Q&A with Tia Jackson, Huskies women's basketball coach

From throwing out the first pitch of a Mariners game to hiring a staff of assistants, it has been a busy first month-plus for new Washington women's basketball coach Tia Jackson.

Athletic director Todd Turner brought in Jackson with the expectation that she would restore "the buzz" to the women's program, a vibe Turner felt had become nearly undetectable during the latter years of June Daugherty's 11-season tenure at Washington.

Jackson, suitably, titled her first open letter/blog to UW fans "The Buzz."

Busy with preparations for her first season, Jackson paused recently to chat about herself and her approach to her first head-coaching position.

Q: You signed your letter to fans "Coach J." Is that your official nickname?

A: "That's what my [players] call me, so I figure I'll run with it."

Q: How has your life been altered since being introduced as head coach?

A: "The biggest thing was to start establishing relationships with my players, their families, with my incoming kids, getting out to see them, and working with my current players on the court. That's pretty much been my life."

Q: How has that gone?

A: "It's gone great. A lot of it was just fundamental stuff just to see where they are, to see things we need to get better at. Are you a physical player or not a physical player? Are you a shooter or not? We've started to assess that, so now we can actually to get to the good stuff and implement a lot of the things we're going to try to do."

Q: How has your transition been moving from almost the East Coast to the West Coast?

A: "I still have a house there [in the Durham, N.C., area] that I'm trying to work with, and then also buy a house here and do my job here. So (laughs) there are no windows for breathing or eating or anything."

Q: What's that housing market like compared to Seattle's?

A: "Reasonable. You get a yard. You get a lot more for your dollar there. A lot more. (Jackson leans close to the reporter's tape recorder.) I can't emphasize that enough."

Q: You were born in Maryland, moved to the Miami area at age 8, moved back to Maryland before your freshman year in high school. Do you still have family members in Maryland?

A: "My entire family, and it's large. My mother has five brothers and sisters, and my dad has the same number. We're a very close family. When [Duke] would go play at Maryland, there'd be 75 of my family members in the stands. I think the last game, we had 73. When we can congregate, we do it. The airlines are going to get a lot of business from BWI [Baltimore/Washington International Airport] to Sea-Tac."

Q: What was it like growing up with three brothers while also being the baby of the family?

A: "Brutal. (Laughs.) I'm sorry to all the guys I tried to date back then. I'm so, so sorry. Trying to date was never easy. Guys didn't just have to go through my dad, they'd have to go through my mother, my three brothers, my cousins. Everybody had a say in what the baby girl did. It wasn't easy on the dating scene."

Q: Any advantages to growing up with three brothers?

A: "It allowed me to get into sports. Anywhere they went, I wanted to kind of waddle behind them and show an interest in whatever they were doing. They were always on the basketball court or on the street playing football. Ryan wound up going to Southwest Missouri for football. Eric wasn't athletically inclined. He was the gospel singer of the family. The little reverend; always had the Bible in his hand. That was my baby."

Q: Sports were important in your family?

A: "I remember we lost someone in my family, one of my great-aunts. We were all there for the funeral. After that, at the park where I grew up playing basketball, we all went over there and played. It was kind of our way of releasing."

Q: Your mother and father are divorced, yet they both attended your UW news conference.

A: "We're a very close-knit family. My dad lives just 10 minutes from my mom. He's a taxi driver, my mother is a minister, and we're very tight-knit. It's interesting — we start off with five or six of us in the house, and in a matter of an hour you could be sitting in a room with 30 people. It just happens. It's all family. We're playing cards or watching a game. We just love to get together and have a good time."

Q: Does your mother preach to you?

A: "Every day. (Laughs.) Her denomination is African Methodist Episcopal Zion."

Q: How has that influenced your life?

A: "It's probably why I'm so centered. My spirituality, my belief in God, keeps me rooted, keeping the negative out and staying focused on what my priority is. Here it's my players, my team, my staff. But I always come back. When things don't feel right, I either go straight to Him or I go to the next best thing, and that's my mother. She's well-connected to Him. My family is a very strong, religious family. We're strong in our beliefs. It keeps us going."

Q: How might your religious background filter into your coaching?

