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Dawn Staley left Temple University in her native Philadelphia after the 2007-08 season and was named head coach of the South Carolina women’s basketball team.
In more than a decade and a half since, Staley has taken the Gamecocks program to unprecedented heights, leading South Carolina to three national titles during her tenure.
In her new book, “Uncommon Favor,” Staley revealed another SEC school expressed interest in her in 2005.
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Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the national championship game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse April 7, 2024, in Cleveland. (Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
“Alabama came after me first in 2005,” Staley wrote.
She was coaching at Temple at the time she was approached by Alabama. The Owls finished the 2004-05 season with a 28–4 record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
While Staley landed in the same conference as the Crimson Tide, she believed South Carolina was the best fit for her family and career.
“I visited the campus. I liked the athletic director. But I couldn’t see myself living in Alabama,” she noted.
Head coach Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks reacts against the Texas Longhorns during a Final Four game at Amalie Arena April 4, 2025, in Tampa, Florida. (Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
While Staley didn’t care for the idea of moving to Alabama, she said the move to South Carolina meant she would still be joining a league in which several coaches had built legendary careers.
“I was drawn to the fact that USC was part of the SEC and its storied legacy in women’s basketball,” Staley wrote. “Pat Summitt was in this league, Andy Landers, Melanie Balcomb, all these legendary coaches. I was looking to refine my skills, rise to compete with the best. The cherry on top was that my parents were originally from South Carolina.”
Staley was also eager for a reunion with her mother, Estelle, and her siblings.
University of South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley celebrates winning the Albany regional and advancing to the Final Four after cutting a piece of the net at MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y., March 31, 2024. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
By all accounts, Staley has become a beloved figure in Columbia, South Carolina’s capital city and the home of the Gamecocks. The city recently unveiled an on-campus statue in honor of Staley.
Staley reflected on a state embracing her given her complicated history with her family. Estelle left South Carolina decades ago due to racism and discrimination.
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Staley described the homecoming as a “full-circle moment.”
“Time is a funny thing, isn’t it? That I find myself thriving in the very state that drove my mother into exile is an irony I never forget,” Staley wrote. “That she was able to return to her home, her place of belonging, when I came to work at South Carolina was a full-circle moment made possible by social progress, the civil rights movement, myriad changes seismic and small, but also, in large part, by faith.”
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