By Cayla Sweazie
The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its women’s championship basketball tournament during this year’s competition in Baltimore.
The tournament, which will take place Feb. 25 to March 1 at CFG Bank Arena, will spotlight female student-athletes and their programs under the hashtag #PaintingHerStory with events such as the EmpowerHER Town Hall and Women’s Empowerment Brunch.
“As we celebrate this historic milestone, #PaintingHerStory bridges the past and the present, and it shows how we have evolved in women’s basketball, in the CIAA and the powerful impact that it continues to have on the game, the community and the future,” said Matisse Lee, chair of the CIAA’s 50th anniversary women’s tournament committee.
As a former dual sport student-athlete (basketball and volleyball), member of Hampton University’s 1988 NCAA Division II women’s basketball championship team and member of Hampton’s Athletic Hall of Fame, CIAA commissioner Jacqie McWilliams-Parker emphasizes the importance of Black women in sports.
Andscape spoke with McWilliams-Parker about the importance of this year’s tournament and her path to becoming conference commissioner. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
As a former player, coach and now commissioner, how does it feel to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the women’s tournament?
It’s surreal because I’m celebrating my teammates that I won the 1988 national championship [with]. They’re coming to the tournament, but I’m in a [different] role. I’m celebrating women that we’re going to [select] to the Hall of Fame. I’m celebrating them, but I’m celebrating us. So it’s always this weird moment of, like, how am I celebrating but I need to celebrate with them? But I get to do it every single day, so it’s a pretty surreal position to be in.
What are you looking forward to in this tournament?
We get to leave another stamp in Black History Month. The beauty of having our tournament at the end of the month is we’re the only real big thing that’s happening, so all eyes are on it. We get to tell “her-story.” We get to tell history. We get to be a part of a community that is culturally connected to us. So I’m excited that February is CIAA for life. February is an opportunity to help make sure that the exposure and opportunities that we give to this community and to our membership, that we get to do that.
How does it make you feel to be the first Black woman commissioner of any NCAA conference?
I used to be really emotional having this conversation because when you’re the first, you don’t want to be the last. You don’t want to mess it up for the future. So there’s a lot of pressure around making sure you’re doing the right things, being a person of integrity, being a person that’s authentic, being a person who is trustworthy, being a person that brings other women in.
This is my dream job. … So I’d like to tell you there are seven Black women commissioners. All of them are my mentees, and what a blessing to see [them] in all divisions, one, two and three, that there’s representation. I might have been the first, but I won’t be the last.
How has your career prepared you to become commissioner?
I played in this conference. I’ve worked in this conference, I’ve coached in this conference, I’ve been an administrator in the conference. And then to come back [with] all the experiences I’ve had over the last 32 years in college athletics, I get to bring it all together.
Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome?
This is my 13th tournament. I’ve been through the highs and lows as a leader, as a woman of color. I’ve been called all kinds of things up and down. … But in this role of being the commissioner, I have a responsibility to be the caretaker, and until they tell me I’m not doing my position, I have to have the confidence that every day I wake up I’m working on behalf of this conference in the way that [my] two predecessors have worked. They were men, so we’ve only had three commissioners for this conference. Sometimes it’s the pressure of not that I’m a woman and a Black woman, it’s the pressure that I have a 112-year-old conference, that I’m responsible to make sure that the history never gets lost and that we create the community that the mission stands for.
