By MELISSA MURPHY, AP Sports Author
NEW YORK (AP) — South Carolina coach Dawn Staley’s busy offseason after winning a second NCAA basketball title has included savoring the victory, lining up team-wide NIL deals and supporting coaches of color.
Nearly 80 Black coaches have received pieces of the winning nets from Staley since April, and he or she plans handy out more to Black sports journalists in the longer term.
On Wednesday night, she’ll be on the receiving end of other accolades. Staley will accept the Billie Jean King Leadership Award on the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Annual Salute to Women in Sports.
She recently guided the U.S. women’s basketball team to its seventh straight gold medal on the Tokyo Olympics. A 5-foot-6 floor general at Virginia and six-time WNBA All-Star, Staley won three Olympic golds during her playing profession.
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The Philadelphia native turned around struggling programs at Temple and South Carolina, and the latter now boasts a number of the highest attendance within the nation. She watched her former South Carolina star A’ja Wilson win the WNBA title with the Las Vegas Aces and earn MVP honors last month.
Now among the many highest-paid coaches in women’s basketball, the 52-year-old Staley enters her fifteenth season on the helm.
The Naismith Hall of Famer talked to The Associated Press about role models, supporting the community and her 5-year-old Havanese dog named “Champ.” Comments have been edited for brevity.
AP: Why was it vital handy out pieces of the NCAA title net to coaches of color?
STALEY: It began with (1999 NCAA-winning Purdue coach) Carolyn Peck giving me her piece of the online a number of years ahead of our 2017 national championship. Someone had done that for her, and he or she desired to pay it forward. After we won in 2017, I desired to keep that tradition alive. I knew what that tangible piece of the online did for me — gave me a relentless reminder of what we were working toward, kept me focused. We tried to get everyone, but we definitely got notes from those we missed, and got pieces out to them, too.
AP: What motivates you to acknowledge Black sports journalists with a bit of the online?
STALEY: It’s similar to the motivation for Black head coaches. I do know what it’s wish to move in an area that’s not all the time built for you or understands your specific path or struggle. So, I would like those journalists who’re so vital to giving a voice to the athletes and programs they cover to have that tangible reminder that whatever goal they’re working toward could be achieved in the event that they keep focused on it.
AP: You’ve got advocated for more coaches of color. How would you assess the present situation?
STALEY: It’s turn into more popular to rent a Black coach. However it’s a cycle — it’s at a spot where it was perhaps 10 years ago. The numbers are trending up but not nearly where it must be with having so many student-athletes which might be Black. I’m not condemning anybody else, but when there are a certain variety of Black student-athletes you’re coaching, I feel they should see someone who represents them.
AP: Female coaches for girls’s sports was the norm within the Seventies, at about 90%, before the NCAA took over governance of ladies’s sports within the Eighties. Now it’s only about 41%. How does the hiring make a difference?
STALEY: Absolutely. Let me just say no fault of any male AD since you hire who you already know. The more people you already know and the more diverse people you already know, the more apt you’ll learn enough to rent someone.
AP: What makes the South Carolina women’s basketball program so strong?
STALEY: Longevity. I’ve had two ADs, three presidents and just about the senior staff has been very just like the past few years. It helps when you may have continuity inside your athletic department, people know who you’re and what you stand for and helps move the chain a little bit bit.
AP: Studies suggest diversity makes universities and firms stronger, offering a wide range of voices and abilities. Have you ever experienced that in your profession — slow progress toward a more diverse table?
STALEY: No. I mean, it’s what it’s. It’s not going to alter until we’re intentional. But we’re not there yet. When there’s one or two people who find themselves on the senior staff that’s diverse and you already know there are eight other less-diverse those who are on senior staff, you’re 20% of the room. You’re just giving an opinion. Nothing goes to alter.
AP: Together with individual contracts for name, image and likeness (NIL), there are team-wide deals at South Carolina so all players get NIL dollars?
STAELY: We’ve been having some pretty good success partnering with individuals who feel all-team deals are a terrific thing. We just signed a deal giving all our players a minimum of $25,000. We partnered with an organization called Rewind that has given our players equity in ownership. It’s a startup company (concerned with) diabetes because diabetes could be very prevalent in South Carolina. Our players will bring awareness to Type 2 diabetes, so there might be generational health in people of our community.
AP: How’s Champ? Still stealing the show?
STALEY: It’s his fifth birthday. Champ is a giver. So, we’ll probably partner with a pet orphanage here in Columbia. Bring awareness to that. Go adopt a pet.
More AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
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