{"id":14573,"date":"2018-11-20T16:48:06","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T21:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/?p=14573"},"modified":"2018-11-26T11:32:46","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T16:32:46","slug":"how-dawn-staley-changed-the-culture-of-usc-womens-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/how-dawn-staley-changed-the-culture-of-usc-womens-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"How Dawn Staley changed the culture of USC women’s basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.91″ custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”2px|0px|8px|0px” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Featured Image caption” _builder_version=”3.17.3″ text_font=”|600|||||||” text_font_size=”12px”]<\/p>\n

A photo in Coach Dawn Staley’s office with a motivational quote by legendary NBA player John Wooden.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.92″ custom_padding=”2px|0px|37.9062px|0px” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|18.9531px|0px” custom_margin=”10px|||” _builder_version=”3.0.92″][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”News Story” _builder_version=”3.17.3″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|”]<\/p>\n

Dawn Staley believed the Gamecocks women\u2019s basketball team could win a national championship when she became the head coach in 2008. Staley knew that the journey wouldn\u2019t be easy, but she had enough patience to trust the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had a coaching desire in my life until I was challenged to turn the Temple Basketball program around,\u201d Staley said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

Staley coached the women\u2019s basketball team at Temple University from 2000 to 2008. Within those eight years, the Temple women\u2019s basketball team made six NCAA tournament appearances within the first and second rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really outgrow Temple,\u201d Staley said. \u201cBut for what I was trying to do in the coaching ranks, I just thought that South Carolina would give me the right ingredients to win a national championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

A shaky start\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Staley says that the first two years of her career felt like \u201cprofessional suicide\u201d because she wasn\u2019t able to recruit the current players on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the players at the time realized that this was a full-time thing,\u201d Staley said. \u201cBut as we got kids in here who wanted a great balance of wanting a pro career and loving basketball, things started turning around.\u201d<\/p>\n

The turning point for the Gamecocks was the 2011-2012 season when the women\u2019s basketball team made their first ever NCAA tournament appearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenior year, we made it to the Sweet 16 and that was probably one of our best years,\u201d said Courtney Newton-Gonzalez, who played for the Gamecocks from 2007 to 2012.<\/p>\n

The Gamecocks started making consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, but the team still needed more talented and motivated players to achieve their goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Coach Staley was an underdog early on in the season because they didn\u2019t have the talent they needed to win the national championship,\u201d said Debbie Antonelli, who has analyzed women\u2019s collegiate and professional basketball for 30 years.<\/p>\n

The 2014 \u2013 2015 season was the first time the Gamecocks became SEC tournament champions and made it to the NCAA Final Four. That season was also Aja Wilson\u2019s first year on the women\u2019s basketball team.<\/p>\n

\u201cA\u2019ja was that piece that really allowed S.C. to build where they are now,\u201d Antonelli said.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s basketball team continued to make consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and win consecutive SEC tournament championships.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Staley] kept building and believing and selling and working,\u201d Antonelli said. \u201cAnd because she did all those things in the journey, it allowed them to win a national championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2016 \u2013 2017 season was the year of the Gamecocks because they not only won the NCAA national championship, but they also had three players drafted into the WNBA.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an immediate proud moment because these players came to USC to increase their chances of having a professional career in the WNBA,\u201d Staley said.<\/p>\n

Staley also described it as a bittersweet moment because she thought that the team would have another year with Allisha Gray and Kaela Davis on the team.<\/p>\n

Gray and Davis both decided to enter the WNBA draft early and both were drafted by the Dallas Wings.
<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2017, the Gamecocks received more national recognition when the team was nominated for the \u201cBest Team\u201d ESPY award.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you win a national championship, you put yourself in the position to be seen in a national light,\u201d Staley said. \u201cIt feels good to be highlighted in that way but it also feels bad not to have won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season, the Gamecocks won their 4th<\/sup> consecutive SEC tournament championship and made it to the NCAA Elite Eight. The 2017-2018 season was also A\u2019ja Wilson\u2019s last year on the team due to her being drafted into the WNBA by the Las Vegas Aces as the No. 1 overall pick in 2018.<\/p>\n