A: "The same way it was filtered into me as a kid. I'm not going to force any kid to follow along with what I believe. But do I want to make options available to them? Yes. Probably a ritual we'll have before the beginning of a game is a moment of silence — not necessarily a prayer, because not everyone is Christian. Not everyone is of the same belief. I'm very sensitive to that, and a realist about it."

Q: Was basketball your only sport as a youth?

A: "Track was my other sport, and it was too much running. I did the long jump, triple jump and high jump and ran the 400. Basketball was the lesser of two evils."

Q: An injury cut your pro hoops career short. What sidelined you as a player for good?

A: "I've had six knee surgeries — five on the right — and one shoulder surgery. So I've had numerous injuries. It was actually my shoulder surgery [that ended my career]. I had made a vow: If I have another surgery, I'm done. So it ended up being a shoulder surgery and not a knee that ended my playing time. That's it for me."

Q: When did coaching become attractive?

A: "After an injury, when I knew initially I wasn't going to be able to go and play pro. At that time it was only possible [for women to play] overseas. I said, 'I'm done.' [In 1996, Jackson took her first assistant coaching position at Virginia Commonwealth.] Then the WNBA a year later opened up, so I rehabbed my tail off. I said, 'I'm going to see if I've still got it.' "

Q: What, if any, basketball ambition remains unfulfilled for you?

A: "To have not gotten hurt."

Q: UW has six letters of intent from players June Daugherty recruited. What's your outlook on these players?

A: "Right now, all six are Huskies. I've mentioned this in my blog: I've had the pleasure of going into visit with all of them, to talk to them about the future of this program, for them to get to know me a little bit."

Q: Todd Turner made you sound saintly when introducing you at the press conference, extolling your wisdom, self-confidence, ability to listen, warrior mentality and more. Do you worry about living up to all that?

A: "I'm who I am. The things that Todd said, if those are the things he felt and what he believes, then that's impression I gave him. I'm not going to come out and put on a façade or a fake display at all. It's who I am. That was what he gathered, and I'm very flattered. I don't think I'm Joan of Arc, but if that's what he got, I'm all for it."

Q: What expectations has Todd Turner put on you?

A: "I don't think he had to put expectations on me. That's what made this such a good fit. We each had the same goals in mind. Our goals are to develop these women as student-athletes, the student part first, and to develop them as young women and get them ready to step into the real world. Obviously, it's [also] about being productive out on the floor. My background, and his background, are both about success, taking teams to the next level. It was nothing he had to sell me on. It's something I wanted to bring to this program."

Q: Who will put more pressure on you: fans, the administration or yourself?

A: "I shoot for perfection. Probably more than anything, it would be me. I probably put more pressure on myself than anyone could put on me."

Q: Is putting stress on yourself a healthy thing?

A: "I don't really stress. I know that sounds weird for the profession I'm in. I'm in a different place than most people. I truly give credit to my spiritual belief for that. I think everything for the most part is already determined before we even step into the challenge. I'm going to do everything I can to prepare for any challenge. But I'm not a big stresser. I just have high expectations. I'm a competitor, and it's important for me to bring that out in my players. We're going to be warriors, and it's going to start with the first day of preparation. It has already started."

Q: You've been around some premier women's coaches — Vivian Stringer (ex-Iowa, now Rutgers); Gail Goestenkors (ex-Duke, now Texas); Cheryl Miller (former Phoenix Mercury coach). How has that impacted you?

A: "Vivian Stringer probably took my game to the highest level you could possibly get it to, developing me not only as a player but as a young lady. She really prepped me for life as a woman of color and as an athlete. My hat's off to her. She instilled even more discipline than I came in with, and a sense of responsibility. She was also very good at creating stories before games to get us believing we're giants, that we can take on anything. She could make us believe the impossible dream."

Q: How might this influence your own approach to coaching?

A: "With everyone who has touched my life, I'm going to show my own style now. I think I'm taking a little bit of everything from everybody, and it will be my style."

Q: You're renowned as an ace recruiter. Now the Xs and Os are your responsibility. How do you evaluate yourself as a strategist?

A: "I've worked under great coaches who have prepared me and helped me to not necessarily perfect, but to come very close to perfecting, the strategy side of the game. I think the more you prepare, the better off you are to succeed. I'm a big-time studier of the game, breaking down video, picking people's brains for ideas to attack different looks. I feel very prepared. My best answer is, people are just going to have to come and see."