To her players, Dawn Staley is a basketball coach and much more

This article is part of our Women and Leadership special report to coincide with global events in March celebrating the achievements of women. This conversation has been edited and condensed.

As coach of the top-ranked University of South Carolina basketball team, Dawn Staley is a dynamic leader at a time of rising global popularity in women’s sports. At 53, she is a Hall of Fame point guard who guided the United States to three Olympic gold medals as a player and one as a coach. And in her 16th year at South Carolina, Coach Staley just led the team to its second straight undefeated regular season. Now she’s aiming for her third national collegiate title. A proud Philadelphia native, Coach Staley is an outspoken advocate for gender and racial equality in sports and beyond.

Her secret to mentoring young people today? Honesty and discipline, lessons she learned from her mother.

You’re making statements with your coaching wardrobe, and a hoodie you recently wore declared, “Everyone watches women’s sports.” What’s different now?

I just feel like there’s more access to our game. There is more demand. I think it’s okay to tell the stories of our game and the people in our game. I hope it’s not a fad. I do not think so. Because the structure of our game is strong. It’s bursting at the seams right now at all levels, not just the collegiate level, but the WNBA, even high school. Younger girls grew up in the WNBA, and when I was in college we didn’t have that. We’re going to get a big bump when the Olympics come around.

For the first time, there will be as many female athletes as male athletes at the Olympic Games. Are you surprised it took so long?

No I am not. I think we have been deliberately held back, and today’s numbers and demand prove that.

Have you ever caught yourself saying “back in the day” to your players?

No! They had no idea what my day looked like.

Do they care?

No. This is all about them. It’s really okay; I understand. I’m so used to it. So it’s all about me meeting them where they are. It changes every day.

The best leaders are the best communicators. How have you adapted your communication style over the past decades?

I think I’m very consistent with who I am. As a young person I didn’t really talk. I was the youngest of five children, so I sat back and observed. As I got older, I started figuring out what needed to be said. I govern my life, as a leader, coach, colleague, by how something looks, feels and sounds. If something looks, sounds or feels wrong, I’m going to say something. I can’t say anything. And then the same thing: if something looks, sounds or feels great, I give it the same energy in the other direction.

Enforcing discipline is central to your leadership. Did you get that from your mother, Estelle?

Absolute. I look more like my mother. I loved her as a child, but I didn’t like her because she was very strict. And it’s hard for young people to see what your parents are trying to protect you from.

How do you approach your leadership off the basketball court?

When young people come to play for you, you have to give them everything, give them their wants and needs. When one of my former players was here on an official visit, her mother was a little skeptical about South Carolina. If you look at the history books, you get a not so pleasant picture. Until you come to visit. And at the end of her visit, the mother actually said something that no other parent has said to me. But it is the very thing that guides me, that gives me the endurance, that allows me to meet young people where they are and take them where they want to go. She said to me: ‘I give you my child.’

Whether I should love them or show them a little tough love along the way, I ultimately keep that line in perspective.

You are always generous in sharing credit. After your two national championships, you emailed clips from the net to other young black coaches. Why?

I feel like I’ve been put in a position where I owe basketball. So I’m really trying to pay back my debt. I want people to feel what I feel about basketball. The people I meet in men’s and women’s basketball tell me what I mean to them and what I mean to the game. I am inspired by their ambitions.

What ambitions do you have besides winning another championship?

I want to be the best dream trader I can be. That’s it, simple. I want all my players to check off all their goals. I want our assistant coaches, if they want to be head coaches, to check off their goals. I don’t need anything. Well, actually I have one wish. I want to be in the Hall of Fame as a coach.

Why is that so important to you?

Because you are one of the best. And that means you’ve impacted lives.

The Phoenix Club of Philadelphia sponsors the annual Dawn Staley Award for the top female guard in Division I. Caitlin Clark, who just passed Pete Maravich to set the NCAA record for career scoring, has won it three years in a row. What do you think about that, especially after Clark’s Iowa team knocked off yours last year?

Well, I get a vote! In her first year, no one gave her credit. But Caitlin threw up these numbers from freshman year. And you know, I like to do things differently. I almost like going against the mainstream and finding young people doing things quietly and not getting the publicity they deserve.

So you knew. You had it first.

Absolute. It’s not hard to see. She is a generational talent.