NORTHAMPTON — Ally Yamada and Sofia Rosa sat on the floor of Ainsworth Gymnasium behind the group of 16 Smith College women’s basketball players as Pioneers assistant coach Jen MacAulay broke down film on Smith’s NCAA Division III Final Four opponent, Wisconsin-Oshkosh, on Monday afternoon.

A year ago, Yamada and Rosa were a part of the crew absorbing the information coming from MacAulay (Yamada scored 14.2 points per game while Rosa averaged 13.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest to help lead Smith to the 2024 national championship game). But this season, the pair were part of the crew that helped put together the scouting report as graduate assistant coaches.

“It’s totally different, but in a good way,” Yamada said of the transition, going from player to coach in one season. “Having Sofia go through the same transition with me has been super helpful. We lean on each other a lot, because it’s a very unique experience. The players that we played with are now the ones we’re coaching, so I think that was the hardest part just in the sense that I feel really close to this group, but having to look at it from a different lens. The coaching staff has done a great job of making it very seamless.”

Neither Yamada or Rosa had coaching in their future plans as they maneuvered through college — Yamada at Smith and Rosa at Tufts. Both hoped to pursue careers in physical therapy; they relished the idea of helping athletes recover from injuries to get back on the court or field. 

Rosa played three seasons at Tufts and graduated in 2022. She worked full time as a medical assistant at an orthopedic clinic afterward before realizing she couldn’t stand being away from basketball. She began coaching part time as an assistant at MIT on top of her other job. That small dose had Rosa hooked.

One of her old coaches pointed her in the direction of Smith College’s Exercise and Sports Studies graduate program, which has a long track record of creating successful coaches. Rosa got in touch with Pioneers head coach Lynn Hersey, who was supportive of Rosa joining the staff as a graduate assistant.

But before Rosa could coach at Smith, Hersey needed her to do a favor — one Rosa would happily accept.

“I had talked to Coach Hersey about coaching here first, and then about a month later, she was like, ‘Wait, you still have a year of eligibility?’” Rosa recalled. “I said, ‘What? I do?’ And so that became a no-brainer, of course I’m going to come here and play, and then I get to coach when I’m done. It was the best of both worlds for me.”

Yamada spent five seasons (including the COVID-canceled 2020-21 campaign) at Smith, and similarly to Rosa, she didn’t have coaching on her radar. That was, until her high school coach took her to Japan to help coach a skills camp.

“After going on that trip to Japan, I knew coaching was what I’m passionate about,” said Yamada, who is also in the Exercise and Sports Studies graduate program. “This is what I wanted to do. So I told Coach Hersey about it, and she was super supportive. I started to think more seriously about it, and then I applied to the graduate program, and now here we are.”

Here they are, indeed.

Yamada and Rosa may not have expected to be on Hersey’s bench as coaches, but they’re extremely glad it happened — as is Hersey.

“They’ve been critical in terms of how we’ve been able to function this year and getting our younger group to really step up quickly,” Hersey said. “I think their voices, in terms of the experience they personally had as players and their ability to continue to push the envelope as coaches, is a combination that has been a real gift to our program.”

When Yamada and Rosa were a star tandem at Smith, they would sit in film circles similar to Monday and soak up the game plan to go execute it. Rosa always thought the way the coaching staff articulated the scouting report was simple, saying they explained it in a way that “seemed almost obvious.”

This year, she’s acknowledged the boatloads of work that go into the process behind that. Preparation as a player included shooting extra on her own time, getting in individual workouts and watching extra film. As a coach, preparation isn’t so simple.

“For me, the big adjustment has been, ‘OK, well what does preparation look like for a coach?’” Rosa said. “Being behind the closed doors as a coach, you realize the hours and hours of conversation that are had. And these people are brilliant. Lynn, [MacAulay and assistant coach Kat Puda], they are like masterminds. It’s cool to be a part of those conversations and listen to them talk for hours about which screen defense we’re going to do, or how we’re going to put this player in the best situation to fit their strengths. It’s really, really planned, intentional and creative. It’s a whole different world.”

Hersey called it “heartwarming” that her players want to stay at Smith past their playing careers, something that speaks volumes to the culture she’s built.

Yamada works mainly with the Pioneers’ backcourt, homing in on the small details such as post-entry passing, footwork, and attacking certain driving lanes, to give Hannah Martin, Jane Loo and Ally Landau, among others, a leg up on their competition. Rosa aids the frontcourt, using her experience from multiple collegiate programs to help teach Smith’s young post players. She plays them quite often in one-on-one, still getting the better of them most of the time.

Having been to Final Fours and a national championship, Yamada and Rosa lean on their familiarity of playing on the big stage to help calm the Smith players ahead of tournament tilts.

“Just enjoy the moment,” Yamada said, referring to her advice to the team. “This is something really unique, and you just have to be present. There are not many teams that are able to make it to this point, and we’ve won the NEWMAC five years in a row and are going to the Final Four for a third time in a row. We’re doing all of the preparation beforehand so that when we get out there and play on game day, we can play free. We win with our preparation.”

Smith lost to NYU in the 2024 national final, ending Yamada and Rosa’s playing careers. They may have fallen short of their ultimate goal, but it was the farthest the Pioneers had ever made it in the NCAA tournament. The two of them, Yamada especially given her five years in Northampton, have been key cogs in the progression of Smith’s program.

Sure, Yamada wanted to bring home a national championship as a player, but she has another chance to as a coach. She compared it to Dawn Staley, who went to the Final Four three times and a national title once as a player at Virginia, but never won. Staley is now a three-time national champion as a head coach at South Carolina. Yamada hopes to match that trajectory.

As for Rosa, she watched her many hours of labor as a player pay off when Smith cut down the nets following the Pioneers’ Elite Eight win at Bowdoin last season. That same feeling percolated through her as a coach when they did it again last weekend, although there is still more work to be done.

“Having the opportunity to win a national championship is incredible,” Rosa said. “For the coaching staff, you put in work in such a different way, so it’s a really special opportunity just having another shot at it. It might look a little bit different, but the goal is still the same.”

Both Ally Yamada and Sofia Rosa had stellar collegiate careers. They each complimented Smith for everything the school and basketball program gave them, and now, they’re paying it forward by coaching the next wave of Pioneers in search of the team’s first-ever national title.