Carly Thibault-DuDonis is something of a renegade in today’s college athletics environment. The conventional wisdom is for coaches to continuously elevate within the profession. You either start as the head coach at a small school and rise through the ranks or you begin as an assistant at a big program and rise that way. Eventually you reach a school with the biggest brand or deepest pockets and either you win, or you get fired.
But at just 32, Thibault-DuDonis believes in an ethos typically espoused by coaches much older and further along in their career: that fit matters most and success is where you make it.
“We don't do what we do for the money,” she says. “If we had wanted to, we could have done that this offseason but that's not something that we're here to do”.
Thibault-DuDonis’ life has always been in basketball. Her father, Mike Thibault, has been a fixture in the WNBA for over a decade and her brother, Eric currently coaches the Washington Mystics. But Carly decided to walk a different path. After graduating from Monmouth University she joined Florida State as a Director of Recruiting, then jumped to Eastern Michigan as an assistant in 2014. She preferred college basketball, its’ inherent relationship building and the opportunity to spend time creating a program in her image.
While an assistant at Eastern Michigan, she met another MAC assistant coach from the University of Buffalo who shared a similar passion for the sport.
Blake DuDonis isn’t from a WNBA family. He didn’t even play college basketball. Instead, his career started as a student-assistant at Gardner-Webb. In addition to his duties running the student newspaper on campus, he spent two years helping head coach Rick Reeves. Eventually, his career started to take off as well. He took an assistant coaching job at Merrimack College, which turned into a full-time gig back at Gardner-Webb. Now that he was in the ranks of women’s college basketball, he started to climb. One of his first stops was on the shores of Lake Erie.
“We met at a recruiting event,” Blake remembers. “And as we were leaving, I was like ‘hey, you want to grab a bite real quick before we go our separate ways?’ and Carly was like ‘No, I don’t’. So, you know, a bit of an inauspicious start!”
The two started as friends in the coaching world. Even though they saw each other once a year, it became easy to talk about the game, talk more and confide in one another. The difficulty of maintaining a relationship while coaching college basketball is a challenge unique to many when they enter the profession. But to Carly, it was part-and-parcel of a life she was accustomed to.
“Early on in dating, I didn’t know it was hard for people,” she says. “But what immediately clicked [with Blake] was that I didn’t have to apologize for leaving the dinner table to take a phone call or that I got home at 9 pm instead of 6 pm.”
At first, she’d profusely apologize to him for missing obligations because of the constraints of the job. But Blake already knew what he was dealing with. He too would have to work crazy hours, be on his phone constantly and have to travel regularly. The two were bound by basketball and bolstered by a burgeoning love. As they advanced in their careers, sacrifices were made. Neither wanted to do long distance for too long and that led to some hard discussions. At one point, Blake left the coaching industry while Carly went to Mississippi State. Carly, for her part, had to deal with the guilt of feeling like she’d hamstrung Blake’s career. But those trials would eventually lead to the perfect fit the couple are currently enjoying. They made their way to Minnesota and that’s where the Fairfield story truly begins.
“We were able to be in the same business in the same place for the first time,” he explains. “Her at [the University of] Minnesota, me at [the University of Wisconsin] River Falls and coaching with an AAU team and being able to bounce ideas and kind of work through things and each of our situations together.”
It was, in many ways, a testing ground for the two of them. They’d come home and commiserate over their respective jobs but also would bounce ideas off each other. They’d talk strategy, personnel management, working with their assistant coaches and quickly, they realized they had the capability of working with each other When the Fairfield job opened up, Carly received and offer, took it and Blake came with her as her top assistant.
While the concept of couples coaching is not entirely new in women’s college basketball, Carly and Blake work extremely hard at keeping their marriage separate from their profession. On the floor, it’s all business to the degree that recruits sometimes aren’t aware and players rarely see them as anything other than coaches.
“We're here to do the job,” says Blake. “One of our kids even joked [with us] the other day. I was leaving to recruit and Carly kind of gave me a side hug. [The player’s] like, ‘that's the first time I've seen them hug in two years.’”
With their goals taking precedent and Carly in the lead, Fairfield quickly became a power in the MAAC. After a 15-15 debut season, the Stags went 31-2. They were 20-0 in conference play, won their conference tournament and gave No. 14 Indiana a run in the first half of the first round of the NCAA Tournament before the Hoosiers ran away with the game. They advocated fiercely to be ranked in the AP Top 25 and played a style of basketball that many in the media took notice of. As the energy around the program began to crystallize, it started to feel like this small Jesuit school in Connecticut was here to stay.
But at this point in the story, you’d expect the two to jet off for a bigger and better job. No one would blame them. Carly’s name was in the mix for multiple high-major gigs and there were phone calls from power programs to the Thibault-DuDonis house. At no point, they say, did the two entertain them all that seriously. They have big aspirations for Stags women’s basketball and take inspiration from a school of similar size and religious affiliation on the other side of the country. '
“We’ve joked we’re trying to be Gonzaga east,” says Carly. “I don’t think that’s far fetched. Obviously it’s something you have to sustain year after year but I don’t think that’s a pipe dream for us. With consistency and resources and getting the right people, I think that’s a possibility.”
Adding to Carly’s bullishness on the prospect is Fairfield’s close proximity to New York City (about a 50 minute drive), its’ facilities (which she argues are on par with some Big East schools) and an alumni base energized by the idea of a successful basketball program.
All those years of travel, of working with programs big and small, bouncing around from the SEC to the heartland to the northeast have now paid off. They take inspiration from a variety of places. Carly draws on her own father and brother, on former Mississippi State mentor and current Texas head coach Vic Schaefer’s defensive methods, on the ball movement displayed by Drake and South Dakota State and on Blake himself and the three point shooting strategy he utilized in Division III.
It works in tandem, from the two of them to their players to their program. And while they could replicate the success at a bigger school, Carly and Blake are more interested in being where their feet are. Would the WNBA one day come calling? Carly says if they did she wouldn’t be very interested, especially if it was her family.
“I couldn’t have worked with my Dad, we would have killed each other,” she jokes. “We’re too similar. My Dad and Eric can work together. Eric and I can work together. Those are the combinations.”
As for Blake, he’s enjoying his role as a top assistant and ace recruiter for the Stags. The two of them, after years on the road, are finally enjoying what many couples in industries like coaching dream of: the chance to work in the same place in a job that both people enjoy. While other programs may come calling, the duo don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. And that should be music to the ears of Fairfield fans and those that love a good mid-major.
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