Dawn Staley

Dawn Michelle Staley (born May 4, 1970) is an American women's basketball coach and player. She is a four-time Southeastern Conference (SEC) Coach of the Year winner and the 2020 Associated Press Coach of the Year. She was hired at University of South Carolina in the 2008-2009 season. Before, she had coached at Temple University. In 2017 they won the national title. She has five SEC regular titles and six league tournament crowns. She also coached the USA women's olympic basketball team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 where they won the gold medal.
Education.
Staley went to high school at Dobbins Tech High school. She led them to 3 league championships. She won high school player of the year as a senior. She decided to go to University of Virginia because she could play immediately and for their reputation for developing point guards. She was one of six children the first person in her family to go to college.
Career.
Staley was a basketball coach at Temple University. Her team at Temple won many games and got to play in the NCAA tournaments for eight years.
Staley came to coach at the University of South Carolina in the 2007-2008 season. The South Carolina women's basketball team was not very popular. Staley helped them win their first national championship in 2017. The team's really good season in 2020 was ended by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
In 2021, Staley signed a seven-year contract with the South Carolina Gamecocks. She earns a $1 million US base salary. She will also receive $1.9 million US every subsequent year which will grow by $100,000 every year. She can also get up to $680,000 in incentive bonuses. If Staley leaves without reason, she would pay the school 5 million. If the school fired her without reason, they would owe her 3 million dollars. Staley believes that the 22.4 million dollars will help equalize women's and men's pay in basketball. She is now the highest paid black women's basketball coach, and one of the highest paid basketball coaches. Staley also passed Louisiana State University coach Kim Mulkey making her the highest paid coach in the Southeastern Conference.