Dawn Staley, an exemplar of coaching greatness

Dawn Staley is, by all accounts, this generation’s C. Vivian Stringer. The now-retired Stringer had no qualms speaking out on behalf of Black female players and coaches throughout her illustrious half-century coaching career, which started at HBCU Cheyney State and concluded at Rutgers.

Staley won her third national title in April after her first-ever undefeated season. She was the main speaker for the May 8 Saint Catherine University’s Women of Color Leadership Series at the O’Shaughnessy. It is a platform where “high profile leaders” come to campus and “share their stories of the learning and inspirational opportunities that paved their paths to leadership,” says a press release.

This year’s event was titled “Breaking Barriers: Empowering Women to Lead Through Athletics.”

Jaycee Rhodes, who played a major role in planning the event, introduced Staley. Rhodes is the current president of St. Catherine’s chapter of the National College Athlete Honor Society and an executive board member of the school’s student-athlete advisory committee. 

“Obviously, I was a little bit nervous and had a little bit of anxiety about getting out there and introducing [the coach],” Rhodes told me afterward. The St. Paul native is a three-time MIAC academic all-conference and a three-time Women’s Golf Coaches Association academic All-American honoree. She will receive her bachelor’s degree in business administration and sales later this month, with minor studies in leadership. 

She is the school’s and MIAC’s only Black golfer. She plans to return next season for her Covid eligibility season at St. Kate’s while studying for her masters, said Rhodes. She said it was her first time meeting Staley, who offered some impromptu rooting for her backstage: “Go Jaycee, go Jaycee,” she heard the coach telling her while she introduced her. 

Once on stage, Staley kept the sold-out audience in awe as she took on any subject that Lea B. Olsen, the dean of Twin Cities Black women sports broadcasters, brought up: 

On coaching big-time college basketball: “I didn’t want to be a coach,” admitted Staley, whose first job was at Temple (2000-08) while she was still an active player. “It was a divine order for me to take that job.”

At South Carolina, Staley now is the school’s winningest coach, a four-time National Coach of the Year, six-time SEC Coach of the Year, 2012 BCA Female Coach of the Year, and a program record’s 12 postseason appearances. 

On coaching her first undefeated national championship team: “I didn’t think we were competitive enough,” quipped Staley. 

On being outspoken: “My outlook on life is pretty much the same. This world loves the opinion of successful professional people, whether you got the right answers or not.”

On her mother’s influence: “I’m more like my mother today than any time in my life. I am a better coach because of how my mother raised me. I am a better person because of how my mother raised me,” she said reverently. 

On Stringer.: “She is probably one of the strongest mentor coaches I’ve ever been around because she had to be. I often talk to her about navigating this space.”

Afterward, Olsen said of Staley, “She is definitely a hero of mine. Her words are really super needed and important right now, and people are listening to her. I think a big part of that is because she’s so honest and real with her words.”

Is it fair to compare Staley to Stringer? 

“What Dawn does is embrace everybody; she lifts everybody up. It’s not just about her,” agreed Olsen. “I’ve watched her become the greatest coach in women’s basketball, and maybe in basketball in general. She understands that’s kind of her duty and her responsibility.”