University of Delaware Athletics
Paying It Forward: Adair's Coaching Tree
4/1/2020 12:08:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Even after she finished her playing career at the University of South Florida, Natasha Adair could never stay away from basketball. Working in the marketing and fundraising office of USF's athletic department in the late 1990s, she would sneak down to the court during lunch or after work and rebound for her old teammates and jump into practice if needed.
One weekend when she was back home in Washington, D.C. watching her cousin play in an AAU tournament, she ran into Georgetown head coach Patrick Knapp, who had recruited her out of high school and asked if she was interested in coaching; he might have a gig for her and to stop by his office the following Monday.
A D.C. kid who grew up watching the Hoyas' men's program become one of the hottest teams in the country under John Thompson, Jr., she couldn't say no to that kind of mecca of college basketball.
"I go in the office and here I am 23 years later, still pinching myself," Adair said.
Today in 2020, Adair is in her third year as the head women's basketball coach at the University of Delaware, her eighth overall season as a head coach. Across her multi-decade career, Adair has had many impressive stops, from highly successful stints as an assistant at both Georgetown and Wake Forest, to her involvement with USA Basketball, to being a head coach at College of Charleston, Georgetown, and now leading the Blue Hens.
While she has helped develop remarkable players (including Rebekkah Brunson, the only player to win five WNBA championships), possibly the most impressive about Adair's coaching tenure is how many of her former players have gone on to become coaches themselves, several of whom coach with or against her in the Colonial Athletic Association.
You don't have to look far to spot some of her former players; Delaware assistant coaches Sarah Jenkins and Mykala Walker played under her at Georgetown and Wake Forest, respectively. Hofstra's Camille Collier and College of Charleston's Asia Williams, who both serve as assistant coaches and recruiting coordinators, were teammates of Walker at Wake. Kiké Rafiu, Delaware's assistant director of basketball operations (DOBO), played at Georgetown while Adair was the head coach. Outside of the CAA, Davidson assistant coach Lakevia Boykin was also a Demon Deacon.
"I'm a coach that will always have a former player on staff," Adair said. "I always have people around me that I've known forever. Trust is a big thing for me. As a coach, you don't have longevity without success, obviously, but without people around you that you trust that are loyal, but also make you better."
The atmosphere of a Natasha Adair coaching staff is one of family. Her coaches are there to achieve at a high level, but they're also each other's best friends. That comfortability allows the best ideas to flow.
"I think having former players come in, they're already comfortable," Adair said. "So they're not afraid to say, 'Coach, what do you think about this?' or 'Coach, what if we do it this way?'"
The obvious familial comparison for a coach and player is a mother and daughter. But for Adair, Delaware assistant Sarah Jenkins is closer to a sister. A point guard for Georgetown when Adair was an assistant coach just breaking into the business, Jenkins was also a fellow D.C. product. Jenkins is the daughter of two pastors, and that natural ability to connect to people combined with a high basketball IQ made her a model point guard, which transitioned seamlessly into coaching.
"Her love for people, her love for life, trickles down into how she coaches," Adair said. "She makes everyone feel like a rock star. She brings the best out of people."
"People always tend to follow me and follow what I do, and I think that was one of the biggest things that has translated from me being a player to now being a coach, to being a working professional, is the ability to motivate others," Jenkins said.
Humor is arguably the most effective tool in connecting to her players for Jenkins, whose office is often spilling over with laughter from players and coaches alike. She got into coaching immediately after graduating from Georgetown, spending over eight years coaching high school basketball. When she was ready to make the leap to the college game, Adair was the one she called for advice.
Adair was still the associate head coach at Wake Forest at the time, but a few years later got the head job at Georgetown and was able to offer Jenkins a gig at her alma mater. The duo have been coaching together ever since.
"I've learned how to be more patient and to be a more relational coach. Coach A taught me a lot about that," Jenkins said. "I've had a lot of responsibility coaching with her over these years. So I've learned not only how to be a better coach on the court, but how to handle the stuff behind the scenes as well."
Jenkins' office inside the Bob Carpenter Center is next door to Mykala Walker's, who has known Adair for nearly half her life. Adair started recruiting Walker to Wake Forest when she was 16, originally to be a small forward. But once she got to Winston-Salem, she had to play as both a power forward and a center.
That versatility and unwavering desire to do whatever is best for the team was her defining trait as a player, and continues to be her strength as a coach.
