USA Basketball honors Dawn Staley with National co-Coach of the Year
USA Basketball named South Carolina women’s coach Dawn Staley the National co-Coach of the Year on Wednesday.
Staley, who led the USA women’s team to its seventh-straight gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics this summer, shares the honor with longtime San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich, who coached the USA men’s team and also won gold.
Staley also led the 2021 FIBA AmeriCup team to a gold medal.
“It’s an honor to be recognized by USA Basketball and even more so to share this award with Gregg Popovich,” Staley said in an official release from the school. “I got the best of both worlds this year with the AmeriCup team of college players and the Olympic team, who both came in with a team-first mentality that was fun to coach and help them to gold medals.
“Leading an Olympic team on the cusp of history was a responsibility I took to heart, and I appreciate the players who embraced the way we wanted to play and did what they had to in order to continue that Olympic streak.”
Staley has won USA Basketball National Coach of the Year honors two other times, sharing it in 2015 and winning it outright in 2018.
Her No. 1-ranked Gamecocks are 10-0 on the season with a road matchup at Duke looming Wednesday night.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 12:22 PM.
