The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Domond returns home with Rutgers
STORRS — She was a basketball star. So, naturally, when school was out, Nadine Domond would go to the gym.
“I could remember the routine,” Domond, now an assistant coach with the Rutgers women’s basketball team, recalled Thursday. “You’d play basketball for a little bit. You got tired and you’d go to the game room and you’d play pool, play ping pong. You got tired, then you’d go down to the pool and you’d go swimming after that. You went back and played basketball.”
Those places weren’t just entertainment centers for Domond. They were also safe havens in a city riddled with violence.
Domond didn’t grow up with a father. She was raised by her mother and grandmother and would develop into the nation’s best point guard out of Bridgeport Central.
“My pastor was my father, my coach was my father, Mr. (Richard) Fisher,” Domond said. “Everybody played different roles in my life that were instrumental. I was super grateful and thankful for that.”
She led Bridgeport Central to a state championship in 1994 and finished her career with 2,300 points. UConn coach Geno Auriemma recruited her, but Domond ultimately decided to play for Vivian Stringer at Iowa over the Huskies, Rutgers, Georgia and UNC.
“He was just the same way he is now,” Domond said of Auriemma. “He was relentless. He truly believed in what he was building. He truly believed he was going to be special. He truly believed that he was going to build a national championship program, which he did.”
This past winter, Domond returned to her high school to have her jersey retired. She finds herself back in her home state this weekend, as No. 7 Rutgers faces No. 10 Buffalo in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Gampel Pavilion.
“I came here twice for Iowa,” she said. “It brought back a lot of memories. They had a great class with Rita Williams, Nykesha Sales, what a talented group of people.”
Stringer, one of five Division-I women’s coaches with 1,000 wins (including Auriemma), is sitting out the rest of the season for health reasons.
HELLO, COACH
Buffalo coach Felisha Leggette-Jack wants her players to be excited. She wants them to soak in everything, from playing in the NCAA Tournament to, well, meeting Auriemma.
“I’m not gonna tell them to not be excited about Geno, I’m gonna be excited about meeting Geno,” she said. “I want them to be excited. Geno recruited me as well for Virginia, and I said no and came to Syracuse, and thank God, because that was his first year as a head coach here at UConn.”
Leggette-Jack joked that she may even get Auriemma’s autograph.
“What a great opportunity to go up against the Rutgers legacy and the Geno mystique, if I get that opportunity,” she said. “I’m so humbled by this, my players are too. But one thing I teach my players every single day about the journey of life is that you can respect all but fear nobody.”