Trying to set up an interview with third-year Head Women's Basketball Coach Kelley Watts can be a challenge.
Early mornings are out because of 6:00 a.m. practices often needed to accommodate the schedules of her 14 players. Midday can be tough since she teaches a "Basketball Fundamentals" class in the Physical Education Department. Add to this her responsibilities as academic liaison for athletics, monitoring study hall for the team as well as their weight training, individual player practices, recruiting and scouting, not to mention fundraising, reaching out to alumni, and serving on University-wide committees, and it's a wonder she appears so calm and collected on the sidelines of the basketball court during games.
Her secret? A gregarious nature and genuine devotion to the game and her players. As the team's biggest cheerleader, she hands out her business card to anyone she meets and never fails to invite them to a home game.
She shares her belief in giving back with her players by ensuring that the team takes part in community activities. Aside from clinics and camps, the Panthers participate each year in the American Heart Association's HeartWalk and Hoops for Heart fundraisers. This past holiday season, Coach Watts took the team to help feed the homeless in conjunction with the local Salvation Army.
Her coaching philosophy centers on respect. "I demand a lot and they give a lot," she explains. "There's mutual respect between the coaching staff and the players. To me, coaching means building relationships with the players, and it takes time, not just from a basketball perspective." Coach Watts believes that the life skills the players learn on the basketball court will help them excel after graduation. "I do care that they are prepared for the real world. I want to make them responsible and accountable adults. It's a philosophy that has worked for me over the last 15 years."
A native of Bay Shore, NY, she earned All-American honors during her three years as a varsity basketball player for Bay Shore High School. Recruited to Rutgers University's Division I team, she played for four years (1982-1986) as a shooting guard who could also play at the point position.
"My experiences working with some of the top female coaches in the country as a player and as a coach have helped shaped my philosophy today," she says. "I was able to take my work ethic and experiences as a player and parlay that into how I coach." Her formative coaching years were spent at the University of Virginia and St. John's University before a three-year stint as the top assistant at Temple University. Along the way, she has covered various positions--from scouting and scheduling, to recruiting and mentoring her players.
An assistant coaching opportunity at Hofstra University brought her back to Long Island. She subsequently landed her first head coaching position at Division III United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY, where she transitioned the program from a club sport to the varsity level. "I worked with kids who had never played basketball before," she explains. "It was challenging and rewarding."
The Adelphi women's basketball players are flourishing under her coaching style. In 2003-2004, her second season with the Panthers, she guided her team to a 20-11 finish--just the second 20-win season in University history--as well as a New York Collegiate Athletic Conference (NYCAC) Tournament title and a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) berth. For her efforts, she was named the Metropolitan Basketball Writer's Association Division II Women's Coach of the Year and was also honored by the Nassau County Sports Commission Coach of the Year.
Captain Carlyshia Hurdle '06 was one of the first recruits Coach Watts brought to Adelphi. "Coach demands a lot of us mentally, physically, and emotionally," says Carlyshia. "But it's not just to make you a better student or a better athlete, but a better person. She is a very caring and involved coach."
Winning is what all coaches strive for, but Coach Watts feels her greatest accomplishment at Adelphi has been the recognition the team has earned for their respect and maturity on the court. For the past two years, Adelphi has been the recipient of the NYCAC Sportsmanship Award.
Despite the many roles she plays, Coach Watts still manages to support the other campus athletic teams. She was the fan making the most noise when the softball team advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2002, and she made the trip to Florida when the women's lacrosse team won a national championship in 2004.
Coach Watts is the University's eighth head women's basketball coach and the first African American. Her team practices and competes in historic Woodruff Hall, built in 1929 when Adelphi was still an all-female college. Traditionally, the Panthers have enjoyed a home-court advantage, winning over 66 percent of their home games dating back to the early 1970s. In the last two seasons under Coach Watts, the Panthers have won 24 of 28 games played at home.
