For Fairfield head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis, coaching basketball isn’t about things.
Thibault-DuDonis and the rest of the 2023-24 Stags (minus a few players) received their rings for winning the MAAC last season in front of the Leo D. Mahoney Arena crowd Tuesday night before its 7 p.m. contest against Richmond.
It was a nice moment, but it’s not what the Stags play for. The ring isn’t why Thibault-DuDonis or anyone else in Fairfield works for hours on end. Why, then, do they do it?
“I don’t think [last year] would be as special if it wasn’t for the team and the people we had,” Thibault-DuDonis told The Next. “The ring is just a symbol of that.
“I cannot imagine I’ll ever coach a team like that again,” assistant coach Blake DuDonis told The Next. “That team will stand out in my mind for the rest of my life.”
Last year was historic for the Stags. Here’s the quick rundown: 31-2. 29-straight wins. Undefeated in conference play. Regular season and postseason MAAC champions. An NCAA Tournament appearance. Graduate guard Janelle Brown was MAAC Player of the Year. Sophomore road runner (term Fairfield uses instead of forward) Meghan Andersen was MAAC Rookie of the Year. Thibault-DuDonis was Coach of the Year.
Do you get the picture?
All of that is only achieved from a people-centered culture Thibault-DuDonis, DuDonis and assistant coaches Erika Brown and Erik Johnson have cultivated.
And it’s evident how much they value their people. You can gauge that by walking into the arena any time the women’s basketball team is on the court.
It’s around 2 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon. Fairfield has a game later, but you wouldn’t know based on what’s going on on the court.
“Swag Surfin’” by Fast Life Yungstaz is blasting over the speakers and the entire team is on the court. They’re cracking jokes, messing around and awaiting practice.
Practice finally starts.
The team starts with competitive mid-range and three-point shooting drills. Seniors guard Kendall McGruder and road runner Lauren Beach dominate, winning the competition for their team. Then, the Stags get into the brass tacks.
Thibault-DuDonis is the general. Her and Johnson — who was in charge of the scout for Richmond — make sure everything is going according to plan during their drills.
DuDonis and Erika Brown are active participants in said drills.
Thibault-DuDonis is in all black, including the whistle around her neck, minus her white Nike sneakers with a red swoosh on the side and a metallic silver glimmer on the tip. She holds a black pen in her left hand and a slip of paper in her right. She’s taking notes.
When she’s really concentrating she brings the end cap of the pen to her lips and narrows her gaze, deciding what to improve on, what she sees to jot down for her notes.
Fairfield runs through some of its offensive plays, walks through its defensive positioning and works out its inbound plays. It works to perfect its weaves, loops and cuts all before playing a tall, lanky Richmond team.
Those drills are interspersed by Thibault-DuDonis’ encouragement.
“Wake up!”
“Ride on!”
“Here we go!”
“Energy!”
If people are the tires that keep Fairfield moving, energy is its gasoline. Erika Brown, Janelle Brown and sophomore guard Kaety L’Amoreaux provide enough fuel to travel from Fairfield to California and back.
“We’ve got six or seven different women that are like energy bunnies,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “It makes my job a little easier.”
Fairfield caps off the day’s practice in two ways. First, with everyone on the court — yes, everyone, not excluding the student managers and media there — getting a half-court shot.
Most hit the backboard or the rim. Some missed entirely. Freshman road runner Cyanne Coe hit the shot clock. Only Andersen’s goes in. She doesn’t make those often, but today she did.
Thibault-DuDonis emphasizes focus and protecting their house in the final messages before everyone gets ready in their own unique way. Before the chaos of a game, the chaos of the first home game following a historic season, the Stags have this circle and this moment.
They have each other.
It’s somewhere right before 6 p.m. now.
There’s a small line outside of Leo D. Mahoney Arena. It’s the first time since March 9 that the fans can see their Stags play in Fairfield.
A lot is the same as in practice earlier. Fairfield is warming up on one side of the court and hip hop music is blaring from the speakers of the arena. But on the other side, the Richmond Spiders are warming up, too.
They’re the reigning A-10 champions and have two All-Conference first teamers in graduate forward Addie Budnik and junior forward Maggie Doogan. The Spiders are big, can shoot and play excellent defense.
After the Stags finish warming up, they come out to the resounding cheers of the 1,443 fans inside the arena. At center court right above the red, outlined with black Fairfield “F” there’s a large banner commemorating the 2023-24 season, about 30 rings in individual cases and the MAAC championship trophy with a hoop from the previous year’s MAAC championship game win draped around it.
Student practice players, student managers, team officials, coaches and the players all receive a ring for last season’s MAAC championship. A few players who transferred or graduated didn’t get their rings Tuesday night, but one notable exception was Nicole Gallagher.
“Nikki G,” as she’s referred to by the players and coaches, transferred to Fairfield from a Bryant team that went a combined 36-77 in her four years there.
She just wanted to win. And obviously, the Stags won in her only year in Fairfield.
Despite being at Fairfield for one year, the experience left an indelible mark on Gallagher. She bought court side season tickets at Leo D. Mahoney Arena to watch Fairfield play every game. She was the only graduated player to come back and get her ring.
“It was so much fun to see everyone,” Gallagher told The Next. “Everyone involved is family for life for me.”
Thibault-DuDonis makes an effort to have everyone on the team feel supported and feel like a family. When they communicate as a team, nothing’s off the table, even the 2024 election.
When the Stags line up for the national anthem, Thibault-DuDonis isn’t with the other coaches. She’s right next to Janelle Brown, with her hand on her shoulder while she kneels in protest.
When Janelle Brown fouled out of the game in the fourth quarter, it was Thibault-DuDonis who pulled her aside before she walked to the bench and talked with her for a good 10-15 seconds.
Her attentiveness to these types of sensitivities is one of the reasons the the players love Thibault-DuDonis. McGruder made sure to check that Thibault-DuDonis’ white shirt was tucked into her skirt before the national anthem. Junior guard Sydni Scott gave Thibault-DuDonis a goodbye hug before she left the arena.
As for the game itself, it wasn’t as memorable as the pre-game ceremony or as kind as Thibault-DuDonis is to her players. Fairfield was humbled, for the first time in a while. Richmond won 62-39. No Stag registered double-digit points.
“It was a massacre,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “Richmond is all they’re cracked up to be.”
They held Fairfield to seven points in the first half. That was the first time since the MAAC switched women’s basketball to be played from two halves to four quarters that the Stags were held to single digits.
As fans file out of the stands postgame, the opposite is true on the court.
There’s still a good 100-200 people on the court. It’s mainly family and friends of the players and coaches, but no one wants to leave. The Stags are still in uniform autographing things for kids and the coaches are talking with parents and other staff.
The night continues to fade away, and postgame interviews wrap up, but people are still here. Some kids are mustering all of their strength to make the ball into the 10-foot hoops, but the adults are all conversing. About what? Maybe the game, maybe life, maybe about Fairfield.
Even when the lights go out, there are still a dozen people on or around the court, waiting for their child or their friend.
Fairfield, Thibault-Dudonis and the team have built a family. A family that’s bound together not by rings, or banners or trophies, but by the people and by love. A family that is easy to be a part of.
“You got people around you that are going to pick you up,” Thibault-DuDonis said.