“I was more scared of my mother more than anybody on earth”: When Dawn Staley got candid about relationship with her mom growing up

South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley just suffered a major setback in her team's national title repeat bid in the 2024-2025 season. On Sunday, Feb. 16, the now sixth-ranked program in the nation was blown out at home, 87-58, by the now fifth-ranked UConn Huskies. South Carolina fell to an 11-1 SEC record this year, 23-4 overall thus far.

Even with harsh defeat, Staley and Co.'s goal of back-to-back national championships remains the same, as apart from the Huskies loss, the team was previously able to score huge wins against the likes of the LSU Tigers. However, this success stems from a certain kind of upbringing for the 54-year-old tactician.

During an episode of Finding Mastery on YouTube in August 2021, Staley spoke to host Michael Gervais about her relationship with her mother, Estelle.

"Here's the biggest thing, what's missing in homes today that I had in my home: I was more scared of my mother more than anybody on earth. So, when you fear your parents, you're not going to stray out when you're out of their sight," Staley explained. (8:30)

"You're not going to stray from the very things that they taught in you in that household because you don't want to make them look bad, you don't want a beating. You don't want to break the sanctity of what the Staley family was all about," she added.

Staley also detailed how her mother defined what it is to be a part of their family, opting to use actions more than words.

"There were actions. My mother was a woman of few words. You look at her face, her facial expressions will tell it all. If you do something within her sight, anything that's within reach, a shoe, an iron, an extension cord, she used that. We were well-aware of when we knew we've cross the line in any way," she shared. (9:00)

Perhaps, this kind of upbringing is what propelled Staley to be as tough as she is, being an accomplished basketball player and coach at collegiate, professional and national levels.

Dawn Staley details how she uses her mother's ways of upbringing in her life

Later in the interview, Dawn Staley shared how she uses her upbringing to her advantage in the real world. She went on to talk about how she and her close ones intricately choose which people to trust.

"I just utilized that by being observant and aware of my surroundings and the people. We're not a very trusting family or neighborhood. We built that, we built that trust with how we grew up and how we treated each other. It just wasn't because we lived in the same neighborhood," Staley shared. (9:46)

The South Carolina Gamecocks return to action on Thursday, Feb. 20, with the aim of getting back into the SEC win column, against the unranked Arkansas Razorbacks on their home floor.