COMMERCE– It takes a village to raise a child. There are few people who understand this saying more than Texas A&M University-Commerce graduate student and point guard Khala Riley. All college athletes have the stress of exams, practices, training and travel. In addition to this, Riley has another priority on her mind. With the help of her family, she is also raising her two-year-old daughter, Khalia.
 
The Third Team All-Conference player's journey to college graduation began at Cisco Junior College. Riley played there for two years under head coach Charinee Mitchell. It was Mitchell who brought Riley to the attention of newly hired A&M-Commerce head women's basketball coach Jason Burton. After an introductory press conference on April 3, 2014, Burton got on a plane the next day to scout at the NCAA Final Four in Tennessee. It was there where Burton spoke with Mitchell and got an unorthodox recommendation about one of her players.
                                                 
"[Khala's] coach described her as a pit bull," Burton said. "She said, 'coach you have to have her, she is a pit bull.' And I had never heard of a woman basketball player described that way. And I loved it. So when I got back, that was one of the first places I went. I saw her play and I said, 'we need to sign this person.' She was the first person we got committed and the first person we signed.  There was just something about her, a toughness that she had."
 
Both player and coach were excited about the fit. Then a surprise revelation came a few weeks later. Riley found out she was expecting a child. All of a sudden, both sides were unclear as to what would happen. Riley knew she would continue playing college basketball after the pregnancy, she just wasn't sure if it would be at A&M-Commerce. Riley and her mother met with Burton to discuss what both sides had in mind.
 
Burton knew the meeting would be important, especially as a new coach who was trying to establish a culture. He told Riley the expectations for her would be to continue to work out while she was pregnant and to be on time to every meeting and every practice.
 
"Of course there were going to be exceptions because she was pregnant," Burton said. "But she was on the team and we have high expectations. She agreed to every thing and she far exceeded my expectations for her while she was pregnant."
 
Because of the commitment of Riley to still be an active teammate and an active student, Burton had no reservations to honor his part of the contract. Riley was kept on scholarship and was allowed a redshirt season. It was something that Riley is grateful for to this day.
 
"It was a good feeling because [a pregnancy] is something big that changes your life," she said. "It meant a lot to me, knowing that he had faith in me to give me the opportunity. He really believed in me and that I could help the program."
 
In his first season as head coach, Burton had the team workout at 6:30 a.m. Riley would show up at the gym at 5:45 a.m. She would proceed to jog 10 laps around the entirety of the Field House floor, which is big enough to have five basketball courts. She would then join the team in the weight room, lifting up to 20 pounds, the maximum amount the doctors told her she could lift. She would then watch practice from the sideline, learning Burton's system and expectation of players. Although she couldn't have contact and therefore was unable to do any work on the court, Riley still felt she owed it to Burton and the team to work as hard as she could.
 
"I felt that I still had to earn my spot on the team," she said. "I just always work hard.  If I am capable of doing something, I'm going to do it. The best way to grow is to just get out there and do it and work hard. I didn't feel like my pregnancy should hold me back from doing anything."
 
Riley would continue her training through much of her pregnancy. Her jog soon turned to 10 laps of walking. Until the day she was told she shouldn't do activities, she did all she was asked to do. Then the fateful day came. Riley gave birth to her daughter. The child was healthy, thanks in part to the workouts Riley had done.
 
The Pit Bull Mentality
 
In January, after being cleared to have contact for the first time after the delivery, Riley put on her practice uniform and stepped on the court for her first 5-on-5 practice in months. After speaking with the athletic trainers, the plan was to ease Riley back onto the court. Burton put her in on the second team.
 
"I subbed her in and let her play about two plays and she looked good," he said. "But I was like, 'OK, no need to rush anything, she is not playing this year, she is redshirting,' so I subbed her back out. On the next play, she subbed herself right back in. It wasn't me subbing her back in. She subbed herself in. She wanted to show me she was good."
 
Riley laughed when recalling the incident.
 
"That was just part of me missing being on the court," she said. "You have times where you feel you need that break but at the same time when you get that break over the summer, you miss it. You miss being on the court and playing and going through stuff.  And I still had a lot to prove."
 
From that point on, Riley was a full participant in every practice and every drill. Burton learned something on that day about his first recruit.
 
"I learned what coach Mitchell meant by she is a pit bull," he said. "If you have ever seen a pit bull bite something, they just don't stop. They are relentless. Khala Riley is relentless in her desire to be great. She is relentless in her work ethic. She is just somebody you don't want to mess with on the floor. If I am going into a fight and I've got to take some people from the team, you better believe Khala Riley is one of the people that I am taking with me because she has got a determination about her that doesn't stop."
 
Khalia, her motivating factor
 
Part of Riley's ability to be a full-time college student and college athlete is the support she receives from her parents. Khalia, Riley's daughter, lives with her grandparents. Riley makes trips every time she can to see her daughter and uses FaceTime to talk to her on the days she can't. Riley is grateful her parents do so much to help her.
 
