For first-year UMBC women’s basketball head coach Candice Hill, it was a no-brainer to pursue the head coaching position at the Catonsville institution.
Becoming a head coach is a dream for many aspiring coaches. That was no different for Hill, who spent the past three seasons at St. John’s as an associate head coach. Prior to that, she was an assistant at Loyola for a year and spent six seasons as the director of basketball operations at UMass.
No matter where she traveled, her time in Baltimore stuck with her. She grew up playing basketball all over the city and was a standout at Towson Catholic and then at Loyola.
“Playing basketball here in Baltimore, you play talent each and every night,” Hill said. “From my days of playing at The Dome [in East Baltimore] and playing at Lake Clifton and playing even in [the IAAM in] high school, that’s probably one of the most competitive high school leagues in the country and still is to this day. Growing up playing basketball in Baltimore, you’re taught toughness because we might not be the most skilled players, but we’re tough. And we have a dog mentality.”
UMBC is 6-4 entering a Dec. 20 contest at George Mason as the Retrievers look to put together their first winning season since 2015-16. As Hill pursues her vision for UMBC, she’ll have help from a coaching staff with plenty of local flair.
Assistant coach Reggie Daniels grew up in the Baltimore area with Hill’s husband, Donn. A Hood College (Frederick) alum, Daniels was the boys’ junior varsity basketball coach at Patterson Mill from 2015-2017 and a coach for the Maryland Belles AAU program.
Following his time as a graduate assistant at Hood from 2017-2019, Daniels served as an assistant at Stevenson University from 2019-2021 and the head coach at Fairleigh Dickinson Florham Campus in New Jersey during the 2021-22 campaign.
Daniels then moved on to become an assistant at Binghamton University in 2022-23 and the head coach at Division II Chestnut Hill, leading the Pennsylvania school to a 20-9 record in 2023-24. The whirlwind trip around the Northeast brought Daniels back home after he fielded a call from Hill.
“When the opportunity presented itself, there was no hesitation to return home,” Daniels said. “Candice and I are basically family. Her family knows some of [my] family members. Baltimore is a small place. Her husband Donn is also one of my childhood best friends. We grew up together and played [high school] ball together. So when Candice reached out to me, it was a no-brainer. She’s always looked out for me and has been a mentor.”
UMBC assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Maggie Tien is no stranger to local basketball herself. A Gaithersburg native, Tien spent the past three seasons at Mount St. Mary’s, first as the director of operations for two years before being promoted to recruiting coordinator and assistant coach prior to the 2023-24 season. Before that, Tien spent two seasons playing at Hood, where Daniels was an assistant, and two more at Washington Adventist.
“Coaching and working with Maggie is really a full circle moment,” Daniels said. “I was on staff at Hood when she played. When her coaching career started, I became a mentor for her. We’ve always stayed in communication, and if she ever needed any advice or another voice, I was there for her.”
On top of Tien’s on-court and coaching pedigree is her ability to go out and recruit. She was targeted by Hill because of the connections that she has locally. Mount St. Mary’s was successful during Tien’s first season as director of operations, winning the Northeast Conference in 2021-22. Tien will check every box to make sure that the program rolls out the proverbial yellow carpet for recruits.
Delmar “Buck” Carey, a Northern Virginia native who coached on the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League circuit and has experience at Stony Brook, is also on the staff as an assistant coach. Hill values the wisdom Carey brings to the staff.
“He’s been all up and down the DMV,” Hill said. “He’s from Virginia, he has D.C. ties, he coached Team Takeover so that not only gives us ties with Team Takeover, but that gives us ties on the EYBL circuit because he has those relationships from coaching. … Buck’s older than all of us, so he’s coached on the men’s side and the women’s side. He knows what it takes to win. And not only what it takes to win but what it takes to win in this conference because he’s done it before.”
UMBC went 2-2 against local teams in the early stages of the season, losing to Maryland and Loyola but triumphing over Morgan State and Towson. The first two games were particularly “surreal” in the words of Hill, who played against Maryland while at Loyola. Her team’s matchup at Loyola was a homecoming.
There’s a feeling that the Retrievers’ bumps and bruises throughout the course of the season will gradually make them better. UMBC lost, 74-32, to Maryland and pulled closer against Loyola in a 54-46 loss, but the Retrievers more than made up for it when they beat Towson for the first time since 2010. The team begins America East play against Binghamton on Jan. 4.
Ultimately, Hill aspires for UMBC to be at the forefront of women’s basketball in Baltimore.
“Once we start winning and just continue to build the culture, lay the foundation, I think that we can be Baltimore’s team, that’s what I want to be,” Hill said. “That’s what I strive to be and we’ve been intentional about making sure we do a good job of representing UMBC and making it relatable.”
Photo Credit: Tyler Kraft/UMBC Athletics
Issue 290: December 2024 / January 2025
Originally published Dec. 18, 2024