Women's basketball Head Coach Jim Jabir has turned his team into a family.

Jabir, in his seventh year coaching at Dayton, focuses on dedication to the team and hard work as the building blocks of his program.

"He has a very different coaching style," sophomore guard De'Sarae Chambers said. "I've never really played for a coach under the way that he coaches. It's kind of like you have to be a whole team and have a lot of communication. You're always there for each other, picking each other up and helping out."

Jabir got his start coaching women's basketball as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Nazareth College, in 1984.

"I lived in the gym when I was in college," Jabir said. "I was a gym rat. When I graduated, a new women's coach was hired and he asked me if I wanted to help with the team. I really loved it."

Jabir majored in English and was a technical writer for 10 months while he coached part time. After that he began to coach fulltime and has been hooked ever since.

At UD he challenges his players to commit 100 percent to the team.

"Real commitment to each other and being the best they can be in a really honest way [is key]," Jabir said.

As a result of this commitment, his players feel like they have a second family.

"He's very driven, but at the same time still cares about us a lot," junior guard Kristin Daugherty said. "He really brings a family atmosphere to the team, which is nice."

Chambers agrees that Jabir is the perfect mix of knowledge and compassion.

"He's a very loving person; he cares about the team a lot," she said. "He knows a lot of good stuff around basketball because he's been around it a long time and he's just here for us in any way that we need him."

Jabir strives to help his players improve as players and as individuals.

"I'm intense during games and practice," he said. "I have good relationships with our players and help them grow as people. It's kind of a total package."

Daugherty thinks that the relationships Jabir establishes with the team is the thing that helps them the most.

"I think he is very good at learning individual players and what works for them," she said. "I think he realizes what each person needs to get motivated and I think he's very understanding and uses that to motivate us."

Under Jabir, the women's basketball team has gotten closer to its goal of making it to the NCAA tournament as well as winning the A-10 Championship.

"That's our goal every year and we are getting closer to it," Jabir said. "I really like our team's character and work ethic and our unselfishness. I am really proud of what we've been building and we hope to improve and get better."

Like anything in life, it's the people you share it with that make it memorable, and Jabir's team values playing for him.

"He's just a really great coach and I'm really happy to be playing for him because he makes this experience really great," Daugherty said.