After competing as student athletes for the last five years on the Wayne State men’s basketball team, both Sean Stokes and Jay Saunders are still with the program. Now, it’s as assistant coaches. Stokes became a full-time assistant for the 2025-26 season while Saunders will serve as a graduate assistant. Both former players said it was the coaches that got them to come to Wayne State.
“I really believed in the coaches and the vision they had for me,” Stokes said. “Also, I didn’t have anything else going at the time. It was late June, and I didn’t have many choices. But Wayne State felt like a good choice for me.”
“I remember Coach Kaminsky first calling me the night after my high school team won a state championship,” Saunders said. “I got a call from a random number, and it was coach Kaminsky. It was a really cool experience.”
After spending five seasons in the program, the team atmosphere led the two to want to stay in Wayne.
“Wayne just felt like home in a lot of ways,” Saunders said. “The team and culture here, and the community allowed me to make a lot of great relationships, Sean being one.”
“The brotherhood was special,” Stokes said. “The coaching staff was very supportive of me on and off the court and they were like father figures to me. The community has always been very supportive of the team. When I had the opportunity to come back as a coach, it was a no-brainer.”
Stokes and Saunders said their processes of joining the coaching staff were very different.
“I knew I wanted to be a coach for a while,” Stokes said. “I think my senior year, I was trying to decide if I wanted to coach high school or college. I started to lean more toward college and made the decision. I knew the best way to start in college coaching was as a GA, so I met with the coaching staff after the season, and talked about my future.”
Head Coach Jeff Kaminsky said a last-minute coaching change led to Stokes coming on full time.
“We tried to establish a [grad-assistant position] for him,” Kaminsky said. “We knew we’d have to fundraise for that, but it would be worth it to have Sean. A full-time position opened up at the end of the school year because coach [Joel] Stryker took another job.”
“I really didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Saunders said. “Long term, I had planned on going home and try to see how I could stay around the game. Once the coaching staff presented the idea of the GA spot, it was too good to pass up.”
Kaminsky said that seeing Stokes and Saunders be leaders as players made it easier for him to have them join his staff.
“I have great trust in both of them,” Kaminsky said. “Their intellect from a basketball standpoint and the high character they both have… this has been maybe as clean a transition as I’ve ever had hiring a staff. They have a lot to learn but for me to have the opportunity to have two guys like that that I can help get their coaching careers started. They’re going to be a great benefit to our program.”