Wednesday afternoon in downtown Columbia, S.C., a statue will be unveiled to honor Dawn Staley, the adopted daughter and coach of the city. It will stand nearly equidistant between the Gamecocks’ basketball arena and the South Carolina state house, which is fitting given how much she has meant to women’s basketball in the state and across the country. Most apropos is that the statue will be forged by fire, an analogy perfectly befitting Staley and her journey to this pinnacle.
Raised in North Philadelphia, Staley has never taken the easy road, but the common denominator between her teams and programs is one thing: They win. As a high school phenom at Dobbins, a Virginia point guard, an Olympic team player and coach, an ABL and WNBA star and as a coach (though she spent six years both coaching at Temple and playing in the WNBA).
When she took over Temple in 2000, the program had just one NCAA Tournament appearance. The Owls won the Atlantic 10 tournament title in Staley’s second year to ensure an automatic bid before making the tournament another five times and finishing with at least 20 wins in six of her eight seasons — a task that had been accomplished only twice at Temple in seven decades of existence.
Another 🐐 with a statue!!
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