Going into her first season at Arizona State University, head coach Natasha Adair has brought on a dream team staff made up of her previous coaches and players.
Mykala Walker, Camille Collier and Darrell Mosley joined the Sun Devil Women's Basketball program as assistant coaches. Director of Operations Carter Caplan, Assistant Director of Operations Lizzie Oleary and Special Assistant to Head Coach Bob Clark also joined the program under Adair. The staff is ecstatic to be in Tempe and are excited for what’s in store this upcoming 2022-2023 season.
Each person has a special tie and connection to Adair. They all expressed that when approached by her about the position, they couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Camille Collier - Assistant Coach
Collier played for Adair when she was the associate head coach at Wake Forest University and played alongside fellow assistant coach Walker. She knows Adair’s expectations for her players and team and has no doubt coming to Arizona State University was the right choice.
“It was a no-brainer just because you want to surround yourself with people that you aspire to be,” Collier said. “So that's exciting for me. I would love to be able to have the opportunity to come here and help her do great things.”
Implementing their own culture and relating it back to the Sun Devil way is on top of Collier’s to-do list before the season starts. One part of that is building relationships with current players, while also having players learn more about the staff's values, expectations and personalities.
Collier has already started developing relationships with future players on recruiting trips, student-athletes who have the potential to enhance the program and help them compete for the PAC-12 Championship.
“Talent is really important, but there's so many intangibles that you have to have and that we look for when we're recruiting players,” Collier said. “So we’re really looking forward to getting to know more of those families as we go through that process.”
Outside of basketball, Collier enjoys working out and hopes to hike in Arizona soon. She especially likes visiting her home — Washington D.C.
“I just love going home so I can be around my friends and family and just spend as much time with them.” Collier said. “That’s something I've always enjoyed.”
Darrell Mosley - Assistant Coach
Mosley made the transition to the University of Delaware to work under Adair in 2021 and helped the team win a conference championship. Although coaching with her for only one season, he said it's been one of the best decisions he has ever made.
When Adair officially asked him to join her staff at ASU, Mosley said, “Coach, when are we leaving?"
Off the court, he is focused on how the team can build a sense of community. He noted how the staff has made an effort for players to connect with each other by doing a wide variety of activities outside of basketball.
“We know we have to be a little strategic on extracurricular things — that's going to help bring this team together and build that camaraderie,” he said. “We'll be doing a lot of team bonding throughout the summer and fall to keep the team engaged and keep them having fun working with each other.”
When he’s not coaching, Mosley can be found on the green, playing golf with friends.
He learned quickly that he prefers to golf in the early morning around 6:30 a.m. to avoid the heat.
Mykala Walker - Assistant Coach
Walker is a previous player under Adair at Wake Forest University and coached under her at the University of Delaware. She looks up to Adair as a mentor and truly believes in Adair’s goals for her athletes — that it is more than just basketball, but about developing her players into better people.
“I would follow Coach Adair all over the world,” Walker said. “She's a phenomenal person and I trust her with my entire heart.”
One of the biggest things Walker wants to accomplish this offseason is to build team chemistry and replicate some of the strengths of her former team. She acknowledged the success her team had at the University of Delaware was due to the strong team culture of hard work, dedication and overall growth.
“It’s important to build chemistry with the new players that are coming into this system, along with the players that have already been here,’’ Walker said. “And, getting them to gel over the summer so that when it comes time to compete, there's 100 percent trust there.”
Walker enjoys shopping and trying new restaurants on the days she isn’t in the gym. She also has a love for horses and said she cannot wait to go horseback riding in the Valley.
“I'm so ready to start exploring everything and I wish I could do it all in one weekend,” Walker said.
Carter Caplan - Director of Basketball Operations
Caplan was the Assistant Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Delaware under Adair. He recalled the moment he found out he would be joining the staff was at the 2022 NCAA Final Four in Minneapolis, when Adair confirmed he would be going with her to Arizona State.
“That was just like a sigh of relief of like, ‘okay, I'm coming to ASU,’” Caplan said. “I'm moving cross country and settling down in Arizona.”
When asked why he wanted to work for Adair again, he said it's because she is a great leader.
“Coach Adair is such a great role model, a great leader and she cares.” he said. “I'm not saying all my other bosses didn't care, but I really feel the connection with Coach A and everyone that she's hired and it makes work fun — it doesn’t feel like work.”
In his position, he focuses more on the behind the scenes of the team, where he helps schedule practices, book travel plans, finalize scouting videos and reports, coordinate team meals and oversee the team’s managers. His favorite part of the offseason has been building the roster and meeting prospective student athletes.
“We've had a lot of great kids. This season's going to be something special. We built a really, really, really good squad for this upcoming season and years to come,” he said.
He described the staff as family and said they do everything together.
“It's great when you can have people that you trust and love. It makes the job so much easier because you know that if you're having a tough day, they'll pick you up.”
Outside of basketball work, he enjoys cooking and being a college baseball umpire.
Bob Clark - Special Assistant to Head Coach
Clark has known Adair for over 20 years and worked with everyone on the staff from his time as an assistant coach at Wake Forest University and associate head coach at the University of Delaware. He said the transition to ASU has been easy because he and Adair share the common theme of caring for other people.
“The familiarity is totally the best part of it,” Clark said.” And there's certain things I know about each one that I can kind of feed off and they can do the same with me.”
Clark’s job is to help with the schedule, plan alumni events and work on anything else Adair needs. His favorite part of this upcoming season’s roster is players who have decided to stay and give coach Adair a chance.
“The players that were here before with the other coaches and have stayed, I respect that. I like the fact that they want to give coach Adair a chance and work with the new players,” Clark said. “I have had a hand in recruiting them all and they all kind of share the same vision. They want to come here, want to help win the PAC 12 and they want to be successful. They want to enjoy Arizona State.”
Clark also worked as an assistant coach for the ASU Women's Basketball program in 1987. He loves Arizona and is glad to be back.
Lizzie Oleary - Assistant Director of Operations
Oleary is a recent student athlete who graduated from the University of Delaware where she won a conference championship playing for Adair. Initially, during her senior year of high school, she was deciding if she would still commit to playing at Delaware, but received a phone call that the new head coach would be Adair. Oleary decided to give her a chance and had a great five seasons playing for her.
“She was just a really good person to play under, she really cared about us as players and now that I'm here working on her staff, she cares about her staff too.”
Her job is to help assist Caplan with meals for the team and with anything the players need outside of basketball.
“It's different being on this side. I had a little bit of an understanding of kind of what goes on, but she's been really great about making sure I'm doing okay.” Oleary said.
She is excited to learn more about what it takes to run a team, travel to new places and work in basketball.