This article is part of our special report Women and Leadership, which coincides with global events in March celebrating women’s achievements. 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 a statement with your coaching wardrobe and a hoodie you recently wore read: “Everyone watches women’s sports.” What’s different now?
I just feel like there’s more access to our game. There’s 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 don’t think it is. Because the structure of our game is strong. It’s bursting at the seams right now at all levels, not just at the collegiate level, but in the WNBA, even at the high school level. Younger girls grew up in the WNBA, and when I was in college, we didn’t have that. We’re going to have a big bump when the Olympics come around.
For the first time ever, there will be an equal number of female and male athletes at the Olympic Games. Are you surprised it took so long?
No, I’m not. I think we’ve been deliberately held back, and the numbers and the demand today 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 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 kids, so I just sat back and observed. As I got older, I started figuring out what needed to be said. I run my life, as a leader, a coach, a 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 essential to your leadership. Did you get that from your mother, Estelle?
Absolutely. I’m more like my mother. I loved her as a boy, but I didn’t like her because she was so 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. One of my former players, when she 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 then at the end of her visit, the mother said something that no other parent has said to me. But it is precisely that that guides me, that gives me the energy, that allows me to meet young people where they are and try to take them where they want to go. She said to me, “I’m giving 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 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 to the game. I’m inspired by their aspirations.
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 have impacted lives.
The Phoenix Club of Philadelphia annually sponsors the 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 in silence 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.
