A vital a part of the gameday expertise for Alabama A&M head ladies’s Basketball coach Daybreak Thornton is feeling good and looking out higher.
This season alone, she has garnered greater than seven million views on Instagram alone on her gameday outfits.
With the rise of recognition and celebration of girls’s sports activities, coupled together with her trailblazing vogue sense, it comes as no shock that Thornton will be a part of BeautyCon’s “Play the Recreation, Get the Look” panel dialog on the Essence Competition of Tradition in New Orleans on July 5.
2025 marks Essence Journal’s fifty fifth anniversary, and this 12 months’s theme is ‘Made Like This.’ BeautyCon strives to have a good time magnificence in all its variety, specializing in the voices and tales of girls from the South who’re shaping the sweetness panorama and difficult outdated, one-dimensional requirements within the trade.
Thornton does simply that, portraying herself as a coach and an rising vogue icon.
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/VuYV7E7Bbx
— Daybreak Thornton (@DivaCoachAAMU) August 16, 2024
“My model is unquestionably an extension of who I’m”, Thornton mentioned. “It’s assured, intentional, and generally just a little additional, in one of the best ways. That’s how I coach, too. I’m huge on presence and power and your preparation is your separation. Confidence isn’t just taught, it’s modeled, and I would like them to at all times see that in me.”
Her daring vogue decisions additionally replicate how she desires her student-athletes to indicate up on the planet.
“I would like my gamers to know that it’s okay to face out, to take pleasure in the way you present up, and to guide with confidence on and off the court docket”, she mentioned. “I would like them to know they don’t need to dim their mild to guide. There’s energy in proudly owning who you might be. If I can present up in a daring outfit and nonetheless deal with enterprise, it permits my gamers to carry their full selves into no matter house they stroll into.”
Thornton believes displaying up authentically helps problem and redefine conventional expectations for coaches.
“I believe simply being seen and genuine already challenges so much,” Thornton mentioned. “There’s this concept that coaches, particularly black ladies, need to look or act a sure approach to be taken critically, and I don’t subscribe to that. I present up as myself totally, and I coach with ardour and excellence. That alone shifts the narrative.”
The ‘Play the Recreation, Get the Look’ panel dialog will discover magnificence traits that originated on the court docket and influenced black tradition and the way feeling and looking good contributes to a profitable mindset. For Thornton, her game-day seems to be are a visible illustration of her psychological fortitude.
“Recreation day is an entire vibe, and my look is a part of the power I carry,” she mentioned. “Typically the aim is to make a daring assertion, and different occasions it’s nearly feeling grounded and assured in my very own pores and skin. Both approach, we deal with it like a part of the sport plan. How I present up visually issues simply as a lot as how I present up mentally.”
Courtesy: Alabama A&M athletics
