MU Alumna Returns as Coach
Jarred Hubbard
Faith-Alexis Graham is a returning for her second stint at Manchester University after completing her undergraduate degree in 2019. This time around she will be the women’s basketball assistant coach under Coach Josh Dzurick.
Graham was a standout basketball player at Manchester for four years, and made the decision to come back to her alma mater. “I knew that I would always want to stay around the game,” she said. “Even when I was injured, you see things so different from the bench than you would as a player on the court.”
Last year the Spartans’ record was just 4-21, but Graham still has so much to give to the team as a whole and she can also be that second mouthpiece in addition to Dzurick. “I believe that I can come in and make us better with communication,” she said. “My relationship with the players and Coach Dzurick will help us all grow and gel as a team.”
She has solid expectations for the year. “I expect us to come in and work hard and be tougher,” she said. “Toughness is something that we need to come in with. I don’t think that we can teach that. But I believe it’s something that you just do.”
To prepare for her new job, Graham attended a few coaching camps and she was soaking up as much information as she could to be able to coach and continue to stay around the game of basketball, knowing that her body was really sustaining all the physical punishment. “I’ve had eight knee surgeries and my body was failing me,” she said. “I knew I wanted to stay around basketball, and I was tired of my knees and I became the student coach for my high school freshman team.”
Graham has been tuned in with everything basketball related: she worked with the NCAA in Indianapolis and the inaugural basketball academy to get better and to gain more knowledge for the game and to be able to coach for as long as possible.
Returning to Manchester to coach is special to her. “I have former relationships with everyone,” she said. “I believe with me being here and with them knowing that I’ve been where they are, it’ll be a great help to the program as a whole.”