Dawn Staley

Her parents, Clarence and Estelle Staley, moved to North Philadelphia from South Carolina in the 1950s, when they were still teenagers.

They married young and in 1967 moved into a three-bedroom, single-bath row house in the Raymond Rosen Homes housing project.

Together, Clarence, a part-time carpenter, and Estelle, a homemaker, raised five children--three boys; Lawrence, Anthony, Eric and two girls; Tracey, and Dawn.

Fearful of her disciplinarian mother, who was of faith and would not spare the rod, Staley knew to "abide by her rules, you lived clean. You’re good. You live a happy life".

Staley was named the national high school player of the year during her final season at Murrell Dobbins Vocational High School in Philadelphia.

Staley attended the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, Virginia, from which she earned her degree in Rhetoric and Communication Studies.

During her four seasons in college, she led her team to four NCAA Tournaments, three Final Fours and one National Championship game.

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 won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA as a player and later was head coach of another U.S. gold-medal winning team.

The team participated in the second Junior World Championship, held in Bilbao, Spain, in July 1989.

Team USA lost their opening game to South Korea in overtime, then lost a two-point game to Australia.

After defeating Bulgaria, Team USA lost another close game, this time to Czechoslovakia by three points.

The team followed that loss with a victory against Zaire, but dropped its final game to Spain, again by three points.

Staley averaged 10.8 points per game and recorded 14 steals over the course of the event, both second-highest on the team.

The Americans finished the tournament in seventh place.

She was named the ACC female athlete of the year and the national player of the year in 1991 and 1992.

Staley finished her college career with 2,135 points and held the NCAA record for career steals with 454 (which has since been broken by current record holder, Natalie White).

She finished her career at Virginia as the school's all-time scoring leader and as the ACC's all-time leader in assists at 729, but those records have since been broken by former UVA stars Monica Wright and Sharnee Zoll, respectively.

Her number 24 is retired at UVA.

Staley was named to the team representing the United States at the World University Games held during July 1991 in Sheffield, England.

In 1994–1995, after graduation, Staley played professional basketball in France in Tarbes, Italy, Brazil, and Spain before joining the ABL and then the WNBA.

Staley was named to the USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team (now called the U19 team).

After playing point guard for the University of Virginia under Debbie Ryan, and winning the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, she went on to play professionally in the American Basketball League and the WNBA.

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.

Staley was elected to carry the United States flag at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics.

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.

In 2011, fans named Staley 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.

In her first six seasons as head coach, she improved her program's record every year, 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 six SEC regular season championships, six SEC tournament championships, eight Sweet Sixteens, four Final Fours, and two NCAA Women's Basketball National Championships.

Staley served as the United States women's national team head coach from 2017–2021, finishing with a perfect 45–0 record, before returning full time to South Carolina.

On April 2, 2020, Staley became the first person to win the Naismith Award as both a player and a coach.

She also won the other three major National Coach of the Year awards after she led her team to a 32 win season and a final ranking of #1 in both major polls.

In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Staley won her first gold medal as head coach for Team USA, and fourth overall, winning all six games.

On April 3, 2022, Staley led the Gamecocks to their 2nd national title with a 64–49 win over UConn, finishing the season 35–2 and being ranked #1 in both major polls for the entire season.

Staley again would be named Naismith Award winner as the best coach in the nation for 2022.