Coach Sydney Carter is known for slaying courtside, but the WNBA veteran isn’t new to this — she’s loved fashion and the game of basketball since she was a little girl. 

“Growing up was always into fashion even though I did have a tomboy side. I loved sports basketball since I was four, but I was wearing my mom’s shoes to school when I was in preschool. At one point, she even tried to get me into modeling. I remember asking her to buy me these light blue wedge heels when I was in the fourth or fifth grade, and I went out on the blacktop and played basketball in her against the boys in them! Fashion and embracing my feminine side have always been there. I grew up with five sisters and there were all so pretty and girly, and I looked up to them.” said the University of Texas coach. In 2022, Carter went viral after she was spotted courtside with her iconic pink leather pants — a moment she didn’t expect but one that would bring a spotlight to her that would encourage women to embrace every part of who they are. 

“I never thought, let me put this on to get a reaction; that was never the case. I actually wore those pink pants because of Breast Cancer Awareness because women’s basketball celebrates in the month of February. Of course, I saw the comments, but overall I’ve never paid attention to the negativity. The best advice someone gave me was not to look at it because you’ll feel like you need to comment. But it felt really good to have Black women, The WNBA which I played for, and so many communities come to my defense.”

From that moment, the world came to know that Coach Carter was able to do two things well — coach and slay because, as she says, “I dress to win.”

“I want to be a winner in everything that I do, and I want to be an example for young women. And it’s not just me; you see so many women’s basketball coaches now in the spotlight. You have Yolett McPhee-McCuin at Ole Miss, Dawn Staley at the University of South Carolina, and Niele Ivey at Notre Dame. There are so many Black women that we can look up to now. So I want to be one of those trailblazers that when people see me, they say, not only is she a powerful Black woman with fantastic passion, but she is really good at what she does, and she’s winning. What you wear has absolutely nothing to do with how well you do your job.”

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When asked how she handles the criticism and not feeling like she’s always fit in, Sydney credited her mother for instilling that confidence in her and her sisters.

 

“I always felt like my uniqueness and my difference in my talent level, like, how passionate I was about basketball and how passionate I was about always showing up as myself. My mom always told us ‘favor is not fair.’ So I did get picked on a little bit when I was in school because so many people did not understand why I exuded such confidence in everything that I did. I always had to be first in everything that I did and I was always super competitive. And so I think that it hasn’t always been the most popular thing to do to be so confident because there are so many glass ceilings on, like, how dare you be your authentic self. But for me, my mom has always taught me that. So I feel like my uniqueness has always been something at the forefront of who I am. And I’ve never felt like I can’t express that.”

Beyond Coach Carter’s style is just that: a coach who is passionate about the game of basketball.

“I have a completely different respect for coaches now than I did as a player.” Basketball is not X’s and O’s. It’s like 70% of really teaching people how to be prepared for life after basketball. And then the other part is, okay, we’re on the court. I can draw off the plays, but there are so many different aspects of the game that you don’t realize that coaches and support staff put into it. So it ain’t just on the court what our coaches are doing.” 

Where does Sydney see herself five to 10 years from now coaching? She plans to be one of the greatest head coaches in the game.

“It’s a dream of mine, and I want to have my own team. I want to be a bomb boss that’s looking great and still killing it the same way. I also would love to see pay equity and more people physically going to games instead of just catching it on TV and saying, oh, that was a good game because that impacts equal pay. Go and take in the atmosphere at women’s games so that their young daughters don’t have to just see it on TV.”