Search for and the primary belongings you’ll see inside South Carolina’s follow health club 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 health club that, even inside a whole athletic program, The Daybreak Staley Period is, and has all the time 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 health club 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 power is mesmerizing. Her presence instructions the whole 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 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 finished 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 accessible now.
Together with her proper hand man, Champ, prancing just a few steps behind her, Staley exudes calm, cool and picked up as she walks onto set. Biggie is blasting by means of 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. At the moment is about capturing the legacy of somebody who’s manner greater 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 digital camera. Simply whenever 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 delicate smiles and playful banter to remodeling, 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 court docket. 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 folks, 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 convey us again to whenever you had been taking part in within the WNBA and training at Temple on the similar 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 similar time. As a result of it performed on either 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 taking part in whereas additionally being a dream service provider for youthful gamers and giving them an expertise that you’re really residing. Lots of coaches have to return in time to that place after they had been taking part in, however whenever you’re in a position to 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 just’re asking them to do and to be disciplined at.
SLAM: You typically seek advice from 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 attempt 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 all the time basketball—it’s not. For 90 p.c of them, it’s not basketball. It is determining what you wish to do, as a result of I need folks 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 loads of totally different instructions and if you happen to’re not captivated with it, you aren’t going to offer it your full effort. And perhaps half of you is sweet sufficient in some cases, however for you as an individual, your achievement is most vital.
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 folks have folks of their lives that impression them. I discover that younger folks discuss to their mother and father each single day…I believe again to after 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 discuss to them every single day, so I’m like, OK, effectively, I’ll have to vary my type. I’ll need to pivot a bit bit as a result of I wish 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 discuss 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 personal particular person. I don’t like to point out weak point, and that’s in all probability a downfall of mine, nevertheless it’s the very factor that retains me going, as a result of it has me working. It all the time has me making ready for the worst, and I don’t wish 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 offer me suggestions from the surface trying in, as a result of when it’s all stated and finished, I wish to be coated. My thoughts works as a basketball coach more often than not, so I’m all the time in search of basketball issues to show classes to our gamers as a result of I imagine 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 steadiness that and be sure that I’m giving our gamers what I see, in addition to what any individual else may even see that I’m not overlaying.
SLAM: Has your method 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’ve got to pivot. What labored 24 years in the past is not going to work at the 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 alter. Take for example this 12 months—my method was totally totally different than my method in simply the latest years. In recent times, we had a bunch of gamers that received it. They understood the project and what they wanted to do they usually executed on and off the court docket, in order 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 totally different. They had been youthful, their method was totally 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’ll be able to method it that manner, 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 pondering, I wanna play. I sat for a very long time. It’s my time. Effectively, their time, and who they thought was taking their time, [the] method was lots 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 may hit the bottom working…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 received 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 how to achieve success and 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 may see it, I’m [it] and it appears 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 staff had a manner of delivering the message that I’d ship.
SLAM: As you talked about, the beginning of the season was a bit totally different for you. What do you attribute this 12 months’s success to?
DS: We’ve had one of the best staff within the nation previous to this 12 months, I’d say for years. The very best staff within the nation and this one ended up being one of the best 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 ought to be beginning—for some time, they may’ve stated, I’m the It. I ought to be beginning. Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I may 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 had been so assured coming into the basketball sport that they knew that they had been going to make an impression. They usually saved holding one another accountable. Ashlyn [Watkins] discovered her superpower, and her superpower is on either side of the basketball, nevertheless it was additionally main. Her voice was prevalent in huddles, and it received to the purpose the place they didn’t wish to lose. It wasn’t even being undefeated, they simply didn’t wish to lose. It was nothing about profitable every sport, however within the second of every sport, they didn’t wish to lose. So, they’d pay attention to one another they usually had been very coachable, after which we simply received momentum. We saved pushing by means of after which once we received to the Remaining 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 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 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 any individual 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 received themselves right here, they received momentum.
As coaches, too, we might ask one another, You consuming the Kool-Help? We’d actually ask one another. So, for essentially the most half we had been like, Nah, we ain’t consuming it. In the direction of the tip of the 12 months, we requested, How about now? You consuming 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 believe, simply total as I mirror, it was an excellent cool journey and setting to be round them. They only performed unfastened. I instructed this to a pal, I stated, “They performed free.”…So, I believe that was actually form 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 received on their prepare and we rode their coattails.
SLAM: Now that you just’ve completed all of it—going undefeated, profitable 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 glad…I wish to share our story. I wish to share the great, the dangerous, the ugly but additionally the chance of another person doing what we did—I wish to give them hope, as a result of we didn’t appear to be a nationwide championship staff 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 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 pinnacle coach of an Olympic staff. 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 discuss concerning the legacy that they had been in a position to really feel every single day from our teaching employees. I don’t need to say something, they are saying it. Traditionally talking, you don’t actually hear my identify as being an excellent coach, whether or not it’s X-ing and O-ing. I’m in all probability recognized 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 wish to do proper by our gamers.
SLAM: You’ve seen ladies’s basketball skyrocket from a enterprise standpoint, beginning out of your taking part in days to what it’s at the moment. What has it been wish to see this transformation in actual time?
DS: Ladies’s basketball is tremendous cool, now. I’d say now. It was tremendous cool to me after I was rising up taking part in 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 after I was taking part in in ’88, in school, in ’89, folks had been watching. They’d tune in. I do know it as a result of I do know after I go to totally different locations, I’m extra recognized 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 in the case of 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 nice, the dangerous and the ugly as a result of in sports activities you could have storylines, like a Caitlin Clark. In our sport you could have storylines of us being undefeated, profitable a nationwide championship. You’ve received Juju [Watkins], Hannah [Hidalgo], MiLaysia [Fulwiley], all of those storylines which might be being performed out now as a result of the followers need increasingly more 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’ve got totally different folks 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 sport. So, you noticed what occurs when it’s unbiased. It was completely lovely.
SLAM: You don’t seem to be the sort to chase milestones or historical past, it simply type of finds its method 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 wish to go in as a coach.
Portraits by Diwang Valdez. Motion photographs by way of Getty Photos.
