‘Dawn was worth it’: Inside South Carolina’s quest to hire Dawn Staley as WBB coach
—Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series looking back on Dawn Staley’s arrival at South Carolina and first season coaching the Gamecocks—
The year was 2008.
South Carolina women’s basketball was a bottom-tier SEC team. The Gamecocks finished the 2007-08 season ninth in the then-12-team conference still dominated by Pat Summitt’s Tennessee (starring Candace Parker) and Van Chancellor’s LSU (headlined by Sylvia Fowles). UConn and Geno Auriemma were four years removed from their latest NCAA championship and fresh off their ninth Final Four.
USC was a program starved for postseason success. After 11 seasons and two NCAA Tournament appearances, head coach Susan Walvius’ time with the Gamecocks came to an uninspiring close.
The search to replace Walvius lasted 23 days. South Carolina interviewed four candidates before landing on the one who would propel USC and women’s basketball into the 21st century: Dawn Staley.
National and local media sounded off on the historic hire, which signaled that South Carolina wanted to compete with the UConns and Tennessees of the women’s basketball world. Staley brought a kind of cachet no one else could.
Nancy Lieberman summed it up pretty well: “Everything you could want in a coach, Dawn Staley represents.”
Sixteen years later, here’s the story of how Staley came to South Carolina, told by those who helped make it happen.
—— Susan Walvius resigned from her position as head coach of USC’s women’s basketball on April 14, 2008 after 11 seasons. She compiled a 165-160 record (51-103 in conference play) and led the Gamecocks to an Elite Eight in 2002. ——
Brionna Dickerson, senior: My first three years, we kind of struggled. We were a work in progress and needed a revamp of our coaching staff, our program, everything.
I remember late spring before my senior year we got the word the school was going in a different direction and they were finalizing who it was going to be.
There were all these rumors swirling, different names and possibilities. It was so daunting thinking about who that might be, what direction the program was going to go in.
Eric Hyman, athletic director: I had to let Susan Walvius go, so I was looking for a basketball coach. I had a couple on my radar, but Dawn wasn’t one of them. Her agent (Tom Cross) called, and because of that, we began to investigate her.
—— USC interviewed four candidates: North Carolina’s Hall of Fame coach Sylvia Hatchell, Chattanooga’s Wes Moore, Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick and then-Temple head coach Staley.
Hyman considered the latter three finalists, as Hatchell used the opening at South Carolina to leverage a contract extension with UNC. She later sent him $50 worth of McDonald’s gift cards as a thank you.
Staley visited Columbia the last week of April. ——
Hyman: I had community members over, we had lunch over at our house, and I never really got the true connection I’d like to have with a coach I’m trying to hire.
—— There had to be more. Hyman had heard so many wonderful things about her. He and USC associate athletic director Marcy Girton decided he should go to Philadelphia to find it. ——
Hyman: I got on her turf. She showed me where she was brought up, and she was a lot more relaxed around me than she was in Columbia. I was amazed by where she started, the high school she went to.
We walked down to a Starbucks, sat down and talked. I’m exaggerating a little, but she was interrupted about every five minutes. “Hey, Dawn, how are you doing?” Everybody knew her. That made a real strong impression upon me.
She kept her cards close to her vest. And when I went out to Philadelphia, she put the cards on the table. It was totally different. That’s when I got to know her.
Carrying the American flag at the 2004 Olympics, the success she had at Temple, watching her as a guard playing for Virginia – all those things added up to me.
—— Hyman had found his coach. And Staley was excited by the new opportunity. She was formally announced on May 7, 2008. ——
Dawn Staley: I was at Temple for eight years, and I really wanted to advance further in the NCAA Tournament. I just didn’t think we could do it. I thought we got Temple to a place where we topped off, and it comes down to who you’re able to recruit. In a place like Temple, you have to want to be at Temple. You have to want the inner-city environment. And a lot of times for the top players in the country, I thought they were looking for a more traditional campus. And if they weren’t, the parents were. And I just really got tired of losing in the first and second round.
—— When the time came to finalize Staley’s contract, Hyman encountered resistance. The USC board of trustees was to approve a five-year contract at $650,000 total annual compensation (which would average $575,000 per year, as Staley was responsible for paying back 75% of her $500,000 buyout).
The deal would make Staley one of the nation’s highest-paid women’s basketball coaches and the third-highest-paid employee in USC’s athletic department, behind football coach Steve Spurrier and men’s basketball coach Darin Horn.
Some board members, men’s head coaches and members of the mostly male media struggled to embrace such a large-scale investment in women’s basketball. ——
Hyman: Well, I thought Dawn was worth it.
Dr. Harris Pastides (USC president), when we came to a discussion with the board members, he said, “We need to do this.” If he hadn’t supported me, I’m not sure where we’d have ended up.
—— The board approved her contract in 10 minutes.
On Saturday, May 10 – the same day as Staley’s introductory press conference – the Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial addressing her departure. “Dawn, don’t go away,” it read. “You’ve been good for us.”
While Philadelphia mourned, Columbia rejoiced. ——
Courtney Newton, redshirt freshman: If you grew up with basketball or were in the game you knew who she was. And it was somewhat of a shock for us because we didn’t really know who was in the running. So just to know it was her was awesome and exciting.
Dickerson: Hearing it was going to be Coach Staley, I think we all were in disbelief. We really felt like this can’t be real. There’s no way this Hall of Fame coach, Olympian, WNBA player is coming to be a part of South Carolina, of all places.
—— La’Keisha Sutton was the first recruit who agreed to play for Staley at South Carolina. ——
La’Keisha Sutton, freshman: I knew who she was, but I didn’t know how big of a giant she was in the basketball world until I got on campus.
Every city we went to, every team we played, just seeing how fans ran up to her, and coaches showed her so much respect and love. I was like, “Wow. That’s my coach. This is pretty cool.”
She epitomizes hope and possibilities, especially for young Black girls.
—— Staley hired three assistant coaches: Lisa Boyer (who worked with Staley at Temple), Carla McGhee and Nikki McCray. ——
Staley: I knew I was bringing Coach Boyer. And then I wanted coaches who had played in the SEC, knew the history of it, knew the style of play, and we’d been in the foxhole together.
Nikki and Carla both were teammates of mine, and we had experienced some hard times together that we were able to overcome. I thought we needed that kind of personnel to do a hard thing, which was make South Carolina a prominent program in the country.
▪ COMING THURSDAY: South Carolina’s first year under Dawn Staley was far from perfect. But without the 2008-09 team, USC’s success from the last decade wouldn’t have been possible.
