Bryce Agler follows in dad Brian Agler's footsteps in women's basketball coaching career

Bryce Agler goes way back with Dayton Flyers head coach Tamika Williams-Jeter — almost as far as he can remember.

“Tamika has known me since I was in elementary school,” Agler said. “My dad drafted her with the Minnesota Lynx. I guess there’s a picture floating around in Tamika’s mom’s house of me guarding her at practice, or she was guarding me. We were playing one on one.”

Agler joined Williams-Jeter’s staff as an assistant coach on April 5. She has since added George Washington and Kalisha Keane as assistant coaches, Julie Bolden as an assistant to the head coach, Christina Bacon as director of basketball operations and Trendale Perkins as video coordinator.

Bryce’s dad, Brian Agler, was in his third season as the head coach of the Lynx when Williams-Jeter joined the roster as the No. 6 overall pick in the 2002 draft. She averaged 10.1 points as a rookie. Brian and Williams-Jeter teamed up again last season when he hired her at Wittenberg. She held that position until Dayton hired her in March.

Bryce grew up around his dad’s teams, first in Minnesota and then in Phoenix, San Antonio and Seattle. He got to know many players as a kid.

“I thought we were all best friends,” Agler said. “We hung out with players, and they’d come over our house every once a while and hang out with us. My dad was pretty good at having team events in the offseason or when they had free time.”

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After Agler’s tenure in Minnesota ended after the 2002 season, Columbus became home base for the family. Bryce was in sixth grade then. The family would visit Brian wherever he was coaching in the summer, and he’d be home in the winter.

Bryce’s basketball career started at Olentangy Orange High School, north of Columbus. He started his college career at Wooster, playing for Steve Moore, who was an assistant coach at Wittenberg when his dad played there. After one season with the Scots, Agler transferred to Wittenberg. He spent one season playing for Bill Brown but then decided he wanted to get into coaching and worked as a student coach for Brown. At the same time, he spent two years coaching AAU girls basketball.

Agler graduated from Wittenberg in 2014 and got a job at Eastern Illinois as an assistant women’s coach, recruiting coordinator and video coordinator. He then spent five seasons in the WNBA coaching under his dad: 2016-18 with the Los Angeles Sparks and 2019-20 with the Dallas Wings. The Sparks won the WNBA championship in Agler’s first season.

All that time with his dad left a lasting impression on Agler as did his experience at the highest level of women’s basketball. He knows the lessons learned in the WNBA will help at the college level.

“I think it helps tremendously, because a lot of those players in the WNBA, it’s hard to find weaknesses,” Agler said. “For the most part, you have to really nitpick. Then you can help them take it to the next level. But here on the college level, a lot of those players want to get to the next level. You can tell them, ‘Well, this is what they’re really good at, and this is what helps them play at the next level. This will help them make it to the next level.’ So you can help them that way and show them the path.”

Agler moved back to the college side in the 2017-18 season as a video coordinator at Southern Methodist and again last season, working as the director of video and player performance at Pittsburgh. He stayed in touch with Williams-Jeter over the years. She recruited his sister Taylor when she was an assistant coach at Ohio State. Taylor ended up playing for the Ohio Bobcats.

When Williams-Jeter got the job at Dayton in March, Agler reached out to congratulate her. The conversation eventually led to a job offer.

“It’s a great opportunity for me,” Agler said, “and I’m just excited to see if we can take it to the next level. I know they’ve had a lot of success in the last decade, and we want to keep that going.”

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The new staff has worked on rebuilding the Dayton roster. Four of Dayton’s top six scorers — Erin Whalen, Jenna Giacone, Araion Bradshaw and Kyla Whitehead — graduated. Two other players who ranked among the top six scorers transferred. Makira Cook followed coach Shauna Green to Illinois. Tenin Magassa left for another Atlantic 10 Conference school: Rhode Island.

Dayton also lost Anna LeMaster to American University and Brynn Shoup-Hill to Illinois.

Dayton has added three players: Maryland transfer Taisiya Kozlova, whose signing was announced Thursday; freshman Nayo Lear, and Ohio State transfer Anyssa Jones.

Dayton has one other incoming freshman: Saija Cleveland. There are five returning players listed on the roster: Capria Brown; Shannon Wheeler: Mariah Perez; Destiny Bohanon; and Maliya Perry.

“It’s been crazy,” Agler said. “We’ve been hitting the portal hard. We’re just trying to add some depth. I think the players that are returning are pretty good. They were loaded these last few years, and I think these other players are hungry. They want to compete and show that they belong. But also I think some of these pieces we’re starting to add are going to help us as well.”