Connecticut boys basketball coach Daniel Lauture attends UConn ceremony at White House: ‘Inspiring’
Daniel Lauture was quite skeptical when he received an email from Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes’ office last week, inviting him as one of his guests to the White House to celebrate the UConn men’s basketball team’s second straight national championship.
Lauture, the Stamford varsity boys basketball coach, drove to the congressman’s office in Bridgeport to verify the email had indeed come from Himes’ office. Upon finding out that was the case, Lauture filled out the necessary information requested — then received a confirmation email from the White House for his RSVP.
On Tuesday, Lauture was among the select people attending the UConn ceremony.
“(UConn coach) Dan Hurley, what he has done is inspiring,” Lauture said. “I don’t know how you live next to the, quote, unquote, Basketball Capital of the World with both the men’s and women’s programs and not want to associate yourself with that culture and winning.”
Lauture, who teaches health and physical education at Stamford, said he had met Himes briefly several years ago when Himes spoke at a class.
But Lauture said Himes’ office told him they had been following the success of Stamford’s basketball team — the Black Knights advanced to the CIAC Division II semifinals last March — and Lauture’s involvement with the Educators Rising program, which allows students to develop leadership traits through educational opportunities.
“Like I say to our kids, like many coaches say, ‘You never know who is watching.’
The work they have put in is being recognized by the highest level of government,” Lauture said.
Lauture said Tuesday the ceremony was “like a Connecticut homecoming, but at the White House.” He got to see President Joe Biden being gifted a No. 46 UConn jersey for a second straight year.
He said being there has “inspired him to excellence” for his future coaching career, wherever that takes him. He noted that Hurley and Alabama’s Nate Oats, who lost to Hurley in the Final Four, started out as high school coaches.
It’s that excellence Lauture feels the state’s high school players should want to be a part of.
“It should be a dream for every male basketball player and every female basketball player in the state to don that jersey,” Lauture said.
