Coaching While Black
This occasional series will highlight Black coaches at all levels of sport. This week: Denver WBB Coach Doshia Woods
“I think Coach Woods keeps her priorities in the right order,” St. Thomas Coach Ruth Sinn told us after her team and Woods’ Denver squad met last Saturday at the St. Paul school in Summit League action.
“She is as competitive as the days are long, but she understands that her number-one goal is to make very strong, confident young women to get out in the community, and they are going to lead and be impactful.”
Woods is in her fifth season as University of Denver head women’s basketball coach. She came to the Mile High City after 10 seasons as a Tulane assistant coach. She and Omaha’s Carrie Banks were hired about a month apart in 2020, and the two Black women are co-deans of the Summit League Black coaches.
“Carrie and I got the jobs at the same time,” recalled Woods. “She got the Omaha job maybe in April, and I got this job a month later. We try to support each other as much as we can.”
When asked why coaching, she admitted, “The game saved my life. This is year 24 for me coaching at this college level, and year five as me a head coach. It’s a game that gave a lot to me.”
“Every time I step on the court, I work hard as a ‘thank you’ to those who believe in me. And I hope in some way my players have a chance at their dreams and I’m helping them to do that as well.”
Woods easily remembers as a young girl growing up in Kansas and seeing a Black woman coaching college basketball: “I grew up in Topeka, Kansas… I had a chance to watch Marion Washington on the sidelines. She really inspired me to never once doubt that I was able to lead a program at this level.”
Marion Washington coached Kansas (1973 to 2004) and amassed a 560-363 record there. She is a 2004 Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer and coached the U.S. team (head coach in 1982 and assistant on the 1996 Olympic team).
As a coach, Woods produced six straight 20+ win seasons and seven straight postseason berths, including the 2015 NCAA Tournament. But her success is not just winning games, she stressed.
“If you are going to measure [me] only on game days, I’m not living up to your measurement of success,” said Woods. “As important as basketball can be, it’s not everything. So, I want [her players] to have a life outside of basketball.
“I want readers to know that I love and enjoy the process,” she continued. “I enjoy the day-to-day and watching them grow. I will find something positive, even in a loss.”
Why Denver, we asked: “Tulane and Denver are very similar academically,” responded the coach. “I like the city; it is very inclusive.
“I’ve been out since day one. My wife and I have been together 17 years in April. I didn’t want to go to a place where I had to go back in the closet. Denver checked a lot of these personal boxes.”
Sitting in her coaching office is a gift from South Carolina HC Dawn Staley, a piece of the net from the 2017 NCAA Championship won by the Gamecocks and that she promised to every DI Black female head coach. It was delivered shortly after Woods got the Denver job.
“We are all inspired by that,” said Woods of Staley’s success. “It’s a daily reminder that it’s possible.
“When I think of my life story, every time I step on the court I am a champion, and that’s how I live,” concludes the Pioneers HC. “The game will always be bigger than basketball for me. It will always be bigger than the scoreboard.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.