38 Facts About Dawn Staley

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

Dawn Staley was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.

Dawn Staley was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.

Dawn 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.

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

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

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

Dawn Staley finished her college career with 2,135 points and held the NCAA record for career steals with 454.

Dawn Staley 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.

Dawn Staley was named to the USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team.

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

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

Dawn Staley competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 1992 Jones Cup Team that won the Gold in Taipei.

Dawn Staley was a member of the 2000 Olympic team that defended the gold medal.

Dawn Staley was selected to represent the United States at the 1995 USA Women's Pan American Games, but only four teams committed to participate, so the event was cancelled.

Dawn Staley was named to the United States national team in 1998.

Dawn Staley averaged 7.0 points per game and made a record 52 assists.

In 2002, Dawn Staley was named to the national team which competed in the World Championships in Zhangjiagang, Changzhou, and Nanjing, China.

Dawn Staley scored 4.9 points per game, and recorded a team-high 24 assists.

Dawn Staley won a third gold medal with Team USA at the 2004 Games in Athens.

Dawn Staley announced before the start of the WNBA season that she would be retiring after the Comets' season was over.

Dawn Staley had no interest in coaching when she was initially approached by the athletic director of Temple University, Dave O'Brien.

Dawn Staley was on the Olympic team at the time which was attending the Final Four in Philadelphia.

O'Brien, mindful that Dawn Staley was a Philadelphia native and star basketball player at Philadelphia's Dobbins Technical High School, talked her into visiting the campus, where she was guided to a conference room with a dozen people who were treating her visit as a job interview.

Dawn Staley was still playing in the WNBA at the time and her friends told her it would be impossible to continue to play and coach.

Dawn Staley reached the 100-win plateau in the A-10 Semifinals vs Xavier University that season, becoming the fastest coach in women's basketball to achieve that feat.

On May 7,2008, it was confirmed by Temple University that Dawn Staley would leave Temple for the recently vacated coaching position at the University of South Carolina.

Dawn Staley became the second African American to lead a women's basketball team to a national championship; Carolyn Peck had coached Purdue to the 1999 national championship.

Dawn Staley herself has been awarded SEC coach of the year five times.

Dawn Staley swept the National Coach of the year awards in 2020, she is the first person to win the Naismith award as a player, and as a coach.

On October 15,2021, Dawn Staley signed a massive seven-year, $22.4 million contract extension with South Carolina, making her the highest paid Black college basketball coach in the country.

Dawn Staley is the first coach to defeat Geno Auriemma, Tara VanDerveer and Kim Mulkey in the same season.

Dawn Staley was again named Naismith Award winner, and coached the National Player of the Year Aliyah Boston.

Dawn Staley served as an assistant coach for the USA National team in 2006, a team in transition.

Sheryl Swoopes was available but hampered by injuries, with Dawn Staley transitioning from player to coach.

Dawn Staley shared the award with Sean Miller who coached the U19 men's team to a gold medal.

Dawn Staley served as an assistant coach under Team USA head coach Geno Auriemma for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and helped the Americans win their sixth straight gold medal in women's basketball and eighth in their past nine Olympic appearances.

Dawn Staley owns a Havanese dog named Champ, who has his own Twitter account, and frequently visits practices.