Dawn Staley

Dawn Staley

Dawn Michelle Staley (born May 4, 1970) is an American basketball Hall of Fame player and coach, who is currently the head coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks. Staley is a four-time Olympic gold medalist, winning three as a player and one as head coach. Staley was elected to carry the United States flag at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics. After playing point guard for the University of Virginia under Debbie Ryan, and winning the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, she went to play professionally in the American Basketball League and the WNBA. In 2011, Staley was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history. Staley was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. She was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. While still a WNBA player, she started coaching the Temple University Owls women's basketball team in 2000. In eight years at Temple, she led the program to six NCAA tournaments, three regular season conference championships, and four conference tournament titles. On May 7, 2008, she was named head coach for women's basketball at the University of South Carolina. Staley built South Carolina from the ground up, over the following six seasons, she improved her program's record every year, culminated by winning the SEC in 2013–2014. In late 2014 her team achieved the program's first #1 ranking, making her only the second individual to both play on and coach a #1 ranked team. Staley has gone on to lead South Carolina to five SEC regular season championships, six SEC tournament championships, seven Sweet Sixteens, three Final Fours, and on April 2, 2017, she guided the South Carolina Gamecocks to the program's first NCAA Women's Basketball National Championship. On April 2, 2020, Staley bec

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