In the Year of the Dragon, it is hard to argue anyone had a more exciting season than the Drexel Women’s Basketball team. After a volatile regular season, battling both the opposition and their own anemic offense, Coach Amy Mallon pushed all the right buttons throughout the CAA Tournament to get her Dragons into March Madness.
Coming off the heels of such a successful season, the goal for the team was to replenish the roster and run it back. Kayla Bacon, an Assistant Coach to Amy Mallon and a former Captain of the Drexel Women’s Basketball team plays a prominent role in the program’s ability to do that.
As a former player and alumna, Bacon brings her own unique perspective to the recruitment trail. Not only that, but Bacon says the entire coaching staff collaborates to connect with recruits and welcome them into the Drexel culture.
“Recruiting is actually really fun. We all come from different backgrounds with basketball, so we really try to recruit out of the Northeast and out of the Philadelphia area. There’s a lot of talent here, so we love to keep the talent in house from the Philly area. We look to recruit a team that is big on culture and maintaining a family dynamic, so we try and recruit kids that are great teammates, who love to have fun. We have a lot of fun with the kids that we recruit.”
On the topic of family, the strength of Drexel’s locker room speaks for itself. Not only does Mallon’s squad retain talent at an extremely high rate, given the transfer portal era, but players tend to stick around for more than just their playing days.
“It really shows well through our staff the fact there are three alums on staff [Bacon, Hannah Nihill and Stacy Weiss]. Then we of course have our alumni events where older alums who are still local will pop into the DAC and hang around with the team or in the coaches offices. It’s really important to just have an open door and maintain that relationship with our alums, because it helps the team see how close we all are. Another example is Keishana Washington, obviously she’s playing overseas now but every time she comes home she stops in Philadelphia and that’s a big ode to the fact that we practice what we preach about being a family.”
While culture certainly plays a large role in Drexel’s success, the program’s stellar track record as a consistent force in the CAA serves as a strong incentive for new recruits to commit to Drexel.
“It definitely helps that we are a successful program. Winning is what you wanna do, and it’s even easier when you are winning and having fun. It’s important to maintain that balance that we have been there before and we will win again. It really is no pressure because we believe in the team that we have now and then we brought even more talent in. To see our year last year, all the highs and lows and to end up on such. Great run and win the tournament, it really empowers our players to see it’s possible and remember that we are winners,” Bacon asserted.
Bacon also said that the coaching staff are ardent protectors of the culture that they work so diligently to create.
“Culture is really important to us, so we try to build relationships with players, as early as we can, make sure they get on campus and see the team dynamic and spend time with them…being mindful of what we are doing and who we are bringing in. This is a special place to everyone inside the program, so we want to make sure that it maintains what makes it special through authentic relationships. The transfer portal was a lot this year, just finding those right kids who want to be successful here and want to come play basketball and bring and share their previous experiences with us.”
With an addition of three freshmen and three transfers to the reigning champions, Bacon, Mallon and the players they so carefully bring into their program will be tasked with defending their title and keeping their winning ways rolling.