"They pretty much do it all, everything," she said. "It means a lot to me because when I first found out I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't expect that from them. I knew they would help me but I didn't expect them to be as much help as they have been. It is really a blessing to have them supporting me in everything I do. They just want to see me do great. I feel like that is my motivation because everybody doesn't have parents that are going to step in like that."
 
After meeting with Riley and her mother after the news of her pregnancy, Burton was confident Riley would be able to focus on school and basketball because Riley's parents were on board with helping as much as possible. Burton knows the reason Riley had such a productive career was because she didn't have to worry about her daughter's needs.
 
"I knew this was going to work because her parents were on board with helping out," Burton said. "Her parents and her sister have been fabulous as far as being a support system. That is unique in itself. Her family dynamics have allowed her to be successful. You don't get to go off to college and have this career and be able to put in the work and the time and the energy and the effort that it takes to be as good as she is knowing you have a daughter at home and if you have to wonder if she is good."
 
Riley has put up career numbers her senior year and is the team leader. She leads the team in assists, steals, free throws and minutes and is close to the top in points and rebounds. Riley said she has several motivating factors to keep going despite the responsibilities she has as a player and a mother.
 
"My motivating factor is first of all, Khalia," she said. "I hear it from my mom all the time. You want her to have something to compete with when she gets older and starts playing sports. My sister is part of my motivation, I always want to do better than what she did. My parents because I don't want to disappoint them. And I don't want to let my team down at the end of the day."
 
The next step for mother and daughter
 
After Riley completes her master's degree, she looks forward to her opportunity to be a full-time mother. She knows her basketball career has kept her from seeing the small moments in the every day life of the first two years of her daughter's life. She looks forward to being there to see the rest of them.
 
"A lot of times when I go home, I feel like I am missing out," she said. "There is always something new when I go home. My sister and my mom say, 'oh, she can do this now.' I feel like I am missing out and I am not the one who is teaching it to her. That would mean a lot to me to be able to show her stuff on my own and teach her things."
 
Riley plans on using her degree to be a teacher and a basketball coach. But she guards another dream close to her heart and hopes to pursue it further.
 
"After this, hopefully, if I have the opportunity to play overseas or whatever, then I would definitely want to do that," she said. "I feel like that would be a good experience while I am young. Then hopefully I am coaching and teaching somewhere. I feel like it would be something I would love to do."
 
Burton knows, whatever she does, she will face it with the same competitive mentality that made her successful on the court. He knows nothing will stop Riley from being successful, as long as she puts her mind to doing something.
 
"You know she is going to be a great mom just because of her determination to be successful and to do whatever it takes to win in basketball and to win in life. That's her mentality. The thing about Khala is she is so accustomed to adversity. I think she is very good at being able to rise above whatever circumstance it is. She is determined to make sure that the time away from her daughter and the time she is investing in basketball and her education is well worth it."
 
Looking back on all the struggles she went through as a single parent and a student athlete, some might be tempted to wish things had gone differently. Despite the struggles, Riley sees the eventual triumphs.
 
"I wouldn't change anything because I feel like everything that has happened has built me to be the player and the person that I am today," she said. "I'm not upset about that at all."
 
A lasting legacy
 
With the career of his first recruit close to being in the books, Burton had an opportunity to think about her career and everything she has meant to both him and the program. While he hopes to recruit more players who are of the Khala Riley mold, he also understands what he has had on the sideline for the last three years, and how difficult it can be to find.
 
"You get those rare competitors that don't come along all the time," he said. "She is something special. She has another gear that she can tap into when she gets tired but the game is on the line. She goes there and she finds a will. Who she is as a person and her work ethic, she is who we want the players that we recruit to be like."
 
Burton loves the fact that Riley knows how good she is and how well she can play, but also loves her humility. She lets her play do the talking. Burton holds her in the highest regard– likening her play to LeBron James, based on how she seemingly always leads the stat sheet in so many areas and who affects the game in so many ways.
 
"You hope that you can get another player like this but like I said, they are rare," he said. "She is going to be one of the greatest players I have ever coached. I've coached men and women. I've coached a lot of good teams. And she goes right up there with the all-time great players that I have coached."
 
With all the conversations Riley and Burton have had, there is still one they haven't had. Both player and coach seem to think it isn't necessary. The unspoken appreciation on both sides is apparent. Riley appreciates Burton keeping her on the team her first year and he appreciates the leadership and legacy she has imprinted on the program that will last for years to come.
 
"I think she feels like, and she has never said this to me, but because she didn't play that first year, she is going to make sure that the investment that we made in her was worth it," he said with a tear in his eye. "We have never had that conversation and I don't think we ever will. But it was definitely worth it."