NCCU women's basketball team become Raleigh firefighters for the day

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- On Sunday, Kiyana Brown and her teammates from the North Carolina Central women's basketball team successfully put out a fake fire outside a fire station in Raleigh.

"It was anxious. It was fun," said Brown, a junior at NCCU. "I never thought we would be in a fire station. "We're learning the odds and ins of the firefighter world. The day in the life of a firefighter. We got to build a fire hose and put out a fire. And we got to learn how to work together a team and communicate."

It's a once in a lifetime moment for these young women and women of color athletes to understand and appreciate the experience of first responders.

These ladies working as a group to put on firefighter's gear and respond to an emergency, just as some of the professional firefighters were rushed away to a real one.

The exercise was organized by NCCU's head women's basketball coach Trisha Stafford-Odom.

She and the other coaches and staff watched the team from the sidelines, carefully analyzing the women's personality, how they lead, how they follow, and how they react under pressure.

"As head coach, I say ok that's a pretty clever way of thinking. That's a leadership quality. Some people fold and you can't find them and they just go with the group. So we are able to translate those things back to game situations, practice situations," said Stafford-Odom.

Most importantly, Stafford-Odom says she hopes it touches the team the value of respect and teamwork both on and off the court.