Fairfield’s three-peat another step in the realization of a special vision

Fairfield celebrates third straight MAAC championship, realizing another layer of Carly Thibault-DuDonis’ vision. (Photo by Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Carly Thibault-DuDonis came to Fairfield four years ago with a vision.

The daughter of Mike Thibault, the winningest head coach in WNBA history, Carly’s name spoke for itself. But her pitch to Fairfield athletic director Paul Schlickmann was centered around not merely building something special as a means to a power conference job, but rather, truly building and sustaining a juggernaut.

“When we interviewed for this job, it was very clear from the top to the bottom,” Carly’s husband and assistant coach, Blake DuDonis, recalled. “From (Fairfield president) Dr. (Mark) Nemec to Paul Schlickmann and taking over for a championship coach in Joe Frager, it was very clear that the infrastructure was set up to be successful. And coupled with Mahoney Arena, location, academics, we thought it was a sleeping giant.”

“We’ve said pretty unabashedly: Why can’t this be Gonzaga of the East? Why not? We’ve got all the stuff, we’ve got the support. The school cares about women’s athletics, which matters, so we thought we could turn this into a program that was consistently in the NCAA Tournament, whether that’s (by) winning the league or as an at-large. So we really, honestly, kind of saw this.”

Fairfield is back in the NCAA Tournament for a third consecutive year, and fourth time in five seasons, after Monday’s MAAC championship win over Quinnipiac, once the school most Northeast mid-majors aspired to be and still among the most formidable programs in the sport. The accolades for the Stags in just four years under Thibault-DuDonis speak for themselves: Three conference tournament titles, a pair of Top 25-ranked seasons, and a record of 102-26 since replacing Joe Frager in 2022. Still just 34 years of age, her youth is prevalent in the enthusiasm with which she approaches her program, considering its maintenance a labor of love.

“I literally love waking up and coming (to)…I don’t even know if I can call it work,” she said, wearing a wide and honest smile. “I love the people that I’m surrounded by. Not just the administration, but the other coaches in our department. The energy of our student-athletes is truly unlike anywhere I’ve ever been. We’re taking steps towards our goals and we’ve found success, but the day-to-day is so much fun. I learn from everybody around me. We have so many people who are aspirational, and so, you’re motivated every day.”

Perhaps the greatest example of Thibault-DuDonis’ motivation has been the openness and nonchalance with which she has turned down multiple high-major interview opportunities, staying committed to seeing her vision at Fairfield through to the fullest. The Stags’ core of seniors Janelle Brown and Lauren Beach, and juniors Meghan Andersen and Kaety L’Amoreaux, have stayed in the program and resisted the lure of the transfer portal just the same, choosing to further burnish their legacies and pour more of themselves into an atmosphere that has truly become the embodiment of a family.

“I love it here,” Andersen declared. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, honestly, and that’s the truth. My recruitment process was very short, but one of the things (assistant) Coach (Erika Brown) said, and all the coaching staff just kind of dialed down on, was we want to go 4-for-4. And we’re 75 percent there right now.”

“I think it’s a true testament of walking the walk and talking the talk,” Blake DuDonis said. “We recruit against a lot of power conference schools and Carly has constantly turned them down, so we can honestly look people in the face and say, ‘we’ve turned them down, so why wouldn’t you? Why don’t we do this here together, why don’t we stay and build something sustainable and long-serving?’”

The commitment to the greater good is something DuDonis termed “competitive credibility” when describing his wife’s refusal to be a social climber in a sport that skews more toward big money than ever before. In that instance, Fairfield has shown that while the money may be abundant someplace else, the dreams and success can be greater and more resonant by fostering them in an environment where the intrinsic value becomes tangible.

“We didn’t just come here to take it and make it a stepping stone,” Blake reiterated. “We came here to be an elite women’s basketball program, and I feel like we took another step forward this year doing that.”

“We had a group of seven that have been here two, three, four years together, and that is so special,” Carly reflected. “There’s so many reasons why they choose to be at Fairfield and why they choose to continually come back when they would have other options in a world that is constantly putting other options in your face. They knew that they were going to have not only a great education, but they were going to have people around them that were going to pick them up on the bad days, and we could also go be one of the best teams in the country. You don’t have to sacrifice being one of the Top 25 teams in the country for what college athletics should feel like still.”

Fairfield’s five-out, motion offense, which de-emphasizes the traditional forward role in favor of a “road runner” model that highlights the perimeter attack, has also become a favorite of players and fans alike since Thibault-DuDonis has grown as a coach. With it comes an integrated player voice, not only in how things are run, but also in preparation.

“When we have our first recruiting class come in and you go 31-2, it gives you a little bit of credibility where people go, ‘hey, something cool is going on over there,’” Blake DuDonis said. “But I do think the players enjoy the freedom we give them. They have a say in scouting reports. We talked about at halftime, a certain action Quinnipiac was running, and we asked them: ‘Hey, what would you be more comfortable doing on defense? Would you either do this or this?’ And now they’ve got some attachments to the game plan.”

“We’ve been fortunate to find the right type of human beings that respond to our coaching and that we can coach up. We love these kids, we love on them hard, and we coach them hard.”

The love has revealed itself to be a two-way street of mutual appreciation, another outlier in a time where relationships between players and coaches, and even inside and outside the ropes, become increasingly transactional. Thibault-DuDonis is not about that. Her desire to be transformational, both inside the locker room and through her actions and reaffirmation to the Fairfield program, sets the boldest and most powerful example.

“It makes it more satisfying to win a championship with people you have all this trust and love and joy built up together,” she said. “We’ve been through the highs and the lows, and it does mean that much more when I’m hugging Nellie and Beach at the end, and we’ve done all four years together. It’s pretty special.”