After months and months of behind-the-scenes planning, the Charlotte Crown took their most tangible step to date this week by hitting the court for their first-ever training camp.
“They told me I was a little crybaby because I walked in and saw them with jerseys on, I saw we had a chef in there cooking and I literally was in tears because it’s come to fruition,” said Crown head coach Trisha Stafford-Odom.
A Founding Four member of the newly-minted UPSHOT League, the Crown are set to bring women’s professional basketball back to the Queen City for the first time in nearly two decades.
Draped in purple practice jerseys with the Crown logo emblazoned on the front, the initial group hit the court on Sunday for an opening practice that set the tone for a high-energy training camp to come.
“I’m on a high,” said Stafford-Odom. “I don’t know if I’ve ever used that terminology in my life, but the talent has superseded the expectations.”
The current roster is comprised of players with a wide range of pedigree – from a WNBA draft pick to college standouts to overseas pros.
A whittled-down group from open tryouts earlier in April, these players are now balancing trying to come together as a team while also battling for a limited amount of roster spots.
“These young ladies have responded by being competitive and understanding up front that someone has to be cut, everyone won’t make the final roster,” said Stafford-Odom. “They’re correcting one another, they’re showing their veteranship, and they’re trying to find each other’s strengths. They’re actually not being players that are trying to make each other look bad, they’re trying to look good as a team. I’m very proud of that.”
Stafford-Odom – an All-Conference player at UCLA who played in the WNBA – has quite the coaching resume, including assistant coach stints at her alma mater, Duke and North Carolina and 10 years as head coach between Concordia and NC Central.
As she constructs her squad, Stafford-Odom has a distinct identity in mind for the Crown.
“I want to be a tough, intelligent team,” said the Crown head coach. “I want to be a team that’s in shape – I like lean and athletic players. But more than anything, the IQ of players stands out to me. I just like tough-minded players and intelligent players. They have to support one another and also be competitive enough to know that at the end of the day we want to win.”
With a limited amount of time on the court for training camp, the task for the players now is to make an impression quickly.
“By being talented first – more talented than the rest,” said Stafford-Odom of the best way for players to stand out at camp. “By being able to be aggressive and play defense. By taking the intensity of the entire drill to another level. Sometimes you tend to sink to the intensity level of your teammate, I want the players that set the tone. Those ones stand out – the vocal ones, the talented ones, the ones that are very coachable. They don’t have excuses.”
“Just being vocal about everything,” said roster hopeful D’asia Gregg, who was a standout forward at Virginia Tech from 2020-23. “Repeating everything that the coach is saying. Asking questions, seeing if there’s anything that I need to work on. Just playing my game and focusing on my strengths so they can see what I’m good at.”
The start of training camp marks the first step in the roadmap towards crafting the Crown’s final roster.
“Cuts will be announced on May 2 – along with all the teams in UPSHOT,” said Stafford-Odom. “Right now I have a roster of 14, I’ll probably end up cutting about six people. We’re responsible for having our final rosters on May 8.”
Add to that the prospect of more players joining the group next week, and Stafford-Odom – along with her assistant coach Morra Gill McDaniel – has plenty of work ahead of her.
“By May 3 I’ll probably have some new faces in the building,” said Stafford-Odom. “There are still several people that are just coming back from overseas or have been rehabbing injuries so they’re now ready to compete and join us for another five or six-day stretch of training camp. That’s the hardest part for me right now. I honestly believe I could pick 11 ladies from this [camp] roster that could help us compete for a championship in our inaugural year. However, if I have the opportunity to upgrade the talent, whether that’s by experience or size or strength, I’m going to take advantage of doing that.”
Things are in full swing for the Crown right now, with a heavy focus on constructing the roster and implementing a system for what the team hopes will be a successful campaign on the court. But there’s always a chance to step back and revel in what reaching this moment means – to both the city of Charlotte and women’s sports as a whole.
“This is big for women’s sports,” said Gregg. “Lately we’ve been getting a lot of new fans in women’s sports and I’m grateful that people are starting to pay attention to women’s sports and really pour into our community and give us a chance to pour back into their community as well.”
“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Stafford-Odom. “I know what [UPSHOT League Commissioner] Donna Orender and [Zawyer Sports CEO] Andy Kaufmann have tried to build and to the best of my abilities, I’m going to make them proud of the Charlotte Crown.”