In honor of Women's History Month, who better to pay respect to than a woman who has an incredible impact of the game both as a player and as a coach. That woman is none other than the legendary Hall of Fame player and coach, Dawn Staley. Staley has been a winner her entire basketball life, whether in the Olympics or the collegiate level, her impact has been felt. For this article, I will highlight the incredible achievements of Dawn Staley's career from her early days in Philadelphia to her current role as head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks.
Dawn Staley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 4th, 1970 and started playing basketball at Dobbins Tech High School. In her senior year, Staley was named high school player of the year before going to college where she attended the University of Virginia. In her college career, she averaged 16.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game and finished as the school's all-time scoring leader and as the ACC's all-time leader in assists at 729. Staley led her team to the NCAA tournament all 4 years she was there where she made 3 final four appearances. After graduating with a degree in Rhetoric and Communication Studies, her number 24 was later retired by the University of Virginia on April 20th, 1993.
While in college, Staley was named to the USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team. She competed with USA basketball team in events such as winning the gold medal as part of the 1992 Jones Cup Team. In 1994, she was named the USA Basketball Female Athlete Of The Year after competing in World Championships. One of the famous achievements of her career was leading the 1996 USA Women's Olympic basketball team to the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The legendary group went an incredible 60-0 and was a major part of why women's basketball got more recognition which eventually led to the creation of the WNBA. Staley won 2 more Olympic gold medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney followed by the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She won yet another USA Basketball Athlete Of The Year in 2004 for her performance in the Olympics that year.
Before the WNBA, Staley was first part of the American Basketball league where she played for the Richmond Rage. She led her team to the ABL finals in 1997 and was a 2 time ABL All-Star. Her ABL career was short lived as she was drafted with the 9th pick in the 1999 WNBA draft by the Charlotte Sting. In her rookie year, she averaged a career high in scoring of 11.5 points per game and in 2001 led the Sting to the championship game in WNBA playoffs. After playing 7 seasons with the Sting, Staley played her final WNBA season with the Houston Comets after being traded on August 1st, 2005. The Comets made the playoffs but were swept the Sacramento Monarchs, ending Staley's Hall of Fame basketball career. Staley finished her career as a 6-time All-Star in 8 WNBA seasons with Sting and Comets. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA. A year later, she was inducted to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2013, she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
It may be hard to believe now but there was a time that Staley did not see herself as a head coach. Fortunately, for college basketball, she changed her mind. After initially declining offers, she decided to begin her head coaching career at Temple University while still playing in the WNBA. Motivated by the challenge of being both a coach and active player, she quickly found success as coach leading her team to NCAA in 2001, 2002, and 2004. In the 2004-05, Staley reached the 100 win plateau faster than any female coach in college basketball in history. In that same season, Staley led the Temple Owls to 28-4 record and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament where they lost to Rutgers University. Before leaving Temple for an open position at the University of South Carolina, she finished with the best overall record in Temple history at 172-80. She also made 6 NCAA tournament appearances and won Atlantic 10 conference titles.
At South Carolina, Staley took the opportunity to build a program from the ground up where despite winning just 10 games in the 2008-09 managed to steadily improve the team each season. In just her fourth season as the Gamecocks head coach, Staley led them to a 25 win season and a Sweet Sixteen appearance in the NCAA tournament. Over the next couple seasons, Staley led them to consecutive NCAA tournament appearances eventually leading the program's first number 1 ranking and all the way to the Final Four in the 2014-15 season. They made it back to the tournament a year later but were defeated by Syracuse in the Sweet Sixteen.
In the 2016-17 season, Staley and the Gamecocks would not be denied as they dominated the SEC conference for the third year in a row and made it back to the Final Four for the second time in school history. In her first NCAA championship appearance as a coach, Staley's Gamecocks defeated conference rival Mississippi State in the National Championship game to win the first national title in school history. With the win, Staley became just the second black woman to lead a women's basketball team to a National Championship since Carolyn Peck led Purdue to a championship win in 1999. Staley would later win the NCAA championship again in the 21-22 season in a legendary run. Staley's Gamecocks defeated Geno Auriemma's University of Connecticut Huskies becoming the first coach to defeat Auriemma, Tara VanDerveer, and Kim Mulkey in the same season. With Staley as the head coach, the Gamecocks program has won five SEC regular season championships, seven SEC tournament titles, four Final Fours, two NCAA National Championships, seven sweet sixteen appearances, five SEC player of the year awards and five SEC freshman of the year awards.
Dawn Staley's coaching career is bigger than just her collegiate success as she also has a legendary career as head coach for the USA Women's basketball team. In 2006, Staley served as the assistant coach where she was a part of two gold medal winning Olympic teams. On March 10, 2017, Staley became head coach of the USA National team. She made her first Olympic appearance as head coach at the 2020 Summer Olympics where she won her first gold medal as head coach. Team USA won all 6 games extending Staley's undefeated record as head coach to 45-0.
The career of Dawn Staley has and continues to leave a huge impact on women's basketball and the game as a whole. She has been a true trailblazer and inspiring pioneer for her accomplishments both as a player and as a head coach. Her Hall of Fame legacy is defined by her toughness, leadership, and will to win as she continues to lead the South Carolina Gamecocks along with Team USA to consistent success.
Source- South Carolina Gamecocks YouTube Channel
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