Search for and the primary stuff you’ll see inside South Carolina’s apply 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 complete 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 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 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 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 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 accomplished 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 accessible now.
Along 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 attempting to seize: her aura, her power 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 present is about capturing the legacy of somebody who’s means 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 carrying the staff’s 2024 Nationwide Champions tee, effortlessly poses in entrance of the digicam. Simply whenever 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, in fact, a crisp Louis Vuitton tee. She goes from giving smooth 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 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 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, at the very least early on. Are you able to deliver us again to whenever you had 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 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 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 once they had been enjoying, however whenever 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 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 strive to determine our objective 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 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 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 true world actually is taxing. It pulls you in a number of totally different instructions and for those who’re not keen about it, you aren’t going to offer it your full effort. And possibly half of you is nice sufficient in some situations, however for you as an individual, your success is most vital.
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 individuals have individuals of their lives that affect them. I discover that younger individuals discuss to their dad and mom each single day…I feel again to after I was their age, I most likely talked to my mother or my dad possibly twice a month. And you understand when that was? When the funds had been low. However they discuss to them each day, so I’m like, OK, properly, I’ll have to vary my fashion. I’ll must pivot a bit of bit as a result of I need to be the most important voice in my gamers’ heads, and if it’s the dad and mom which have entry in that means, in speaking to their daughters each day, [then] I gotta discuss to the dad and mom.
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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 individual. I don’t like to point out weak spot, and that’s most likely a downfall of mine, however it’s the very factor that retains me going, as a result of it has me working. It all the time 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 offer me suggestions from the surface wanting in, as a result of when it’s all mentioned and accomplished, I wish to be coated. My thoughts works as a basketball coach more often than not, so I’m all the time searching for basketball issues to show classes to our gamers as a result of I imagine that typically they be taught higher from that standpoint.
After which, if I get recommendation from any person that’s not within the basketball world, I can stability that and be sure that I’m giving our gamers what I see, in addition to what any person else might 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 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 won’t work immediately. I’ll say this: The core rules of who I’m as an individual and coach doesn’t change. [The] battles I struggle? They modify. Take for example this 12 months—my strategy was fully totally different than my strategy 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, so that they gave us no points. I used to be simply capable of be a basketball coach.
This 12 months, they had been totally different. They had been youthful, their strategy was totally different. They had been lackluster, they didn’t actually have a plan as people—they could have thought that they had a plan. Their plan was simply to play extra. You may strategy it that means, 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 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] strategy was loads 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 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 how to achieve success and plenty 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 might 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 staff had a means of delivering the message that I’d ship.
SLAM: As you talked about, the beginning of the season was a bit of totally different for you. What do you attribute this 12 months’s success to?
DS: We’ve had the very best staff within the nation previous to this 12 months, I’d say for years. The most effective staff within the nation and this one ended up being the very best staff within the nation by the use of default, so to talk. But it surely was a means that was fashioned 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 ought to be beginning—for some time, they may’ve mentioned, I’m the It. I ought to be beginning. Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I might play with the very 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. Really, 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 affect. And so they saved 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 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 each sport, however within the second of every sport, they didn’t need to lose. So, they might 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 after we received 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 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 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 person 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 received themselves right here, they received momentum.
As coaches, too, we’d ask one another, You consuming the Kool-Support? 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 top of the 12 months, we requested, How about now? You consuming 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 feel, simply total as I replicate, it was an excellent cool journey and atmosphere to be round them. They simply performed unfastened. I informed this to a buddy, I mentioned, “They performed free.”…So, I feel that was actually type 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 received on their practice and we rode their coattails.
SLAM: Now that you simply’ve achieved all of it—going undefeated, profitable your third chip—how does it really feel?
DS: It feels nice, like significantly. 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 stress. After which this group was simply in contrast to 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 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 staff at first of the season. We seemed like many of the groups within the nation, so we’re relatable to many 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 would like 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 staff. To have coached 24 years on this sport, 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 had been capable of 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 an awesome coach, whether or not it’s X-ing and O-ing. I’m most likely 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 feel 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 girls’s basketball skyrocket from a enterprise standpoint, beginning out of your enjoying days to what it’s immediately. 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 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 learn 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 like our sport 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, individuals had been watching. They might 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 had been watching it.
So, what occurs between then and now? Choice makers are making some actually good calls in relation to our sport…They know that ladies’s basketball is a mainstay. So, the most important distinction now’s we’re being handled like an actual sport. The great, the unhealthy 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 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 any person 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 option 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 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 need to go in as a coach.
Portraits by Diwang Valdez. Motion pictures through Getty Pictures.
