manner that was shaped by them and I’ll give all of them the credit score as a result of they may’ve balked, they may’ve stated, I needs to be beginning—for some time, they may’ve stated, I’m the It. I needs to be beginning. Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I may play with the perfect 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 sport that they knew that they had been going to make an affect. And so they saved holding one another accountable. Ashlyn [Watkins] discovered her superpower, and her superpower is on each side of the basketball, but it surely was additionally main. Her voice was prevalent in huddles, and it acquired 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 profitable every sport, however within the second of every sport, they didn’t need to lose. So, they’d pay attention to one another and so they had been very coachable, after which we simply acquired momentum. We saved pushing via after which once we acquired to the Last 4, they had been like, We gonna win this factor.
Earlier than the nationwide championship sport, they had been speaking main money ish. The coaches’ locker room is linked to the massive 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 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 person out as a result of they had been speaking. And I do know they’re hyping themselves up, however as coaches, you realize, we gotta go on the market and face Caitlin [Clark] and them. Like, they acquired themselves right here, they acquired 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 had 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 a giant gulp, however I’m sippin’. As a result of they’re placing it on show. I believe, simply general as I mirror, it was a brilliant cool journey and setting to be round them. They simply performed unfastened. I instructed this to a good friend, I stated, “They performed free.”…So, I believe 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 acquired on their prepare and we rode their coattails.
SLAM: Now that you just’ve achieved all of it—going undefeated, profitable your third chip—how does it really feel?
DS: It feels nice, like critically. It’s unbelievable to me…[The] 2022 [team] regarded the half. They regarded the half, they performed the half. They performed simply freer, however with stress. After which this group was simply not like 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 joyful…I need to share our story. I need to share the nice, the unhealthy, the ugly but in addition the probability 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 staff at the start of the season. We regarded 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 staff. To have coached 24 years on this sport, 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 in a position to really feel every single day from our teaching workers. I don’t must say something, they are saying it. Traditionally talking, you don’t actually hear my title as being an ideal 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 which means. However to win three nationwide championships, to not be an X and O coach and solely be a participant’s coach, I believe we’re doing fairly good. If the X-ing and O-ing coaches aren’t profitable nationwide championships, I do know they’d 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 need to do proper by our gamers.
SLAM: You’ve seen ladies’s basketball skyrocket from a enterprise standpoint, beginning out of your enjoying days to what it’s right now. What has it been prefer 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 completely different. We all know that again once I was enjoying in ’88, in faculty, in ’89, folks had been watching. They might tune in. I do know it as a result of I do know once 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? Determination makers are making some actually good calls with regards to our sport…They know that girls’s basketball is a mainstay. So, the most important distinction now could be we’re being handled like an actual sport. The great, the unhealthy and the ugly as a result of in sports activities you have got storylines, like a Caitlin Clark. In our sport you have got storylines of us being undefeated, profitable a nationwide championship. You’ve acquired Juju [Watkins], Hannah [Hidalgo], MiLaysia [Fulwiley], all of those storylines which are being performed out now as a result of the followers need increasingly and extra. And now, lastly, and perhaps, it’s the brand new negotiated TV deal that’s permitting us to proceed to develop. Possibly there’s any person within the room that’s ensuring that we now have completely different folks telling our tales. You bought Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike, Aliyah Boston, [Andraya] Carter, Carolyn Peck…I believed 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 seem to be the kind to chase milestones or historical past, it simply kind of finds its option 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 sport: 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 images through Getty Photos.
