Welcome to Hoop Queens, a new series spotlighting some of New England’s women’s basketball legends. This series aims to show the history of women’s basketball in the region through the well-known and untold stories of its all-time greatest talents. Follow along as we learn about who helped grow the game to where it is today.
If you're looking for the golden age of high school girls basketball in New England, it's hard to beat Connecticut in the 1990s.
The state was churning out stars like clockwork. Nykesha Sales blossomed into the No. 1 recruit in the country and would go on to be an eight-time WNBA All-Star. Jennifer Rizzotti (our first Hoop Queen) and Rita Williams were pro draft picks. All three grew up alongside the rise of UConn women's basketball, and all three helped the Huskies win their first national championship in 1995-96.
But there was another transcendent talent on the scene: Nadine Domond, who surprised even her closest confidants by choosing Iowa over UConn. But it wasn't just the Hawkeyes who beat the odds. Domond, now head coach at Morgan State, emerged from the Bridgeport blacktops during one of the city's darkest periods to become the nation's top high school point guard.
"That's why I think I appreciate teachers, I appreciate counselors, I appreciate those venues and those safes places," she said. "Because those safe places created Nadine Domond."
MORE HOOP QUEENS:Â Jennifer Rizzotti's lifelong legacy in Connecticut
According to a 1990 New York Times story, in 1989, Bridgeport had the highest homicide rate per capita of any major city in the Northeast, and the city's police department reported a serious crime occurred every 22 minutes on average.
Domond grew up the daughter of Haitian immigrants and the oldest of three children. Her father was not a consistent presence in her life. But Domond (who was born in Stamford, Conn., but moved to Bridgeport in second grade) looks back on her childhood glowingly, crediting community centers like the Orcutt Boys & Girls Club for insulating her from the outside chaos.
"It saved my life," Domond said. "I think it saved a lot of lives on the East Side, because it was Bridgeport, Connecticut, and I didn't know we grew up in a tough area, or anything like that. I didn't know until I left and I was at an AAU event. Somebody said, 'you're from Bridgeport,' and I was like, 'Yeah, why, what's wrong?' (They said) 'You're from there — how do you live and survive?'"
Domond can still rattle off the names of teachers and community leaders in Bridgeport who gave her a sense of community pride. It was the Boys & Girls Club, and the courts at Washington Park, where she fell in love with basketball. Domond remembers beaming when "Willa," the best street player in the neighborhood, told her she had "potential." Earn a place on the court for pickup, and keeping your spot by knocking out challengers, felt like a rite of passage. It instilled a focus that defined Domond's mindset as a player and coach.
"We come in here at 4 (p.m.), we're not leaving here until 7 tonight, and we're gonna run people off this court. And you better not let us lose," she said. "You shot the ball when you were supposed to shoot and you passed the ball to the right person, because it was all about being competitive, winning and owning the court that day — all about owning that day."
Domond, a 5-foot-9 point guard, reached high school just as Connecticut entered its heyday. She went 86-8 at Bridgeport Central, scoring 2,300 points (24.5 per game) and averaging 9.8 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.7 made 3s. Her high school coach and mentor, Richard Fisher, was quick to add that Domond's totals were deflated because she rested in so many blowout wins — like the time she scored a school-record 50 points in about 2.5 quarters in January of 1994.
"She was probably the most unselfish player with great talent that I've ever seen," Fisher said. "She would much rather pass the ball than shoot the ball."
The Connecticut Post was all over girls basketball coverage at the time and stars like Domond even made it to New York Times features. Fans flocked to games. Bridgeport Central won the Class LL championship at Central Connecticut State in front of 5,000 spectators during Domond's senior year. She and Sales shared places on the Parade Magazine All-American team, and Domond won Gatorade Player of the Year in 1993-94.
Thirty years ago, top prospects could measure themselves nationally on the AAU scene (with far fewer teams), by the Parade Magazine awards or at the still-ongoing Blue Star camps. Domond remembers the anticipation waiting to see if she made the Connecticut Starters, back then the only big-time AAU program in the state. But she knew she would be a college player early; her first letter came from Duke in sixth grade.
By high school, Domond had "more letters than Santa Claus," Fisher said. North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell flew through a snowstorm to watch Domond play. Because her mom, Evelyn, had work and two additional children to take care of, Domond leaned on Fisher and Bill Dixon, a well-connected community leader in Connecticut and former Quinnipiac head coach, to help her through the recruiting process. Domond and Fisher had her final 10 schools make their "at-home" visits at Bridgeport Central. Eventually the list dwindled to four: Georgia, North Carolina, UConn and Iowa.
Fisher remembers Geno Auriemma's pitch vividly. Whereas other coaches showered Domond with on-and-off-court promises — "they had to beg her to come to their school," Fisher said — Auriemma, who hadn't yet won a national championship, was more of a straight shooter.
"His approach with Nadine was basically — I remember it like it was yesterday — 'Nadine, we don't really care if you come to our school. If you don't come to our school. We have a very nice, very good program. We've got very good players, and we're going to win whether you come here or not. So it's really up to you,'" Fisher recalled.
Meanwhile, Iowa had C. Vivian Stringer, a popular head coach and elite recruiter who led the Hawkeyes to the Final Four in 1992-93.
"Vivian and I had some run-ins — well, not run-ins, but some friendly competition, going after different players at the same time, and Nadine was one," Dixon said. "Vivian found out and (said), 'You know Nadine? I want Nadine. You've got to help me get Nadine.'"
Domond was floored by Stringer's persona; she still calls Stringer "the Dawn Staley of that time." Iowa assistant Timothy Eaton, known as a longtime great in college basketball recruiting, developed a close relationship with Domond. She had also become good friends with stars on the AAU circuit who would also choose Iowa.
Finally, Domond consulted her pastor. She told him she wanted to go to Iowa, and when she asked him to write down the school he believed she should pick, her pastor wrote the same. That gave Domond the final boost of confidence to make the surprising commitment.
"My mother wanted me to go to UConn," Domond said. "My mother was shocked. My mother was like, 'Are you serious?'"
Domond averaged 9.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals at Iowa, helping the Hawkeyes make the Sweet Sixteen in 1997-98. The New York Liberty selected her in the second round of the 1998 WNBA Draft, and Domond briefly suited up for the Sacramento Monarchs before continuing her pro career overseas.
She only played one year in college under Stringer before Stringer left to coach at Rutgers. But the two would reunite decades later as Domond embarked on her own coaching career. After stints in college as an assistant at Hampton and head coach at Grambling State, Domond got the call from Stringer to join her and Eaton, who were back together at Rutgers.
"Mama called, and when Mama calls, you don't say no to Mama," Domond told CT Insider in 2022.
Domond spent six years at Rutgers before moving to head coach at Virginia State, where she led the school to its first NCAA Division 2 Tournament appearance. In April, she moved back up to Division 1 and is now the head coach at Morgan State.
Four of Domond's college coaching stops have been at HBCU programs. She calls receiving her first head coach job at Grambling State a profound revelation because of what former coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs told her: "I'm not good enough for you to play for me, but I'm good enough to give you a job."
That moment helped spark Domond's love for the HBCU community. It allows her to support Black students who deserve opportunities in the way her Bridgeport home once supported her.
"How many times do the most talented kids in the country think about HBCUs?" Domond said. "But when you look at HBCUs, so many HBCUs have been a springboard for so many people to be successful. Coach Stringer came from an HBCU. Pat Bibbs came from an HBCU. Yolette (McGee-McCuin, current Ole Miss head coach) came from an HBCU. ... There's something about it like no other, and that's what made me fall in love with it."
