Women’s Basketball Coach Honored in ‘Women of Weber’ Exhibit
OGDEN, Utah – Building a basketball team as a new head coach is tough.
Building a basketball team during a pandemic with uncertainty looming around every corner? Even tougher.
Velaida Harris and the Weber State University Women’s Basketball team persevered through two tough years, laying down the foundation for the team’s continued growth and success, capping off the 2021-22 season with the Wildcats’ first win in the Big Sky Tournament since 2017.
“It was hard in the beginning, but we worked our way through it,” Harris said. “This is when I knew we had a good group of young women. They wanted some sense of normalcy. They just kept fighting and striving.”
This season marked Harris’ fourth year as head coach of the Wildcats. When she was hired at Weber State in 2018, Harris made history as the first Black woman ever to be a collegiate head coach of any sport in the state of Utah at the Division I level. The Weber State job was important on a personal level, too. After 25 years of coaching, this would be Harris’s first time as head coach at the collegiate level.
“I understood what it means to a lot of people, but to me it was, ‘Wooh, I got my first head coaching job,’”she said in a 2019 oral history with Weber State Archives. “I've always been Black, so to me, ‘What does it feel like?’ It’s like, ‘I feel like a first-time head coach. I don't feel like a first-time Black head coach.’ I have a responsibility to do it the right way, but my way while representing myself, my family and my culture.”
Harris is the final honoree in Weber State’s year-long “Women of Weber” exhibit, which focuses on extraordinary women whose service, accomplishments, careers and philanthropy have enriched lives and educational experiences at the university. Each month throughout the academic year, the photos and stories of various women have been displayed outside Archives on the first floor of the Stewart Library.
Early coaching career
Harris grew up in Portland, Oregon, as one of four siblings. Her interest in basketball started in elementary school when she began searching for a more competitive recess activity, but she didn’t begin playing the sport officially until middle school.
“I fell in love with that game in particular, just the speed of it and the fact that you could score so quickly,” she said. “I thought it was pretty to watch; it was fun to watch how people handled the ball.”
After high school, Harris went on to study and play basketball at Portland State University from 1989-93. A recurring knee injury cut short her college basketball career, and without scholarship funds, she was unable to continue coursework toward graduation. She returned to college 12 years later, earning a degree in liberal studies with minors in technical writing and Black studies. Between college stints, she participated in the AmeriCorps volunteer program, which placed her in elementary schools and mentoring girls. Through the AmeriCorps’ program Friends of the Children, Harris sat in on the 1995 Pacific Rim Economic Conference with former President Bill Clinton.
Her student-athlete experience eventually led to her first coaching jobs in high schools. In 1995, she married her husband, Jerry, and the couple had three children. Opportunities to coach at the college level began to present themselves, she said, leading her first to the University of Oregon before moving on to Utah to join the staff at the University of Utah from 2009-15.
At Utah, she first held the position of director of operations before being promoted to assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. The Utes reached the postseason four times under her guidance, including the NCAA Tournament 2011 and the finals of the WNIT in 2013. Her final stint as an assistant coach was at the University of Rhode Island, where she spent a year recruiting and leading skill development of all players.
When the coaching job opened at Weber State, Harris said she was drawn to it because of the university’s focus on education and building good students.
“They all talked about the kids and how important it was for us to build relationships with them,” she said. “That was a really big deal, being able to come back and do what I love — in terms of coaching, building relationships and pouring into young people — also dealing with the community that was familiar to me.”
Taking over as head coach was tough, Harris said, because it’s important to honor what’s been established by prior coaches, but it’s also important to leave your mark.
“I had to begin to do it my way,” she said. “With my personality, with my vigor… with my love and care. If I don’t totally embrace it and embed myself in it, then it’s not going to be what my vision is or what I believe my program is doing to represent Weber State.”
Coaching the Wildcats
Under the first year of Harris’ leadership, the Wildcats went 6-25 in the season – the highest number of wins the team posted until the 2021-22 season, when the team rose to 11-20 overall, improving nine games over the previous season, and went on to win a conference tournament game. It was a much improved season under the still looming specter of COVID-19 variants and lingering stresses of the 2020-21 season. Harris is focused on continuing to build the team’s consistency.
“We take one day at a time because we’re about the process,” she said. “We’re trying to build each year. We’re much better than we were last year. And then we can be better next year.”
Aside from playing good basketball, Harris said her responsibility to the team is to prepare her players for life after college. The team holds weekly “Culture Club” meetings where they discuss everything from women’s issues to racial concerns to their everyday problems. Harris also gives out bracelets to “game changers” on the team who show dedication to schoolwork or put in additional work for the team or community. The bracelet serves as a reminder of the team’s seven values: team first, integrity, cooperation, acceptance, loyalty, accountability and gratitude.
“Those are our standards. We really dig into those and talk about those things. That’s what this culture is based upon,” she said. “And my job is to help these young women for whatever’s next and try to empower them to get to a place in their head and in their hearts where they feel like they’re ready for whatever that thing is.”
Women of Weber
“Women of Weber” was an outgrowth of a collaboration with Weber State Archives, Special Collections and the Museums at Union Station called “Beyond Suffrage: A Century of Northern Utah Women Making History.” The project was a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote in 2020. Although the pandemic put a hold on the celebration, it did not dampen the enthusiasm to share the stories of outstanding women who changed lives.
Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.
For photos of Coach Harris, visit this link.
Jessica Kokesh, social media editor
801-626-7948 • jessicakokesh@weber.edu- Contact:
Allison Barlow Hess, Public Relations director
801-626-7948 • ahess@weber.edu