In April 2024, Danielle Craig was appointed the ADM girl’s Head Basketball Coach position for the 2024-2025 season. Prior to starting teaching at ADM High School this year, Craig was an Assistant Coach for the girl’s Dike-New Hartford High School basketball team. This past year, Craig served as an assistant girl’s basketball coach for the Tigers; following the resignation of the former head coach, Jacob Cleveland, Craig stepped into the role as head coach, receiving plenty of positive feedback from the community, in particular the players. Craig’s players have loved having her as a coach and are excited to see where the upcoming seasons take them with her leadership.
Junior Aniston Tollari had nothing but good things to say about Coach Craig. Moving toward her senior season, Tollari is looking to see a tremendous improvement in the team’s communication skills with the players and the coaches. Tollari said, “[Craig] believes communication is key so that will be really beneficial toward improving the team.”
Tollari specifically praised Craig’s ability to build relationships with her players and not only listen to the girls but take what they say as feedback and look for ways to improve the situation overall. She hopes to see improvements in the team’s winning record and sees this goal as more than achievable under Craig’s leadership. According to Tollari, Craig’s personable, and caring personality is going to be beneficial to the team in the future and allow them to fall back in love with basketball. She described Craig as hard-working and confident in all she does, leaving Tollari with no doubt that Coach Craig is the woman for the job. Tollari joked that the team will be no stranger to conditioning and she’s confident in Craig’s ability to prepare them for the season.
Celie Gardiner, a graduating senior who was coached this year by Craig, emphasized that Coach Craig was always, and will continue to be a reliable outlet for her players to go to, and she possesses the characteristics necessary to relate with her players given she played basketball through college. After being previously coached by Craig, Gardiner expects Craig to excel in providing a good structure for the team and pushing them to be the best basketball players they can be. She also thinks Craig works to help the girls be the best they can be, not only on the court but off of it too, prioritizing their personal well-being, as well.
Gardiner said, “I think if [Craig] just goes with her gut she has a lot of good qualities a head coach should have, and she should stay true to herself. I don’t think she should change just because her position changed… she’s a really good coach and a really good person all around so I think she’ll be fine and lead a good team.”
For the 2024-2025 season, Craig is looking to provide a positive environment where the girls are excited to show up every day. She’s looking to not only reignite the spark that is basketball within her players again but also the whole community. Craig said she’s committed to emphasizing teamwork within the game, but also beginning many more team bonding opportunities for the girls to stay connected even outside of the long winter season.
Craig appreciates the time she had as an assistant coach before her new role because she was able to build connections with the girls and get to know them on a deeper level. She sees the most value in improving the team’s relationships and recognizing the part everyone plays in the success of the team. Craig said, “It doesn’t matter how many points you score because so many things go into winning the game and everyone plays an important role.”