The Gamecocks broke records by having the first top pick in program history and the 8th<\/sup> top pick in SEC history.<\/p>\n

Figuring out how to fill the seats\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Gamecock women\u2019s basketball team hasn\u2019t always had a huge fan base.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t lie, there weren\u2019t a lot of people in the stands when I played,\u201d Newton-Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

Typically, the only people who regularly attended women\u2019s basketball games were friends and family members. Staley however, says that she had blinders on when it came to attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really didn\u2019t care how many people were in the stands at that moment,\u201d Staley said. \u201cI was more concerned with turning the program around.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the team got better, the fan base got stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Dawn built a product that was capable of winning and succeeding at the highest level, the administration got behind her and supported it,\u201d Antonelli said. \u201cThe product became really good, the price, the promotion, and the distribution of the place became better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antonelli believes that Staley has worked hard to make South Carolina one of the best places for basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last four years, they\u2019ve led the nation in attendance and I expect them to do it again,\u201d Antonelli said.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s basketball team now has a strong fan base both in attendance and on social media. The Gamecocks have their own women\u2019s basketball logo and they refer to their fans as the \u201cG-Hive.”<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s no better way to reach our fans than through social media,\u201d Staley said. \u201cWe want to keep our fans updated on every aspect of our current and former players\u2019 lives because that\u2019s what helps us to build our brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staley also refers to the fans as their \u201cfams\u201d because the fans are loyal to the team as if they were related to them.<\/p>\n

Building professionals in all\u00a0aspects of life<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think Coach Staley is a brilliant teacher, and a role model. Somebody you\u2019d want your daughter to play for,\u201d Antonelli said. \u201cNot just what you\u2019re going to learn on the court but the lessons she\u2019s going to teach you off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staley has also proved to have a positive effect on both her current and former players because she believes in teaching them professionalism in every area of their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot every player is going to make it to the WNBA,\u201d Staley said. \u201cBut we want them to be professionals in other areas, no matter what they decide to do in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newton-Gonzalez, former women\u2019s basketball player, decided to follow Coach Staley\u2019s footsteps by becoming a high school basketball coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot from watching Coach Staley when she coached our team,\u201d Newton-Gonzalez said.\u00a0\u201cSo it wasn\u2019t too difficult for me to transition from being a player to being a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newton-Gonzalez coached at Lexington High School for one year before becoming the permanent girls\u2019 basketball head coach at Flowery Branch High School, located in Flowery Branch, GA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I learned from Coach Staley was discipline, perseverance, and believing that I can do anything I set my mind to,\u201d Newton-Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

The Future of Women\u2019s Basketball<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that Staley has changed the culture of women\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [Coach Staley] is one of the iconic people in our game,\u201d Antonelli said. \u201cShe\u2019s one of the most decorated athletes we\u2019ve ever had. She\u2019s proven on the court as a player and on the sideline as a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staley has been coaching the Gamecocks for 11 years and she doesn\u2019t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.<\/p>\n

The city of Columbia labeled parts of Lincoln Street, near Colonial Life Arena, as \u201cDawn Staley Way.”<\/p>\n

USC President Harris Pastides also announced that the school would be building a statue for former Gamecock A\u2019ja Wilson.<\/p>\n

The Gamecocks women\u2019s basketball team may have started out as underdogs, but Dawn Staley always believed in her team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come from a place where you have to beat the odds no matter what you\u2019re doing in life,\u201d Staley said.<\/p>\n

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USC women’s basketball team won their first national championship in 2017.<\/p>\n

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The city of Columbia honored Dawn Staley’s accomplishments by naming a street after her that is located near Colonial Life Arena.<\/p>\n

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Dawn Staley has put the USC women’s basketball program on the map with a combination of hard work, grit and determination. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":14577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[70,38,69,66],"tags":[413],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14573"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15264,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14573\/revisions\/15264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}