From the sidelines, Airman 1st Class Nikkita Lester, 624th Operations Center cyber systems administrator, commands the center’s intramural basketball team to get back on defense as a joint personal property shipping offices player seizes a rebound during a Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland Intramural Basketball West Division matchup.
Wearing a gray fleece sweater, she later shouts “easy, white; easy” – referring to the color of her team’s jerseys – to ensure the team is wise with their shot selection.
Then, she sternly instructs them to take care of the ball after the JPPSO ties the game 42-42 with 2:56 left in the second half. Directing the offense and defense is a natural fit for Lester, a former college point guard.
“As a point guard, you have to know the court and game all around,” said Lester, who played basketball for two years at Heston College before joining the Air Force in 2015. “You have to be a leader and know all the plays for everyone. You set the tone for the offense. Everyone looks to and depends on you to control the ball when the team is in trouble. To be depended on and be good at what you do makes you feel humbled.”
Lester has guided the 624th OC to a 3-3 record in the West Division early this season. She originally held a dual role of both player and coach early in the season before her teammates suggested she settle into the coaching seat full time..
Earning the trust of players as a young Airman was a shock, Lester said. They don’t argue with me or tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to basketball,” she said. “They are respectful men and I appreciate that about them. I know they want to make me a better person and coach. It’s humbling that they listen to me.”
Capt. Eric Griffin, 624th OC strategic cyber planner, said Lester was chosen for the coaching role to increase her responsibilities as a young Airman in addition to her knowledge of basketball.
He has been impressed with her leadership so far.
“Lester has 100 percent taken the role and run with it,” Griffin said. “We don’t see her rank and gender, to be honest. As a collective unit, we need one person to listen to and she has been that since day one. Whatever she says goes.”
Griffin’s teammate, Tech. Sgt. Arthur Ross, 690th Network Support Squadron flight chief for the Air Force Information Network Mission Assurance Center agreed.
“We respect Lester as a person and her knowledge of the game,” he said. “She knows what she’s doing. It is very easy to follow a person like that.”
Lester said she models her leadership skills after Stephen Curry, the 2015 NBA Most Valuable Player and NBA Champion with the Golden State Warriors, and her former high school coach.
“Curry is an all-around good player and has so much confidence in himself,” she explained. “I respect the fact he utilizes his teammates, as basketball is a team sport.
“My coach taught us how to play hard with no fear and she always made us work hard for everything. I look up to her now, but of course back then I didn’t realize how much I would appreciate all the things I believed were pointless at the time.”
Lester credits her team’s own basketball knowledge for making her job easier.
“It’s nice to know what they are good at,” she said. “It’s nice that the team can come to an agreement about playing man-to-man or zone defense. If they do something wrong, they talk it out, and that makes things easier for me.”
Lester hopes the 624th OC’s selflessness will lead to a base intramural basketball playoff berth.
“This team has a lot of room to grow,” she said. “As long as we keep our chemistry and morale up, we have the potential to go to the playoffs.”
Teammates like Ross are backing Lester up on her postseason hopes. Ross agreed it would be “awesome” for the team to earn a playoff berth with Lester at the helm, reiterating her basketball knowledge as the key reason for their potential success.
“Lester is not out there trying to be a figurehead,” he explained. “She knows basketball and how to sub guys out when the time is right.”