Led by fired coach, Haskell’s women’s basketball is the Cinderella story we needed
Since 25% of the workforce at Haskell Indian Nations University last month was ousted through slapdash cuts by the Trump Administration to reduce the federal workforce, the devastated campus also has been galvanized in several ways.
For one, by protests of what senior Haskell student Lauryn Callis on Sunday called “a representation of what’s been happening for centuries with our people. It’s not OK to be breaking these treaties that our ancestors died for and go back on them like it’s nothing.”
For another, by way of the stirring dignity of fourth-year women’s basketball coach Adam Strom and his resilient team.
Guided by the coach who was fired amid the abrupt chaos but stayed on as an unpaid volunteer, on Sunday Haskell won the Continental Athletic Conference championship game 57-52 over Northern New Mexico to earn a berth in the 64-team NAIA national tournament.
Whatever the 13-13 team of Native Americans may achieve from here, the energy and joy at the Coffin Sports Complex made for a shining moment for posterity.
Because it was a glorious triumph for the school and all who love it, a repudiation of the mean-spirited mess that created the circumstances and an affirmation of the sheer wonder of sports at its best.
All the more so because after what had to be one of the most gratifying days of his life, the 48-year-old Strom demonstrated yet more of the grace that he’s radiated since he was fired — a way about him that aligns nicely with the NAIA’s Champions of Character core values posted on the west wall of the gym:
“Integrity. Respect. Responsibility. Sportsmanship. Servant Leadership.”
Strom has embodied all of that.
And then some.
“I wanted to be a living example of life not being fair,” he said.
Not just for its own sake, to clarify.
But to be able to model that it’s how you react that matters.
Speaking down a corridor of the gym long after the on-court celebration and being doused in the locker room by his team, Strom held tight to a snipped-down net, a bouquet of roses he was presented by his seniors and even the towel his team “told me I could dry off with.”
But mostly he clung to what this meant to everyone else.
Again and still.
Because as much as he’s been moved by the outpouring of support and media attention around the nation, he said, “I tried to keep the main thing the main thing, and that’s the team.”
A team, he noted, that has been “my safety net for the last 15 days.”
So no sooner was he handed the trophy and banner on the court than he was turning them over to players in virtually the same motion.
“I wanted them to know how much they meant to me,” he said. “That’s their banner; that’s their trophy. I was affiliated and part of it and guided them. But they did it.”
And when championship hats were being distributed as the team gathered for a picture, he didn’t step into the frame until he made sure everyone had been given one.
Later, as he posed for a picture with his wife, Relyn, and their three children, he quipped “thanks for letting me out of the house.”
When he bumped into former player Marilyn Goodman, who made a three-hour plus drive from Oklahoma to be here, he hugged her and made sure to remind her she was part of the foundation of what happened Sunday.
Later, he revealed a laminated photo he’d worn in the left inside pocket of his sports coat.
His niece, a volunteer assistant coach, had left it on his desk that morning.
It was an image of his late father, Ted, a 30-year high basketball coach who once inscribed in a John Wooden book he gave the son that “some day you’re going to make a great college coach.”
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“The guy I learned from,” said Strom, part of the Yakama Nation who was raised in Wapato, Washington. “I saw that when I walked in, and I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be there today with me.’ ”
Much like the constancy of his own presence with this team.
Like others, sophomore Tea Murray reveled in Strom’s stalwart presence — particularly ever since he disclosed to the team what had happened in a tearful meeting after their Feb. 15 Senior Night victory.
“He’s always been there for us,” said Murray, a sophomore from the Navajo Nation in Arizona. “And it feels good to reward him with the win — but also reward ourselves.”
After the shock, she added, “as Native Americans, we’ve always gone through adversity like this, and we knew that we had to just lean on each other and work together.”
As it happened, Strom reckoned his broader lesson in responding to hard times was relevant in the game itself.
With the team down 41-33 in the third quarter, it bristled to launch a 15-0 run and never trailed again.
A win for the team and the school, to be sure.
But also for all the Native Americans throughout the United States, as Strom tells his players they always represent.
“Coach Strom has always been about Indian country,” said Tracy Allen, the team’s character coach and chaplain.
During the celebration on the court, Allen became emotional as she thought of the connection between that and her theme this season of “finish.”
As the team dealt with “outside forces out of their control,” she said, the most moving thing was how it understood never relenting.
The win Sunday “let people know that they’re not going away,” she added. “None of us are going away.”
Possibly not even Strom.
While he’s been offered other jobs, he said, “in all reality, I want to be back here next year. And for a while.”
Citing restructuring possibilities within the Haskell athletic department, he said, “it could happen” if negotiations lead to what he called “some assurances.”
For now, though, all that’s assured is a chance to play in the NAIA field to be announced Thursday.
An encore to the heartening day Sunday that the team and school will always be able to treasure in and of itself.
“Man, we needed this,” said Callis, the student who felt like she had played herself after dancing vigorously on the sideline to stir the crowd of about 1,000 or so. “We needed the love, no matter what happens outside these doors, this building, this campus.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 10:21 AM.