Sam Aguirre is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Sunnyslope High School for AZPreps365.com

From being a basketball player, teacher, ref and now Sunnyslope High School''s girls basketball coach, Kristen Clyder’s life has revolved around the Sunnyslope community and basketball. 

“Slope and basketball mean everything,” Clyder said. “I could have the worst day ever, but when I walk through these doors (at Sunnyslope), I just light up like a Christmas tree.”

Born in Oak Lawn, Illinois, when Clyder was a baby her family decided to move to Phoenix for the dry air due to her grandpa’s lung issues. Currently, Clyder lives in Phoenix with her wife Ashley and their three children. 

During her childhood, Clyder lived in between two homes but mainly with her mom and stepfather just down the street from Sunnyslope High School on Royal Palm Road. Living with a strict stepfather who taught her good values, Clyder’s outlet was playing basketball. 

Clyder’s middle school basketball coaches motivated her in different ways to achieve her dreams of being a D1 basketball player.

Attending Royal Palm Middle School, Clyder's teams won the girls championship in both seventh and eighth grade. Her seventh grade coach had faith that she could be a great basketball player. On the other hand, her eighth grade coach told her that she would never play at the collegiate level.

Clyder said her whole life has been spent proving people wrong and she’s not stopping now.

Andrew Page, a childhood friend of Clyder’s and the administrative assistant to principal at Sunnyslope, said she’s always been energetic, intelligent, talented and hilarious. 

“I admire Kristen’s ability to smile through adversity,” Page said. “She accepts challenges head-on, and it’s impressive and inspiring.”

Growing up in the Valley, Clyder attended Sunnyslope from 1995-1999. Making the varsity team as a freshman, Clyder’s teams won regional titles in 1998 and 1999.

Kristen Clyder as a junior in the team picture for the Sunnyslope Girls Varsity Basketball team. (Photo Courtesy of Kristen Clyder)

In 1997, Clyder played club basketball with Arizona Elite. With her family not having a lot of money, Clyder’s mom went to all the people at her work and found some co-workers to sponsor Clyder so she could afford to play on the team. Little did she know, one good game would help her achieve her basketball goals.

Kristen Clyder in her team picture for Arizona Elite. (Photo Courtesy of Kristen Clyder)

“I was playing in a game and I hit like six threes and there was a coach from Weber State in the stands that day,” Clyder said. “From then on, I knew I was going to play there.”

In 2000, an assistant coach for Weber State, Rachelle Sayers, met Clyder while recruiting her as a player at Sunnyslope.  

Sayers said they clicked from the start and developed a really good relationship.

“She is one of the most loyal people I know,” Sayers said. “If you have Kristen Clyder as a friend, you’ve got a really good one. She’s going to be that person that anybody can pick up the phone and call when they need somebody.” 

As a 5-foot-11, skinny college freshman, Clyder redshirted her first year and was told to lift weights and eat. In her sophomore and junior years at Weber State, they won the Big Sky championships and punched their ticket to play in the NCAA tournament.

Clyder said she felt like a celebrity when her team traveled to Stanford and Louisiana Tech.

“To be on the same court as these teams I grew up watching on TV to now I'm playing them as a mid-major Division I player was amazing,” Clyder said. “We got our butts kicked, but it was an incredible experience.”

When doing clinics as a college athlete, Clyder knew that kids were her passion and basketball was her world. 

Sayers said she has a heart of gold.

“She didn’t have an easy path to get to where she’s at,” Sayers said. “She’s one of those people that will give and give, sometimes to her fault she will give so much to others.”

During her five years at Weber State, she studied elementary education. After she graduated, she came back to Arizona and did her student teaching through Arizona State University and got her master’s degree in administration. 

Clyder started her professional career as a teacher at a Title I school, which are schools with students that come from low-income families. Clyder’s passion for kids led her to become an assistant principal for four years before taking a job with the district’s office. After realizing she wanted to be with kids again, she went back to being an assistant principal and that led her to her current teaching position as a substitute teacher.

Clyder said it’s been difficult to go from an administrator's pay to now making little money as a substitute teacher.

“Being here and being able to be around the kids even more is worth every cent that I'm not getting,” Clyder said. “I'm so lucky that I have an extremely supportive and respectful partner who will do anything she can for me to be able to be here with the girls.” 

Page said Clyder is extremely humble.

“She took what someone might consider a lesser position for her career just so she could coach on campus for her players at Sunnyslope,” Page said. “She has a deep passion and connection to Sunnylsope.”

While teaching, she also worked with the city of Scottsdale’s unified sports program, where Clyder and others would work with athletes who have a physical or cognitive disability. During these games, she ran into some old referees who actually refereed her games when she was a player at Sunnyslope. 

Clyder said this interaction led her to becoming a ref for the AIA.

“They kept razzling me, saying ‘you should be a ref’,” Clyder said. “‘You have a great attitude, you love kids and you love basketball’ and I thought you know what, maybe I will.”

Clyder was a ref for the AIA for eight years but had to get surgery after breaking a bone in her foot while training. After hearing about an open coaching position, Clyder decided to come back to her alma mater after 19 years as the junior varsity girls basketball coach at Sunnyslope.

After five years as the junior varsity coach and varsity head assistant, Clyder got the opportunity to become the head coach for the varsity girls basketball team at Sunnyslope. In her first season as head coach, she led the team to their first-ever quarterfinals in the 2024 AIA Girls Basketball Open State Championship. She also did it again this season.

Clyder teared up when talking about how important the girls on the team are to her.

“Being with them, sometimes I feel like I need them more than they need me,” Clyder said. “You have to find the balance and just love them as much as you push them because I had experiences where certain coaches didn’t know how to reach me.”

Page said Clyder believes in her players and expects them to believe in themselves, too.

“People need to know that she loves her players,” Page said. “She’s her players’ biggest fans and that shows in her coaching.”

An assistant coach for the Sunnyslope girls basketball team, Katie Marrin has known Clyder since elementary school. 

Marrin said that Clyder devotes her life to the people she cares for. 

“People probably don’t realize the amount of time she devotes to somebody else’s success,” Marrin said. “Off the court, she is somebody that inspires me with how passionate and caring she is.”

Clyder said she believes you're only given what you can handle.

“There's so much to me that has made me who I am,” Clyder said. “Nothing in my life has been easy. It seems like the universe just wants me to continuously learn and grow nonstop.”