University of South Carolina Coach, Dawn Staley Earns It On The Court and Off
It has been officially announced that South Carolina Women’s Basketball Coach, Dawn Staley, is now part of the selection committee for the US. Women’s Basketball team. She is a four-time SEC Coach of the Year, and the 2012 BCA Female Coach of the Year. She was also a four-time Olympic gold medalist, winning three as a player and one as head coach. What you may not know, is that she has signed a historic $22.4 million dollar contract to be head coach of the University of South Carolina women’s basketball for the next seven years.
The payout is well deserved and long overdue. Once she signed her new contract in October of 2021, Coach Staley is set to earn $2.9 million this season, increasing her salary by $100,000 each year. Overall, she can expect to receive $3 million per year plus an increase up to $680,000 in yearly bonuses, including $500,000 for winning another national championship.
Coach Staley celebrated her new contract by highlighting the historical significance of being a woman and being black while being compensated for their contributions in the sports field. She commented saying, “This university and this state have a rich history of racism, and I’m not going to disregard that. But this is one of the most progressive decisions they’ve ever made. They need to be recognized for being committed to leading the way in gender equity in America. This is an equitable statement and in the midst of all our inequities in our country, I hope it’s a turning point.” Over the years, treatment of female players and coaches in every college level sport have been paid significantly less and have unequal facilities that their male counter parts. These disparities have been brought to the attention of sports fans due to post on social media form college athletes and article researching and discovering gendered and racial dispairties. Coach Staley continued her statement by saying, “I didn’t do this for me. I am an advocate of equal pay and overall, this is a huge statement for women and for Black women, and not just in sports but all over the country, when you think about how much less they’re paid on the dollar compared to men.”
Coach dawn Staley’s accomplishments include a 2017 national championship, 3 Final Fours (winning in 2015, 2017 and 2021), and 11 SEC Championships, among other awards. She was also courted by NBA teams, such as the Trailblazers. Being sought out by a large, franchise team shows that there has been real progress in treating female coaches and coaches of color as true candidates for leadership. When asked about becoming the highest paid Black head coach in NCAA Women's Basketball, Dawn Shaley says, “I do believe this contract extension keeps me here, it’s fair to say, for a very long time. I don’t know when my career will end, but certainly, I want this to be my last stop.”
