Dawn Staley's Team is like Her

Success and Dawn Staley go hand in hand.

Beginning at the middle circle of the Raymond Rosen housing projects in North Philadelphia, to playing basketball at Dobbins Tech High School and the University of Virginia leading, to a stellar career in the WNBA, Staley has won at every stop.

When her playing days ended, Staley became a successful head coach at Temple University before taking over at the University of South Carolina. And, on Sunday, she hoisted her second woman’s NCAA basketball title, beating the University of Connecticut, 64-49.

No matter where Staley goes, no matter her role, she wins.

When she played, she was talented, smart, disciplined, had great mental toughness and loved to compete. Now as a coach, she’s accomplished the greatest challenge of all: Getting the team to adopt her personality. The Lady Gamecocks play and act as if Staley were still on the court. They have become an extension of her characteristics, traits and her knowledge, which she passes along every day.

How did Staley accomplish this ever-challenging task? Simple, she never changed her style, never strayed from her core beliefs. What she learned living in the housing project made her a great player and continues to make her a great coach.

1.  Staley learned tough love from her mother. 

“My mom loved hard. Loved hard. There was an incredible balance of discipline and there was that other side of if you abide by her rules, you lived clean. You’re good. You live a happy life.” Staley also loves hard with her players. She balances discipline with rules and expects her players abide by them, as she did with her Mom.

 2. She learned the importance of discipline in life. 

“I’ve never strayed from living in the projects in North Philly, never strayed from the discipline that’s required to be successful. It is very simple. Discipline is being able to, in the moment, not do things that you want to do. Do things that created the habit for you to have the temptation not to. And, it’s a simple math-y life equation that I just try to teach our players. If you have a certain level of discipline … My favorite quote, and a quote that I live by, is a disciplined person can do anything.

 3. The Truth Matters.

“I speak what I think my truth is, and I’m not judgmental. I just let people be who they are.”

 4. Strengthen Mental Toughness.

Use failure as a resource. Staley remembers being cut from the 1992 Olympic Team, not because she lacked the talent, but rather she lacked the mental toughness. “Some other more experienced players had something that I didn’t have, and I get cut, that’s when you start realizing it’s more than just the physical part of it. And if you get cut, you can’t be physical anymore. It’s mental. It’s mental to get over not being able to do something that you worked so hard for.”

 5. Work to Master Your Craft.

For Staley, “Mastery is having an understanding of the good, the bad, the ugly of a craft and being able to explain it to anyone.”

Clearly, she does, and that’s why she continues to master the art of coaching. Her teams are a reflection of her.