"Just a fearless competitor," Adair said. "Her flexibility, you don't see that in such a young age, in such a young player. She was just blue collar. She did whatever the team needed her to do."
Her blue-collar attitude has followed her through her coaching career, from a grad assistant and DOBO at Georgetown to an assistant coach at Delaware. Where she was hustling for rebounds as a player, now she's hustling on obscure recruiting trips.
"I was the blue collar player that's going to get every rebound, going to dive for loose balls. I just play hard," Walker said. "I was kind of a glue player, and I think it's interesting that as a coach I'd say I'm pretty much the same way. I do whatever I have to do, whatever we need done as a staff."
As the youngest on-court coach on the Blue Hens staff, Walker has a different dynamic with her players, having played college basketball very recently and being able to relate to their experiences; it's a role that Adair filled herself earlier in her career.
"You see her really kind of putting her arm around the post players, that's who she primarily works with," Adair said. "And it's funny, I sit back and I'm like, 'oh my god, she's turning into me!'"
Walker, along with Camille Collier and Asia Williams, was a part of the most successful stretch in the history of Wake Forest women's basketball. So, it's no surprise that they've carried their competitive fire into successful coaching careers.
Similar to Jenkins, Collier was the point guard and leader for those Demon Deacon teams. A fierce competitor with an analytical mind, Collier was a coach's dream to run point.
"She is OCD, a Type A personality, three steps ahead, always thinking of what's next. Great characteristics for a point guard," Adair said. "She's an over-thinker, so she always wanted to know why. Not challenging authority, but 'Coach, what are you thinking? Why are we doing it this way? Why don't we do it that way?' And you love that as a coach. You absolutely love that because you know that 1) she's locked in, but then 2) she wants to be better."
Collier was a grad assistant at Georgia State before assistant coaching stops at Jacksonville and Radford, where both the Dolphins and Highlanders made the NCAA Tournament during her tenure. Collier joined the Hofstra staff as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator in June of 2019 under head coach Danielle Santos Atkinson.
Even though they've never been on the same staff, Adair is still a mentor to her former player through the challenges of the coaching world.
"She's like a second mom, I love her," Collier said. "She's there for everything. When things are going well, she's there to celebrate you. And she's there to pick you up, and she's always there to give you a word of advice. She's just an awesome role model, and somebody that I've always looked up to and just aspire to be like."
Both Collier and Asia Williams refer to Adair as "Mama A," a testament to the relationships that she's built with her former players, even after their careers on the court are over.
Williams, now an assistant coach at College of Charleston after stops at Western Carolina, UNC Greensboro, LIU-Brooklyn and Appalachian State, is from Durham, N.C. and brings the Bull City toughness to everything she does.
"She was that edge that we needed. Great teammate, but she was the teammate that was going to light a fire under you," Adair said. "She finished every game on empty. Almost like a bull in a china shop. When she went downhill, you moved because she wasn't stopping when she had the ball in her hands."
Williams personified that toughness after suffering a gruesome injury her junior year, but coming back even stronger than before. Being forced to sit on the bench also gave her the perspective that helped her decide to pursue coaching.
"Even getting injured my junior year, even though it was a horrible injury, I was able to see the game in a different way and I wanted to be on the other side of it," Williams said.
The former Wake Forest teammates (Walker, Collier, and Williams) enjoy playing each other twice a year during the conference season and take extra pride in winning those matchups. But, even though the players keep in touch regularly, there's rarely trash talk. Instead, the group is supportive of each other as they all look to succeed and make an impact on the lives of their players.
"It's more of a support thing," Williams said. "I know Mykala, her and I are best friends, we were roommates in college. So definitely trying to support each other, especially during the tough times."
For Adair, the fact that so many of her former players have forged a successful path in the coaching world is a nice recruiting pitch to show what the end product can be when you commit to her program. But it goes beyond just recruiting too. The job of a college basketball coach is not just to win games, but to prepare young women for their lives after college too. Adair refers to her family of coaches as her "living trophies." Real-life, tangible examples of the holistic experience of what collegiate athletics is all about.
"But more importantly, when we talk about the impact that we want to have on student-athletes, and student athlete welfare and experience, this really shows true to what our commitments are as coaches," Adair said. "Making them better people and making them better professionals. I'm just thankful that they trusted me and trusted us to come be a part of what we were doing. They're living proof that it worked and we're paying it forward, so just very proud of being in their lives and watching them grow."
This story originally appeared in the 2020 CAA Women's Basketball Tournament program
