Dawn Staley Makes History
After a grueling season, South Carolina's women's head basketball coach, Dawn Staley, etched her name in history by clenching her third National Championship with the Gamecocks.
Against all odds, the Gamecocks, who had lost all five starters from the team that was defeated by Iowa in the Final Four, defied the skeptics. Initially ranked 6th in the preseason polls, Staley herself believed this was too high. Yet, with determination and resilience, they overcame the doubters and clinched the National Championship, a feat that seemed impossible at the start of the season.
Staley acknowledged the team's journey in an interview with CNN: "We'll be talked about a lot in the off-season. I'd much rather have it that way after having won another national championship."
https://twitter.com/UofSC/status/1777500619831431529
With names like Caitlin Clark, Juju Watkins, Paige Bueckers, Cam Brink, and Angel Reese, just to name a few, outshining them was going to be a tall task. With a mountain of doubt in front of them, Dawn Staley and South Caroline did the improbable — going undefeated, finishing the season at 38-0, and winning a National Title.
"I'm just super happy for our staff," said Staley. "They work really hard. They are incredible basketball... like, I think they're savants. I think they are always looking for ways in which to get our players better in a way that they can handle it, not in the way we see it, because the way we see it is probably...the way we would handle it would be difficult for them to actually learn and apply and execute in a basketball sense."
Staley isn't the first coach to go undefeated and likely won't be the last. Still, Staley has made history as the first Black head coach in men's or women's Division 1 basketball to finish a season undefeated. Additionally, Staley is also the first Black head coach, man or woman, to win three National Championships.
Blackness isn't something Coach Staley shies away from. It's no secret that Black coaches often get the short end of the stick when it comes to head coaching jobs. It's even tougher for Black women. That's why, throughout her career, she's tried (and succeeded) to uplift many Black coaches and pave the way for more to come.
There have only been a handful of truly dominant programs for women's basketball. Teams like Tennessee and UConn are the first to come to mind. Dawn Staley has now created another dominant program with South Carolina, and given who she is, it likely won't be the last time she makes history.