Search for and the primary stuff you’ll see inside South Carolina’s apply fitness center 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 fitness center 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 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 fitness center 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 carrying an all-white match, her aura and vitality is mesmerizing. Her presence instructions your complete room. This is identical visionary who simply led her crew 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 completed and nobody can doubt that she is among the greats. It’s written within the banners, within the stars, and on this very cowl. She is in cost. The CEO of excellence.
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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 way of 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. At this time 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 sport.
As legendary photographer Diwang Valdez snaps away, Staley, who’s now carrying the crew’s 2024 Nationwide Champions tee, effortlessly poses in entrance of the digicam. Simply once 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 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 courtroom. It’s deeply methodical, poetic even. Proper now, Daybreak means enterprise.
That is the face of somebody who has personified power, 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 previously the way you didn’t actually have an curiosity in teaching, not less than early on. Are you able to deliver us again to once you have 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 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 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 number of coaches have to return in time to that place once they have been enjoying, however once 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 just’re asking them to do and to be disciplined at.
SLAM: You usually 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 sport, that’s what you might be. I do know we attempt to determine our goal 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 the 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 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 true world actually is taxing. It pulls you in lots of completely different instructions and in case you’re not obsessed with it, you aren’t going to present 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 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 all people 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 feel again to after I was their age, I in all probability talked to my mother or my dad perhaps twice a month. And when that was? When the funds have been low. However they discuss to them daily, so I’m like, OK, effectively, I’ll have to alter my fashion. I’ll must pivot slightly 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 method, in speaking to their daughters daily, [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 non-public individual. I don’t like to point out 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 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 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 present me suggestions from the surface wanting in, as a result of when it’s all stated and completed, I wish to be lined. 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 generally they be taught 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 ensure that I’m giving our gamers what I see, in addition to what any individual else may even see that I’m not protecting.
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 won’t 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 struggle? They modify. Take for example this 12 months—my method was solely completely different than my method in simply the current years. In recent times, 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, so that they gave us no points. I used to be simply capable of be a basketball coach.
This 12 months, they have been completely different. They have been youthful, their method was completely different. They have been lackluster, they didn’t actually have a plan as people—they might have thought they’d a plan. Their plan was simply to play extra. You possibly can 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 pondering, 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] method 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 operating…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 train me [that] there are a selection of the way to achieve success and various methods to method issues.
One of many battles that I didn’t struggle that I usually struggle: if all people 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 crew had a method of delivering the message that I’d ship.
SLAM: As you talked about, the beginning of the season was slightly completely different for you. What do you attribute this 12 months’s success to?
DS: We’ve had the most effective crew within the nation previous to this 12 months, I’d say for years. The very best crew within the nation and this one ended up being the most effective crew within the nation by the use of default, so to talk. But it surely was a method 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 needs to be beginning—for some time, they might’ve stated, I’m the It. I needs to 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 have been so assured coming into the basketball sport that they knew that they have been going to make an impression. 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 wish to lose. It wasn’t even being undefeated, they only didn’t wish to lose. It was nothing about successful each sport, however within the second of every sport, they didn’t wish to lose. So, they might hear to one another and so they have been very coachable, after which we simply received momentum. We stored pushing by way of after which once we received to the Ultimate 4, they have been like, We gonna win this factor.
Earlier than the nationwide championship sport, they have been speaking main money ish. The coaches’ locker room is related to the massive 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 have been speaking. And I do know they’re hyping themselves up, however as coaches, , 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 might actually ask one another. So, for essentially the most half we have been like, Nah, we ain’t consuming it. In direction of the top 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 feel, simply general as I mirror, it was a brilliant cool journey and atmosphere to be round them. They simply performed unfastened. I informed this to a good friend, I stated, “They performed free.”…So, I feel that was actually type 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 practice and we rode their coattails.
SLAM: Now that you just’ve completed all of it—going undefeated, successful 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 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 comfortable…I wish to share our story. I wish to share the great, the unhealthy, the ugly but in addition the chance of another person doing what we did—I wish to give them hope, as a result of we didn’t appear like a nationwide championship crew originally 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 crew. To have coached 24 years on this sport, I do know that I don’t care a few private legacy. I wish to let my gamers discuss in regards to the legacy that they have been capable of really feel daily from our teaching workers. I don’t must say something, they are saying it. Traditionally talking, you don’t actually hear my identify 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 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 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 enjoying days to what it’s at the moment. 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 all people is falling in love with it, once we know completely different. We all know that again after I was enjoying in ’88, in faculty, in ’89, folks have 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 enjoying 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 relation 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’ve storylines, like a Caitlin Clark. In our sport you’ve storylines of us being undefeated, successful 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 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 individual within the room that’s ensuring that we’ve got completely different folks telling our tales. You bought Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike, Aliyah Boston, [Andraya] Carter, Carolyn Peck…I assumed 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 stunning.
SLAM: You don’t look like the kind to chase milestones or historical past, it simply form of finds its solution 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 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 wish to go in as a coach.
Portraits by Diwang Valdez. Motion photographs by way of Getty Photographs.