Right now, South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley is considered one of the most legendary female coaches in history, and it shows. She is so good that even the New York Knicks once considered hiring her as their next head coach. In addition, she has also delivered three national championships to South Carolina, plus an Olympic gold medal as a head coach.
This should make her one of the highest-paid coaches, right? Well, yes, as she is considered the highest-paid coach in women’s basketball. This begs the question of how much Dawn Staley earns to coach one of the best teams in college women’s basketball right now.
In January of last year, Staley signed a contract extension that would be effective until the 2029-30 season, and it was approved by the board of trustees of the University of South Carolina. In that agreement, she would earn $4 million a year, with a signing bonus of $500,000. Her contract is estimated to be worth around $25.25 million, as the school ensured that she will be staying there at least until the next decade begins.
While this may be small compared to what college football coaches are making, this is still a very large salary, as she makes even more than some male basketball coaches for men’s basketball. Staley has proven herself on more than one occasion, leading the Gamecocks to a 38-0 record in 2008, enroute to a national title.
Dawn Staley Talks About Her Winning Formula as South Carolina Head Coach
Dawn Staley has come far from her days as a WNBA All-Star, transitioning successfully as a head coach, first for Temple and then to South Carolina. She spoke with USA Today about how she built up her confidence to win.
“The ultimate confidence builder is truth,” she said. “Sometimes you have to condition everybody around you to handle the truth when you yourself have been conditioned to handle truth ― to handle raw thoughts, to be able to handle different perspectives.”
“Everybody in the room wants the common goal, which is to win, and then you want to do it in a way that you create a standard and you play to that standard. When you don’t play to that standard, you can understand why,” she added.
Staley has produced championships and future WNBA all-stars, including MVP A’ja Wilson and three-time WNBA All-Star Aliyah Boston. She is also the only coach to have given UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma his only loss in the national title game.
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