At the end of Sunday night’s NCAA women’s basketball championship game, we all knew we had witnessed something special in Dawn Staley and her South Carolina Gamecocks team.
Not only did they hand Geno Auriemma and UConn their first-ever loss in an NCAA basketball championship game, but they also won their second title in program history.
But even more impressively, Staley became the only Black coach, male or female, to win multiple titles in NCAA D1 basketball. Only the late, great John Thompson came close to accomplishing that feat in 1985 but lost to Villanova.
Staley’s basketball resume is one of the most impressive in history, male or female.
NCAA Championship Coach (2017, 2022).
Two-time Naismith Coach of the Year (2020, 2022)
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer (2013).
Three-time Olympic Gold Medalist (1996, 2000, 2004).
Five-time WNBA All-Star (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006).
WNBA All-Decade Team.
Two-time Naismith Trophy winner (1991, 1992).
National High School Player of the Year (1988).
And those are just a few of the accolades she’s accumulated in a basketball career spanning over four decades.
If you know Staley’s story, you’re aware of her rise from playing on a wooden backboard with a crate in the rough streets of North Philly to the University of Virginia.
Staley has been a leader her entire career, both on the hardwood and off of it. She led as a point guard and then employed those skills in coaching, first at Temple University in her hometown of Philadelphia in 2000.
Her 172-80 record with the Owls is impressive enough, but when you consider that she also played in the WNBA during this time, it becomes even more significant.
Then in 2008, South Carolina called and she answered.
It was a new opportunity to build a program that had experienced relative success.
In their modern history, which began in 1974, the Gamecocks had six coaches prior to Staley’s arrival. Of those coaches, four of them led the program to winning records. They had made the NCAA Tournament a few times but made the Elite Eight only once.
Enter Dawn Staley, the bringer of change.
Under her 14-year leadership, the Gamecocks have made the NCAA tournament 10 times, and it would have been 11 had Covid not forced the cancellation in the 2019-20 season. That year South Carolina was 32-1 and ranked #1 overall.
Being ranked #1 is the norm for Staley’s Gamecocks, as they achieved that ranking six times during her tenure.
She led them to the school’s first title in 2017 and probably would have won a second title had Covid not interfered.
But even that couldn’t deter Staley from leading.
She was active during the social justice movement that swept across the country after George Floyd was murdered and a year later continued her activism, this time in the fight for equality for women’s sports.
When we talk about athletes who have changed basketball culture, names such as Dr. J, Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and Steph Curry circulate.
After last night’s historic win, Dawn Staley’s name must be included in those discussions for she has changed the culture of both women’s basketball and basketball coaching as a whole.
That’s one of the reasons why South Carolina made Staley “the highest paid African-American head coach in her sport and one of the highest paid women’s basketball coaches in the country,” with a seven-year, $22.4 million deal this past October.
And she rewarded them with a second NCAA title.
Staley recognizes her position, particularly as a Black coach, and fully embraces the role, refusing to leave others behind.
“I’ve been thinking, some of our Black male coaches, they don’t get the opportunity, and I’m also going to – I’m going to take it a step further,” said Staley. “Some of our Black journalists don’t get an opportunity to elevate. So we’re going to try to cut this net up, give them a piece of it, and just hope that it will be something that they can utilize to advance in the area that their heart desires to in their field.”
Dawn Staley continues the journey started by coaches like John Thompson and C. Vivian Stringer.
She ensured that Carolyn Peck’s achievement of becoming the first Black woman head coach to win an NCAA D1 basketball title would not be a one-time occurrence.
And most importantly, she’s kicking open doors and bringing others through with her so that more are given the opportunities they were once denied.
