March 2022 • Women’s History Month
DailyWildcat.com • 17
DISTINGUISHED COACH
How she got here: A conversation with Arizona WBB head coach Adia Barnes BY DEVIN HOMER @DevinHomer
Arizona women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes, 45, is one of the biggest names in the history of Arizona athletics. Barnes started her basketball career at Arizona in 1994. She was a three-time All-Conference selection and was voted first-team All-American and Pac-10 Player of the Year in 1998. She graduated from Arizona and played 12 professional seasons, both in the WNBA and overseas, winning a championship in 2004 with the Seattle Storm. Coaching was her next stop: From 2011 until 2016, she was an assistant coach at the University of Washington. On April 4, 2016 Barnes was named the University of Arizona head coach. The impact she’s made at Arizona, in the Pac-12 Conference and the nation have been on and off the court. First, the turnaround: In the three years before Barnes arrived, the Wildcats had a 3260 overall record. In the last three seasons, Barnes’ teams have gone 69-26. The Wildcats capped the 2019 season with a win in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament— the tournament features the top 32 teams that don’t make the NCAA Division I basketball tournament. In 2021, Arizona earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to its first National Championship game, where they lost by one point to Pac-12 rival, Stanford. As she engineered a turnaround of the women’s basketball program, Barnes got help from her top assistant, who is also her husband, Salvo Coppa. They have two children, Matteo, 6, and Capri, 18 months. Life as a coach, wife and mother were at the forefront last spring when during the National Championship game, she pumped breast milk at halftime, which resulted in her being late to start the third quarter. ESPN reporter Holly Rowe let the TV viewers know: “For those of you who think this is too much information,” she said, “let’s normalize working mothers and all they have to do.” Barnes also founded the Adia Barnes
Foundation, which mentors underserved youth, conducts charitable events and community service projects such as school supply drives. Here are three questions with the nationally known Arizona coach as her team attempts to cement its legacy during Women’s History Month:
What advice would you give a woman trying to break into Division I coaching?
“You have to study the game, I think networking, studying the game and just working on your craft daily. I think when you have a will and a passion for something and you set your eyes on the prize, there shouldn’t be anything that stops you from doing that. Even if you have to start in high school or junior college, or go be a video-coordinator, you get in there and you learn and you let your work speak for you. I think there are a lot of really hard working people that are determined to be great. If you work hard and you work on what you want and go after what you want and you don’t let anyone stop you from that, you will get there. Sometimes you have to be patient.”
Who are the women that shaped the woman you are today?
“My mother [Patricia McRae], because she was a strong, smart, really hard-working role model. She was tough, she was very resilient and she faced a lot of adversity but she was always extremely strong minded, optimistic. She always told me, ‘when you fall on your face, get right back up.’ So, I think I got a lot of my mentality from her.”
What’s the best advice you’ve gotten from a female peer?
“There isn’t one thing that stands out as the best, but understanding that it’s a marathon and not a sprint. Good things take time and you do them the right way. Even if it takes a little longer, that’s how you sustain success. Be patient in the process and believe in yourself and do what you do everyday and believe in it and go for it.”
NATHANIAL STENCHEVER | THE DAILY WILDCAT
HEAD COACH OF THE Arizona women’s basketball team, Adia Barnes, celebrates with her team after the game on Sunday, Feb. 13, in McKale Center in Tucson. The Wildcats would win the game 62-58, beating their in-state rival ASU.
