Coach hopes new honor will protect women’s basketball, help bring recruits to Columbia
For Dawn Staley, basketball has always been a part of life. Throughout her long playing and coaching career, which started in Philadelphia, Pa., Staley has won her fair share of awards and has even carried the American flag during the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympics.
Over the weekend, Staley may have accomplished something that tops all of her previous milestones.
The sixth-year South Carolina women’s basketball coach was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, becoming one of just 15 women basketball players who were inducted because of their individual achievements.
“You add instant credibility when you’re a Hall-of-Famer,” Staley said. “I always use basketball as a platform to change lives and get in doors that I couldn’t. But mainly just to help people that are more in need.”
Staley said she can relate with those people, because she was a person who came from a poor neighborhood and she had people to help her get to where she is today.
While the weekend was a special and honorable occasion for Staley, it didn’t come without a fair share of butterflies.
“Speeches really turn me into a different person,” Staley said. “I’m not one that is very comfortable in front of the microphone and then being on live television among so many great players who went before me. Obviously, it was a pretty big deal and I didn’t want to disappoint.”
Staley said she met a lot of great people over the weekend, and while she had already met many of them, it was a different feeling to join them as a Hall-of-Famer and she knows she had a lot of help along the way.
“As athletes, we’re confident people,” Staley said. “We kind of want to think that we did this thing alone, but you can’t become who you become in a team sport.”
Now that Staley is back in Columbia, she is able to no longer be nervous. Things didn’t take long to get back to normal, as she said she had to go back out recruiting on Monday.
However, the experience will be something that Staley will forever cherish and it is a reward of hard work and dedication.
“I hope this honor protects women’s basketball,” Staley said. “I hope little girls will be able to approach the game like I approached the game, because I didn’t cut corners. It was a process for me in which I was just living out my passion. And I think if you live out your passion and you love something, whatever it is, you’re going to find your way to successes that you would have never imagined or believe.”
Staley said she hopes recruits saw her speech because it “came from the heart.” And while this has been a busy offseason for Staley, she is now turning the focus to recruiting and the upcoming season.
The new accomplishment for Staley will no doubt help with recruiting, and she said she plans on putting her trophy in her office where recruits will be able to see it.
It is Staley’s hopes that she will be able to lure future Hall-of-Famers to Columbia.
“We need to identify who those people are so they can take South Carolina to places that this hall of fame has taken me as an individual.”