Dawn Staley is an American basketball hall of fame player and coach. Staley is a three-time Olympian and 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. 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 six 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 the University of South Carolina women’s head basketball coach. Over the following six seasons, she improved her program’s record every year, up to 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.
In 2015, she was announced as one of the Assistant Coaches for Team USA in Rio 2016.
Our FCN Media Team in the US caught up with Dawn at the recent USA Basketball Team Showcase just before the start of the Olympic Games to ask her about her coaching journey and any advice she has for other female coaches…
MyWSports was founded to provide a resource for women sports fans access to information and updates on their favorite leagues, teams and players. Founded in 2013, MyWSports is the first multimedia platform allowing fans on the go access to women’s athletics. MyWSports Inc. is the first women’s sports network, which provides, features, profiles, videos, interviews about all professional leagues including but not limited to: IWFL, WFA, LPGA, NWHL, CWHL, NWSL, NPF, WTA, UWLX and NCAA women’s athletics. This website is dedicated to all things women’s athletics and will continue the growth of media coverage on women’s sports.
