SE: Stone’s Travel-Filled Basketball Journey Laid Groundwork to Become Assistant Coach for K-State WBB

Jayci Stone's basketball career, as a player and a coach, has taken the Goodland native on a journey that can barely be fully tracked by Google Maps, which caps trip destinations at 10.

Driving to every one of Stone's stops in the last 15 years, from playing at Colby Community College from 2003-05 to landing an assistant coaching position for K-State's women about two weeks ago, would take longer than 200 hours and cover more than 12,000 miles.

All of the miles and the moves, however, prepared Stone to come back to her home state for a job she's been aspiring to reach.

"In a way, it's always been my second home," Stone said of Manhattan, where she used to come to basketball camps growing up and to football games to watch her brother Tige Stone play in the late 1990s. "Surrounding myself with familiarity in a place I always kind of aspired to be able to coach at and a level I always aspired to be able to coach at, it's been fun."

On top of returning to a familiar place, Stone also does so for a head coach in Jeff Mittie that she's comfortable with and understands.

Following coaching stints at Alaska-Anchorage (2007), Frank Phillips College (2008-09) and Hutchinson Community College (2009-11), Stone was part of Mittie's staff at TCU from 2011-14. While there, she worked her way from video coordinator to director of operations to interim assistant coach.

"I think he shaped a lot of the way I thought about things and made me grow," Stone said of Mittie. "I always think that Coach Mittie, the things he instilled in me, the things I learned from working with him, really set the foundation for my coaching philosophy."

When Mittie took the Wildcats' head coaching job in the spring of 2014, Stone was offered a position on his staff but not as an assistant coach.

Since her career aspirations included coaching on the floor, Stone said she decided to take "a huge risk, a huge chance" to become an assistant coach at Southern Utah. It was a move she said more than one of her mentors pushed her toward, and it led to an assistant coaching and recruiting coordinator position at Stephen F. Austin after one season in Utah.

Even more, it was another step toward returning home.

"Going through those processes, in each one of them I learned and I grew. I'm continuing to learn and grow in the profession," she said. "As much as I wanted to come (to K-State) the first time, I didn't know what I didn't know. I needed to experience those things, I needed to fail while I was doing it and learn from those experiences. I don't have it all figured out, by any means, but I'm a lot further along than I was three years ago."

Stone's playing career also laid the groundwork for the type of coach she would become.

A star athlete at Goodland, Stone began her collegiate career at Colby Community College, where she experienced a 54-11 record in two seasons.

"I don't like to lose, period," Stone said, before repeating: "I don't like to lose."

With that in mind, her next destination, New Mexico State, was less than ideal in more than one way. Stone said she was put in a major she had zero interest in and played for a team that went 8-20 in her only season there.

Stone then decided to transfer and hoped to move closer to home in the process. As it turned out, she was drawn even farther away, to Alaska-Anchorage. This time she was moving for the right reasons, however.

"I started to know what I didn't know before. I knew what I was looking for, and it kept taking me back to Alaska. That was the culture, that was the fit, that was the coach I wanted to play for," said Stone, who played a big role in helping the Seawolves go 23-6 in the 2006-07 season, a 10-win improvement from the previous year. "You learn from going through those experiences."

Because of these experiences, Stone said she understands the importance of culture and how her role, as a coach and a recruiter, can help strengthen it.

"I think that's the most important thing, to protect your culture. Kansas State women's basketball, obviously, has had a great culture," she said, joining a program that's made consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. "It is important when you go out recruiting. You have to find kids that fit into that culture."

Additionally, Stone played for an offensive-minded coach at Colby Community College and a defensive-minded coach at Alaska-Anchorage — the two places she experienced winning. This, she said, taught her that while there's more than one way to create a winning program, it always requires a similar level of investment.

"You can play either way, as long as you go two feet in," she said, "and everyone's on board."

Stone, who actually graduated from K-State in 2008 due to issues with her credit hours transferring to Alaska-Anchorage, has hit the ground running in her new position. She's welcomed recruits and begun the process of getting to know the 2017-18 Wildcat roster, her favorite part of coaching.

"I'm a real big person on that. I can't coach you unless I know you. I'm just trying to sit down with them, go have a meal with them, talk to them, get to know their families, get to know where they come from a little bit," she said. "That's the fun part for me, getting to know the kids because that's why we do this."

While busy with recruiting and acclimating herself with K-State's players, every once in a while the realization of reaching a dream job hits Stone. Whether it's eyeing banners hung by teams she grew up watching or seeing a picture of a Wildcat great like Kendra Wecker as she walks in the Ice Family Basketball Center every day, what it means to coach at K-State is not lost on her.

"It's surreal, honestly," Stone said. "When I look out and I see the banners hanging and I see those names, those are the people I looked up to as a young player. That's fun for me. It's surreal and I'm still in awe."

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: Stone’s Travel-Filled Basketball Journey Laid Groundwork to Become Assistant Coach for K-State WBB

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