The women’s basketball team added an absolute bucket-getter, a globetrotter and a middle school teacher this year.
Imani Watkins was named assistant coach for the Leopards in September, bringing her experience professionally overseas.
Before Lafayette College, teaching sixth-grade social studies and playing professionally or at the collegiate level, Watkins made her first steps towards basketball greatness at T. Wingate Andrews High School in North Carolina.
“I didn’t take driver’s ed in high school because I refused to miss a single practice,” Watkins said.
Her relentless training brought her to Binghamton University, where she quickly eyeballed the program’s scoring record.
“I remember seeing the record and telling my uncle, ‘I’m going to break that record,’” Watkins said. “He was like, ‘That’s a lot of points.’ And I was like, ‘I know. I’m going to break it.’”
While the Bearcats struggled in Watkins’ opening season, mustering just a 4-26 record, the team broke through in year two for the 5’8” guard, winning 10 more games despite Watkins playing through a torn meniscus.
“When your best player is your hardest worker and your most competitive person, it sets the tone,” said Linda Cimino, who was head coach of Binghamton’s women’s basketball team for all four years of Watkins’ collegiate career.
Kennedi Thompson, who overlapped as teammates with Watkins for three years at Binghamton, said she had a “little-sister type relationship” and leaned on her older teammate for support.
“She’s literally a walking encyclopedia,” Thompson said. “She knows everything.”
While year three for Watkins was a slight step back in wins, year four saw the Bearcats go 20-12, as Watkins finally broke that illustrious scoring record, ending her collegiate career with 2,125 points, the most in program history.
“She was laser-focused, competitive,” Cimino said. “Sometimes I would make up silly stories about a coach not voting for her for all-conference, just to motivate her so she’d come out and hit five threes in a half or something like that.”
The 2018 America East Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Year did not stop there. Watkins hit the professional scene, playing in Greece, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Germany.
“You learn the people, you learn the town you’re in, you figure out where the places that you’re going to eat,” Watkins said of bouncing around overseas. “Every team that I’ve been on, I probably have a teammate that I still communicate with on some level because you build those bonds, and you’re together for so long, and you’re really in it with that person.”
“Basketball is universal,” Watkins continued. “Even when there’s a language barrier, because we all speak the same language in terms of basketball, it makes it a little bit easier.”
Dealing with some nagging injuries, Watkins came back to the United States for a break from the professional scene. Returning to North Carolina, Watkins started coaching for the Western Guilford High School men’s basketball team before also becoming a substitute teacher and a full-time sixth-grade teacher. There, she “fell in love” with teaching.
“I enjoy teaching, I think, more than anything,” Watkins said. “I enjoy building relationships with kids, and watching them grow, watching them develop. But more than anything, I love coaching, so being in the classroom was a perfect segue for that.”
Cleaver Rennie, Watkins’ personal trainer and a teacher at Guilford County Schools, brought Rennie onto the program as a coach and noted her immediate connection with the team.
“The kids loved her,” Rennie said. “They would come into the gym looking for her just so they could play a game with her.”
Now, Watkins made the transition to impacting lives and molding careers at the collegiate level.
“I’ve been saying it for years — since I started back when I was a graduate assistant — I’m like, ‘Imani, the game needs people like you,’” Thompson said.
A couple of months into her Lafayette tenure, Watkins has made her presence known for the Leopards, participating as a practice player in team scrimmages.
“Seeing how hard she plays and how aggressive she is, how high her IQ is, it’s really motivating,” junior guard Rosie Scognamiglio said.
Scognamiglio added that she was able to pick Watkins’ brain about footwork and technique defensively.
“They’re things you hear, but I feel like I’ve never had them broken down for me in a way that she does that’s so easy to understand,” she said.
Dan Sullivan ‘27 contributed reporting.