Dawn Staley
Twice as Nice for Staley
The Two-time Player of the Year, Captures Her Second USBWA Coach of the Year Award
![](/getmedia/be8e81cc-6205-45a6-b19a-dba7af24a101/Dawn_Staley.aspx?width=400&height=266)
Dawn Staley has made an unprecedented impact on college basketball. No one in the history of the game, has accomplished what she has as both a player and coach. As a player at the University of Virginia, Staley won the USBWA Ann Meyers Drysdale Award as national player of the year in 1991 and again in 1992. Now, as a coach at South Carolina, she has bee every bit as prolific. Staley is the 2022 USBWA Female Basketball Coach of the Year for the second time, after winning her first in 2020.
This year, Staley led South Carolina to a 15-1 conference record, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the national championship. The Gamecocks dominated the SEC conference this season, leading to its third regular-season title in the past three years as she was named the conference’s coach of the year for the fifth time. Staley’s squad won all but three of the team’s 15 conference wins were by double-digits.
Catapulting South Carolina into the national spotlight, Staley has made the Gamecocks a mainstay in the battle for SEC and national championships. Under her leadership, the Gamecocks have reached many firsts – National Championship, NCAA Final Fours, No. 1 rankings, SEC regular-season and tournament titles, SEC Player of the Year, National Player of the Year, WNBA No. 1 Draft pick and No. 1 recruiting classes – to name the most notable.
Her 13 seasons at the helm for the Gamecocks include: two NCAA National Championships, four NCAA Final Fours in the last six tournaments (2015, 2017, 2021, 2022), and ranking in the AP Top 25 every week since Dec. 10, 2012, including 95 weeks in the top five, 25 weeks ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll, including the first-ever final No. 1 ranking in program history (2019-20).