Again in 2021, Daybreak Staley took the web that she lower down from South Carolina’s 2017 nationwide championship and diced it into items. She then divided them up and despatched them to 70 Black girls coaches in an try to recreate the inspiration that Carolyn Peck – the primary Black girl to win a nationwide title in 1999 with Purdue – gave to her.
When Arkansas State eliminated the interim tag from Destinee Rogers within the spring of 2022 – making her the primary Black girl to be the top coach of any sport on the college – she held up the string of nylon of Staley’s internet that the South Carolina coach despatched to her. Quick ahead three years later and Rogers now has her personal internet.
By upsetting top-seeded James Madison within the title recreation of the Solar Belt convention event, Rogers is taking Arkansas State to the NCAA Event for the primary time ever. She’s hopeful, and assured, that the Purple Wolves will proceed to win.
And like Staley did for her, she goals to offer some inspiration for different younger Black girls aiming to interrupt into teaching.
“I actually really feel like I’ve a chance to sort of be somebody that might open the door for the following one, as a result of in the event that they see that I can do it, then they know that they will do it as effectively,” Rogers informed SB Nation. “I take plenty of delight in being the primary Black head coach right here, but additionally being from Arkansas and simply proving to people who we will get it finished too and we should have a seat on the desk as effectively. So, it’s tremendous satisfying. We need to hold it rolling.”
Rogers, 35, was born and raised in Arkansas and has received huge just about all over the place she’s been. As a excessive schooler, she received 4 state championships. As a participant for Central Arkansas, she averaged 7.7 factors and three.3 assists per recreation as a senior starter and helped the Sugar Bears win an everyday season championship. Then as an assistant coach at her alma mater, she helped Central Arkansas make the Division I NCAA Event for the primary time ever. The Sugar Bears went to March Insanity once more in 2017 with Rogers nonetheless on workers.
A couple of years later, Rogers joined the workers at Arkansas State. She didn’t suppose she could be a head coach so quickly in her profession, however destiny had different plans. When Matt Daniel resigned 10 video games into the 2021-22 marketing campaign, she was promoted to the lead chair on the bench. She received her very first recreation as a head coach – turning into the primary Black girl to take action for the Purple Wolves – defeating Mississippi Valley State 81-47. Months later, she was holding up the piece of internet Staley had given to her as she was named the full-time head coach.
“I’m a lady of religion. And you realize, I consider that God put me on the trail that he put me on for a cause. I actually really feel like I’m chosen and referred to as to do that,” Rogers stated. “I had a imaginative and prescient that we have been going to win a championship right here. I didn’t know when, however I shall be sincere and let you know once I noticed this workforce for the primary time, I assumed that this was the workforce that might get it finished.”
Constructing Arkansas State right into a winner didn’t occur in a single day although. Rogers received simply 13 video games in every of her first two full-time seasons main the Purple Wolves.
When final season ended although, she noticed a chance for a contemporary begin. She retained three key gamers, after which utterly revamped the roster with 9 transfers. Rogers particularly focused athletes within the portal who match the way in which that she wished to play: quick.
“We didn’t have the personnel to play quick the earlier two years, so we have been capable of exit and discover children that might play quick, that have been three degree shooters,” Rogers stated. “We thrive on protection. We press for 40 minutes. So, you bought to have the ability to defend. However you additionally received to have the ability to play quick and be capable of shoot the ball at a excessive degree.”
There have been doubters that Rogers may remodel the Purple Wolves right into a contender. They have been picked to complete thirteenth within the Solar Belt within the league’s preseason ballot.
As a workforce, the Purple Wolves talked about that rating only one time. They didn’t carry it with all of them season and weren’t motivated to show the naysayers flawed. They simply aimed to show Rogers proper.
Collectively, the items that Rogers put collectively grew to become probably the greatest 3-point taking pictures groups in all of girls’s school basketball this season. Nationally, Arkansas State ranks second in 3-point fee, second in complete 3-pointers made, and first in share of factors from 3-pointers. They’re additionally twenty sixth nationally in turnovers compelled per recreation. Protection and deep pictures is the model that the Purple Wolves have embraced.
Rogers knew that her workforce would be capable of play quick and defend effectively, however she didn’t know that her gamers would be capable of collectively shoot the ball that effectively till she noticed all of them on the court docket collectively throughout preseason practices. So she tailored and tailor-made the Arkansas State offense to a four-out, one-in system – just like what North Carolina State performs – or at occasions a five-out scheme, popularized by Karl Smesko’s Florida Gulf Coast.
“Shifting ahead, that’s who we’re going to be,” Rogers stated. “So when you’re going to come back to Arkansas State, you bought to have the ability to shoot the ball.”
That model helped Arkansas State break off an 11-game win streak in Solar Belt play and go 15-3 total in league play, adequate for a second-place end. The workforce on the prime of the desk was James Madison, who went 18-0 within the Solar Belt. However with the way in which the convention schedule is ready up, not everybody performs one another. So, the Dukes hadn’t seen Rogers’ new-look Purple Wolves up shut till the convention event title recreation.
With an NCAA Event bid on the road, Arkansas State sank 12 3-pointers and turned the Dukes over 16 occasions. The Purple Wolves received in extra time, 86-79, snapping JMU’s 20-game win streak.
“They hadn’t seen us earlier than, and the way in which we play is so unorthodox the place, when you’re not ready for it, I feel it may trigger you some issues,” Rogers stated. “We actually felt like, if we may actually get aggressive in our press and play as quick as we may, that we might give them some bother… One factor about this workforce is that they have zero concern.”
Of the transfers that Rogers introduced in, six of them determined to come back to Arkansas State for his or her closing yr of eligibility. They believed in her, the workforce and the model, and believed that they might all accomplish one thing particular collectively.
“They deserve a ton of credit score for taking that threat to come back right here for his or her final yr, and now they’re champions,” Rogers stated. “I simply consider if you wish to achieve success, you higher get outdated and keep outdated. That’s sort of what we do. We recruit the portal. It’s not going to be totally different this yr. We’re going to leap again within the portal and we’re going to go get some extra good gamers, and we’re going to maintain this factor rolling.”
As one of many youngest head coaches in Division I, Rogers believes that the web she lower down on the Solar Belt event in Pensacola, Florida received’t be her final.
