Dawn Staley says that basketball and her accomplishments give her a “platform for me to be a ray of hope to people who are forgotten.” (Photo courtesy of South Carolina Athletics Media Relations)
Having just completed her 15th season as a Division I women’s basketball coach, Staley’s annual goal is achieving something she never achieved as a player—winning an NCAA title.
Falling short of that goal—despite leading her University of Virginia team to three Final Fours and one national championship game—haunted her. It also propelled her to attain greatness on the world stage—winning three Olympic gold medals. She has been inducted into both the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Now head coach at the University of South Carolina, Staley kept the Gamecocks poised and focused during an intensely competitive season, including several weeks as the top-ranked team in the nation. Her team reached the Final Four, losing 66-65 to eventual runner-up Notre Dame.
Staley keeps her players balanced and on an even keel. Basketball is her passion and focus, which makes it all the more intriguing that she never envisioned a career in coaching.
“All of my friends who were coaches, their teams consumed them,” says Staley, who majored in rhetoric and communication studies at Virginia. “I’d say, ‘You guys need to get a life. There’s more going on besides what’s going on with your team.’ Then I got challenged. Once I did, I was drawn to it. I’m driven by challenges. Now that I’ve experienced the other side of it, I don’t know why it took me so long to make the move into coaching.
“It’s more than Xs and Os; it’s being a dream merchant for young people,” she continues. “It is being able to help them navigate through life and giving them lessons they’ll always have to use when they’re challenged with something that happens in the real world.”
