Mom, coach, boss. Arizona Women’s Basketball’s Head Coach, Adia Barnes multitasked during the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game on Sunday. The former WNBA champion was seen coming out of the locker room a bit later than the rest of the team at the high-stakes game in San Antonio.
According to reporter Holly Rowe, Coach Barnes, a mom to a 6-month-old baby girl named Capri, spent a portion of halftime pumping breast milk for her baby. Now, the coach is being praised online for being such a pro!
Adia Barnes, Arizona WBB Coach, Pumped Breast Milk for Her Baby During Halftime and Spoke to Reporters About Her ‘Journey.’
“For those of you who think this is too much information, let’s normalize working mothers and all they have to do,” reporter Rowe said at the time.
After the game, Barnes spoke to reporters about her “journey” to the championship and how it coincided with the birth of her second child with her husband, Salvo Coppa, an Italian basketball coach who now works as an assistant one at the University of Arizona.
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“I had a baby right when season started. And took like a week off, it says I took a month off but I did not,” the coach said. “I was on Zoom calls four days after having a C-section so it was hard. But my team loved on me. I missed a couple of weeks, I got a little sick, they fought for me. I came back. They were patient. I’m happy.”
“I represented moms, I have a baby here. I hear her crying ready to feed,” Barnes went on. “I represent moms, you can be a coach, you can do it at an elite level. You just have to have a village like I do.”
“I represent Black females, don’t get here too often and don’t get opportunities. But I had an opportunity today on the biggest stage and represented a lot,” she said in her powerful remarks.
Though No. 3 seed, Arizona conclusively lost by one point to Stanford (53-54), Barnes was praised on social media for being a “superhero” working mother and catapulting the university to its first Final Four appearance.
Despite the Loss, Coach Barnes Says She Is Still ‘Proud.’
“My team…my heart! This hurt but they played their hearts out and that’s all that I can ask for. I’m so proud of them and what we accomplished this year!” Barnes said in tweet after the game.
“Congratulations to @ArizonaWBB as well! Coach Adia Barnes had her team well prepared and they executed the game plan despite the loss. Her strategy was outstanding! Unfortunately, they came up short,” Magic Johnson tweeted shortly after the game concluded. That’s high praise from a legend of the sport!
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The Stanford women’s basketball team earned the school’s first title since 1992 and the third overall for the program under head coach Tara VanDerveer. VanDerveer’s 29-year gap between her winning titles is the longest in Division I men’s or women’s history.
We are so proud of this coach and all that she has been able to achieve on and off of the court. As any working mom knows, work and family life will ultimately mix. Barnes’ ability to manage both flawlessly, and speak about that experience in such a powerful way, makes her such an inspiring figure. Great game!