INDIANAPOLIS – She was one of the few women in the WNBA who could slam dunk. One of the youngest Division-I college basketball coaches and the first African American head coach at Ohio University. Though a recent humanitarian trip to coach a youth basketball camp in Zambia was canceled, Steub-enville product Sylvia Crawley is showing no signs of slowing down as she continues on as an assistant coach for the Indiana Fever.

“The tax laws in Africa changed recently,” she said. “The sponsor for the camp was Sprite. And when that happened they had to allocate their funds differently. A basketball camp wasn’t a priority for them, being a beverage company. They pulled their sponsorship. It was particularly disappointing because I would have been coaching high school boys and girls. I was looking forward to it because I’d never coached men before.”

Crawley’s basketball journey started in Steubenville where she began playing for Harding Middle School in seventh grade. Moving on to Steubenville High School she kept busy running track, playing volleyball and playing the clarinet and then the French horn in the band.

“My parents kept me active,” said the 6-foot-5 Crawley. “They put me in things where my height would be a positive so I would have self esteem. I was very athletic. And basketball became my favorite sport as I entered 10th grade. From there I started focusing solely on basketball.”

A high school standout, Crawley received a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The team was dead last in the Atlantic Coast Conference her freshman year, only posting two conference victoriers – against Clemson and Maryland. By the time she left as a senior the team had won the 1994 national championship. A game where Crawley was named the Most Valuable Player. She attributes much of her team’s success to her coach Sylvia Hatchell’s Christian leadership.

“Coach ran our team with Christian principles,” she said. “That had a big effect on me. There were quotes from scripture before we started practice each day. She prayed about major, major decisions she was going to make. And we started every season by attending her church’s family day. My parents would drive out. My teammates’ parents would be there. It really helped with the chemistry of our team.”

After graduation she went on to play professionally two seasons with the American Basketball League (for the Colorado Explosion in 1996-97 and the Portland Power in 1997-98). She went on to play center for the WNBA’s Portland Fire. In 1998 she was featured in a Sports Illustrated for Women story on how to dunk. And in 2001 she was 14th in the WNBA for rebounds. It was during her time with the Portland Fire that she started thinking about retiring as a player.

“I knew my career would end soon,” she said. “And I had no work experience. I had never worked a job. Not even a part-time job on the offseason. I knew I needed to explore some other things. So while I was playing for the Portland Fire I got an assistant coaching job under my old coach at UNC. They threw me into the fire. I had never coached in my life. It was quite a learning experience.”

Crawley said that she was one of the few coaches at the time who simultaneously played the game, a situation that presented unique challenges. There was much travel involved. And at times she felt like a hypocrite. She coached her college women to better themselves as players during the offseason. But during the offseason as a WNBA player she was coaching, not working out as intensely or playing overseas. Eventually she resigned to focus on finishing her playing career strong.

After retiring as a San Antonio Silver Spur, she was hired as an assistant coach at Fordham University, where she spent several months as interim head coach. From there she was hired at age 33 as head coach of Ohio University’s women’s basketball team.

“I went from being the cool assistant coach where everybody hung out in my office,” she said, “to being head coach and inheriting a team where going to the coach’s office meant you were in trouble.”

And the other things she loved about being an assistant coach the individual workouts and player development were no longer her responsibility. She was now the CEO, the visionary for the team, and it was her job to come up with a strategy.

“It was more Xs and Os,” she said. “Whether the program does good or bad, it falls on your shoulders. You answer to the media. You tell parents why their kid isn’t starting. I managed a $1 million budget. It was a lot of responsibility. I was a parent and a counselor to my players. Dealing with 12 young ladies you have to make sure they’re students first and foremost. My goal was to equip my players for life and not just sports because I was once one of them.”

From there she went to the head coaching job at Boston College before her current assistant coaching position with the Fever. (She works on the side as a color commentator.) Always higher levels and bigger challenges. Always a progression. Much of her drive she attributes to her Steubenville upbringing.

“Steubenville is my safe haven,” she said. “It’s a special place and it’s always going to be home to me. I grew up on Sherman Avenue. Everybody’s house was my house. Everybody’s parents were my parents. There were times when I was tired and I felt like I couldn’t make another rebound. But then I thought about all the people in Steubenville and it became bigger than me.”