South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley once gave her thoughts about her players’ off-court lives compared to their on-court ones. Back in January 2023, coach Staley was interviewed on the “What Drives Winning” YouTube Channel in a podcast format. There, she was asked to dive deep into her coaching ways, especially since she is coming off the 2022 national title berth with her program.
In the final part of the interview, host Brett Ledbetter asked Staley for her thoughts on the insight that what a player does outside of what they do to improve their skillsets is just as important to their career, given that it can derail or benefit it. Staley then went on to talk about how much she agrees with this, and used one of her players as an example when they had a one-on-one check-in and said that she had too many distractions.
“She’s made huge strides, but there are things that seep into your strides that if you got rid of those things, you would be a heck of a player. And, I told her she has too many distractions off the floor. I told her, ‘If your friends aren’t pushing you to go get extra workouts in, they’re not for you. And, if your friends aren’t going to the WNBA or trying to be successful or see themselves being successful in the next three to four years, y’all are not equally yoked,” Staley shared. (25:49)
As of the moment, Staley is coming off a 2024-25 season in which she and her Gamecocks program finished with an overall record of 35-4 (15-1 SEC), and made it all the way to the 2025 NCAA championship game. South Carolina was pursuing back-to-back national titles, something the program has never done, with their 2024 one. But, they unfortunately lost to the UConn Huskies by 23 points, 82-59.
Dawn Staley Stresses That Players Must Solely Focus On Them And Not On Others
Later on her interview on What Drives Winning in January 2023, coach Dawn Staley also asserted that she always tells her players to choose themselves no matter what the case is. The now 55-year-old also said that this is a piece of advice that she also gave the undisclosed, aforementioned player. Staley also claimed that this is a lesson that seeps in in the long-term, and maybe not the short-term.
“I just told her to choose yourself like choose you. You’re success over everybody else’s success…And I say you’re young, you don’t really get it right now. But, I’m going to keep talking to you about it. So, one day it will click for you, and you’ll have that ‘aha’ moment. And then, it’s all downhill from there. You’ll understand and you won’t allow anything else to be a distraction in your career path,” she explained. (27:38)
Read More: LOOK: Dawn Staley Steals the Spotlight at South Carolina’s Week 2 Matchup against SCST
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