5 iconic achievements on Dawn Staley's stacked resume as South Carolina coach celebrates her 54th birthday

Modified May 05, 2024 20:47 GMT

Dawn Staley: 4x Naismith Coach of the Year

Dawn Staley celebrated her 54th birthday this past Saturday. The current coach of the South Carolina women's basketball team has broken numerous records during her illustrious coaching career. She was an outstanding player on the court herself and secured many accolades in her day.

On her birthday, SEC Network along with ESPN and South Carolina social media handles took to Instagram to wish her by posting a picture that listed her basketball career achievements, both as a coach and a player. Her accolades, as posted by SEC Network, included:

3x NCAA Women's Tournament Champion (2017, 2022, 2024)
6 Final Four appearances (2015, 2017, 2021-24)
4x Naismith Coach of the Year
8x SEC tournament champ
15 WNBA draft picks
6x WNBA All-Star
3x Olympic gold medalist as both a coach and player
2x Naismith College POY
Led Virginia to 3 Final Four appearances as a player
Basketball HOF inductee

Let's talk a bit more about her 5 iconic achievements from the list.

5 Dawn Staley records that stand out

#1, 3x NCAA Women's Tournament Champion

NCAA Womens Basketball: Final Four National Championship-Iowa vs South Carolina

Most players or coaches wish to win at least one NCAA title throughout their collegiate career. Here we have Dawn Staley who won it three times. She won the NCAA title with South Carolina in 2017, 2022, and 2024.

In 2017, the Gamecocks were the regular-season and tournament champions for the third time in a row. In that season, they defeated Mississippi State in the title game by a score of 55-67 to win their first-ever NCAA title in program history.

In the 2022 NCAA tournament, Staley became the first coach ever to defeat Geno Auriemma, Tara VanDerveer, and Kim Mulkey in the same season. South Carolina defeated UConn in the title game by 64-49.

Dawn Staley went undefeated in 2024, bagging the NCAA title against Caitlin Clark's Iowa by a score of 87-75.

#2, 4x Naismith Coach of the Year

NCAA Womens Basketball: 2024 Naismith Awards Presentation

Dawn Staley won her first Naismith Coach of the Year in 2020 and became the first person ever to win the Naismith award both as a coach and player, after winning the award in 1991 and 1992 as a player. After this, she went on to win the award in three consecutive years from 2022 to 2024 with South Carolina.

#3, 8x SEC Tournament Championships

Dawn Staley led South Carolina to win 4 consecutive SEC tournament championships in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. The other four championships came in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024. The most remarkable of all was the 2024 championship as South Carolina were undefeated through the year with a 38-0 record and then eventually went on to win March Madness 2024.

#4, 6x WNBA All-Star

Dawn Staley was as good a player as she is a coach. As a player, she used to play for the Charlotte Sting and Houston Comets in the WNBA. She was drafted by Charlotte in the 1999 WNBA Draft as the 9th overall pick in the first round.

In the WNBA, Dawn Staley played 263 matches and averaged 8.5 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game while shooting 39.9 percent from the field and 37.6% from the 3-point line. She went on to be a part of WNBA All-Star for 6 consecutive years from 2001 to 2006.

#5 3x Olympic gold medalist as both a coach and player

Dawn Staley led USA to an undefeated 60-0 record in 1996. In the same year, she won the gold medal at the Atlanta Summer Olympics. She secured her first Olympic gold as a coach in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Here is wishing the legend a very happy birthday and more success ahead!

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Edited by Siddharth Sikdar