After school you may spot para-educator Donita Adams shooting threes in the gym.

Adams, like most Watkins Mill students, grew up right here in Gaithersburg. Adams walked the same hallways you did at Neelsville and Watkins Mill (although she graduated from Damascus). Adams isn’t just any para-educator from Gaithersburg though, she was formerly in the WNBA on the LA Sparks.

After her stint with the Sparks, Adams played overseas in Italy before she came back to be a para-educator at Watkins Mill.  She came back the the Mill because she said she “always had a passion for working with kids.”

Adams believes it is  her “duty” to “help out the community and give back.”  Adams wants to make sure the girls do well in life and not only basketball.  “Students first, athletes second. I have expectations and standards,” Adams added.

Adams’ time in the WNBA gives her an edge in the coaching game. “It gives me some insight that most coaches don’t have,” Adams said. “I want to make sure these girls, no matter where they go, whether they play professionally [or not]… do something productive. That’s what we’re all about.”

Senior basketball player Shawna Mcdougall said that Adams “made me more of a leader” and “she made me more positive.” Adams means a great deal to her players although she only started coaching them last year, she clearly has a bond with the team and cares a lot about their future.

“She has a very go get ’em attitude,” senior basketball player Amasia Moyd said. “She is very competitive…[and tells them] ‘whatever they do put your best effort into it.’”