Lookup and the primary stuff 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 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 health club 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 your entire room. This is identical 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 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 out there 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 way of the audio system within the background, serving as the proper 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, but it surely’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 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 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 digital camera. Simply while you suppose 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, after all, a crisp Louis Vuitton tee. She goes from giving tender 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 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 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 deliver us again to while you have been enjoying within the WNBA and training at Temple on the identical time?
Daybreak Staley: Probably the most gratifying moments of my life was to have the ability to play after which be capable to coach all on the identical time. As a result of it performed on either side of my mind and the fervour 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 residing. A whole lot of coaches have to return in time to that place after they have 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 typically confer 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 might be. I do know we attempt to determine our function 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 % of them, it’s not basketball. It is determining what you need 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 every day. The actual world actually is taxing. It pulls you in a number of totally different instructions and for those who’re not obsessed with it, you aren’t going to provide it your full effort. And possibly half of you is sweet sufficient in some situations, however for you as an individual, your success is most essential.
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 avenue. All younger folks have folks of their lives that affect 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 most likely talked to my mother or my dad possibly twice a month. And you realize when that was? When the funds have been low. However they discuss to them on daily basis, so I’m like, OK, nicely, I’ll have to vary my fashion. I’ll must 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 method, in speaking to their daughters on daily basis, [then] I gotta discuss to the mother and father.
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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 personal individual. I don’t like to point out weak spot, and that’s most likely 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 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 mentioned and finished, I prefer 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 someone that’s not within the basketball world, I can stability that and ensure that I’m giving our gamers what I see, in addition to what someone else may even see that I’m not overlaying.
SLAM: Has your method to teaching modified at all around 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 now we have to pivot. What labored 24 years in the past is not going to work as we speak. 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 method was solely totally different than my method in simply the current years. Lately, we had a bunch of gamers that received it. They understood the project 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 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 that they had a plan. Their plan was simply to play extra. You’ll be able to method it that method, 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 have been outta form. They got here in simply considering, 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 rather a lot 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 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 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 variety of the way to achieve success and plenty of methods to method 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 [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 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 the perfect 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 the perfect group within the nation by means of default, so to talk. But it surely was a method 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 mentioned, I must be beginning—for some time, they may’ve mentioned, I’m the It. I must 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. Really, the kids simply allowed the older gamers to information them to the purpose the place they have been so assured getting into the basketball recreation that they knew that they have been going to make an affect. They usually stored holding one another accountable. Ashlyn [Watkins] discovered her superpower, and her superpower is on either side of the basketball, but it surely was additionally main. Her voice was prevalent in huddles, and it received 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 recreation, however within the second of every recreation, they didn’t need to lose. So, they might pay attention to one another and so they have been very coachable, after which we simply received momentum. We stored pushing by way of after which after we received to the Last 4, they have been like, We gonna win this factor.
Earlier than the nationwide championship recreation, they have 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 area. 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 someone out as a result of they have 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’d ask one another, You ingesting the Kool-Support? We’d 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 a giant gulp, however I’m sippin’. As a result of they’re placing it on show. I believe, simply total as I replicate, it was an excellent cool journey and surroundings to be round them. They simply performed unfastened. I instructed this to a good friend, I mentioned, “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 need to direct them and information them. Nah. Nah, we received on their prepare and we rode their coattails.
SLAM: Now that you simply’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] appeared the half. They appeared 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 suppose 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 need to share our story. I need to share the nice, the dangerous, the ugly but in addition 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 appeared 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 mentioned 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 couple of private legacy. I need to let my gamers discuss concerning the legacy that they have been capable of really feel on daily basis 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 excellent 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 believe we’re doing fairly good. If the X-ing and O-ing coaches aren’t profitable 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 ladies’s basketball skyrocket from a enterprise standpoint, beginning out of your enjoying days to what it’s as we speak. 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 after I was rising up enjoying it and going to school as a result of I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Now that I do know what I learn 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 everyone is falling in love with it, after we know totally different. We all know that again after I was enjoying in ’88, in school, in ’89, folks have 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 identified for taking part in at Virginia than something. So, they have been watching it.
So, what occurs between then and now? Choice makers are making some actually good calls in the case of our recreation…They know that ladies’s basketball is a mainstay. So, the largest distinction now’s we’re being handled like an actual sport. The great, the dangerous 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, profitable a nationwide championship. You’ve received 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 now we have totally different folks 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 recreation. So, you noticed what occurs when it’s unbiased. It was completely stunning.
SLAM: You don’t appear to be the kind to chase milestones or historical past, it simply type of finds its technique to you. With that being mentioned, 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 recreation: 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 need to go in as a coach.
Portraits by Diwang Valdez. Motion pictures through Getty Photos.
