How coaching gave South Carolina WBB’s newest assistant direction when he needed it most
Wendale Farrow graduated from Eastern Michigan in 2009 with a problem many college grads run into. He had his degree but was seemingly without a plan. So he did what many recent grads do: He moved back home.
Farrow found himself working at Country Club Lanes, a bowling alley in his hometown of Sacramento, California. It likely wasn’t the first post-grad job the communications major thought he’d have.
“I didn’t know that you have to prepare yourself to get a job after college,” Farrow joked. “I thought you just got one because you got a degree. But I came back to the neighborhood and figured out that I needed a job and I worked from June until March at the bowling alley.”
Farrow made $6.75 an hour working swing shifts at Country Club Lanes while also taking care of his mom. He was the “Laser Tag Marshal” and helped host birthday parties, make pizza, set the lanes, clean shoes and worked behind the counter at the bowling alley.
After Farrow’s mother, passed away in January 2010 he quickly found himself feeling like he was “not having any direction” while working at the bowling alley.
Little did Farrow know that a conversation with an old mentor would help him find the direction he needed: coaching.
Playing and coaching at EMU
Farrow started his college basketball career at American River College in California after he left high school with no offers. A “solid year” during his sophomore JUCO season led him to Eastern Michigan, where he played 58 games for former head coach Charles Ramsey and the Eagles.
Farrow averaged 3.1 points and 3.3 rebounds in 17.1 minutes per game in those two years with Eastern Michigan. His stats never really jumped off the page, but that didn’t matter to Ramsey.
“He always understood whatever your philosophy was on offense and defense,” Ramsey told The State. “More importantly, he was always a leader, even though he wasn’t your best player. He was a leader, and he was respected as such. ... He wasn’t my best player, but he was my most reliable player.”
Some people know they’re going to go into coaching one day, while others don’t necessarily expect it. Farrow falls into the latter category.
“Well, I wasn’t that good. So if you ever looked at my stats I kind of knew right away that the NBA or overseas life wasn’t necessarily for me,” Farrow said. “... I wasn’t that productive, (but) I could help run our offense or get our best player open, and do those things. But I always had a mind for it and I always wanted to keep that muscle working. So I spent a lot of time with my coaches in the office trying to learn different things. So I was preparing myself without even knowing. Sometimes it chooses you.”
Ramsey said he knew early on that Farrow had the makings of a future coach. It was Farrow’s intangibles as a player and the way he was able to teach that led to Ramsey bringing him on as a graduate assistant at Eastern Michigan.
“I said, ‘Hey, this is what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna kill two birds with one stone. You’re gonna get your master’s, you’re gonna see how much you like this coaching thing, and we’ll go from there,’ ” Ramsey recalled.
That “coaching thing” has become Farrow’s career and livelihood. What started as two years as a graduate assistant at Eastern Michigan has since turned into over a decade of experience in the college coaching ranks. Now Farrow is the newest assistant coach on Dawn Staley’s staff at South Carolina.
Not bad for a laser tag marshal.
The road to South Carolina
Ramsey’s response when UCLA head women’s basketball coach Cori Close called him for a recommendation on hiring Farrow was short and to the point.
“I said, ‘I think you need to hire him yesterday,’ ” Ramsey recalled.
Thus the next step in Farrow’s career began at UCLA where he spent two seasons (2013-14 and 2014-15) with the Bruins as the program’s video coordinator. The next stop on his coaching journey took him to Nashville for his first assistant coaching gig under SEC legend Melanie Balcomb at Vanderbilt.
He spent just one season (2015-16) with the Commodores before heading back to the West Coast to join Lindsay Gottleib’s staff at Cal. He was on staff at Cal from the 2016-17 season to the 2020-21 season, ultimately following Gottleib to Southern Cal in 2021, where he spent the last four seasons before Staley hired him in April.
When Farrow, now 37 years old, reflects on the last decade of his coaching career, it’s the people who took chances on him that he remembers the most.
“Those people, my mentors, the coaches … have served me and poured into me more than imaginable, than I ever could have thought,” Farrow said.
During his time at Cal and Southern Cal, Farrow worked with the guards. He coached former Gamecock Destiny Littleton while at Southern Cal.
Littleton transferred to South Carolina from Texas after the 2018-19 year and sat out the 2019-20 season. She played two seasons with the Gamecocks and was a steady bench presence for the team during their run to a national title win in 2022.
After her senior year, Littleton transferred to Southern Cal and was coached by Farrow during his first year on the Trojans’ staff. Littleton said the two have some family history, and Farrow recruited her out of high school at Vanderbilt.
Farrow’s ability to “put players in their best positions to shine” separates him from others, Littleton said.
“He kind of meets you where you’re at and then pushes you to be better,” Littleton told The State in April. “He understood where I was coming from and kind of what my goals were when I came from South Carolina to Southern Cal, and he did not let me take any days off.”
Fit at South Carolina and the future
As a player who knows both Farrow and the way things are run at South Carolina, Littleton thinks Farrow will be a “great fit” with the Gamecocks. According to Littleton, Staley and her coaching staff excel at being able to be there for you as a person and a player, something Farrow has the skillset to do.
“Off the court, he’ll dance with you, he’ll do TikToks with you,” Littleton said. “He definitely has the personality to not make it all about basketball.”
Farrow said he always tries to be the coach he wanted as an 18- to 22-year-old, so he fosters relationships with his players while also helping push them to be better on the court.
“I’m down for anything, and that’s just my personality,” Farrow said. “I like dancing, I like food, I like music. But when it comes to basketball, I think the good players understand that even though we can foster the fun outside, our main objective is still the same inside those four lines on that floor.”
Farrow fills the gap on Staley’s staff that was left by the departure of Winston Gandy for the head coaching job at Grand Canyon. Much like Farrow, Gandy was hired to replace an assistant who left for a head coaching gig when Fred Chmiel left South Carolina to take over at Bowling Green.
Farrow is two months into his tenure at South Carolina. Given the recent track record, it’s not outlandish to assume he could have head coaching aspirations. Ramsey believes it’s a matter of when, not if, Farrow will be a head coach.
Right now Farrow’s focused on elevating the South Carolina women’s basketball program, but he knows there aren’t many better spots to be if he wants to learn the ropes of leading a program.
“Whatever soil I’m in, I want to grow from that soil,” Farrow said. “I never try to forecast what’s next, and it’s always led me to what should be next for my career. I think that’s the same with Coach Staley. I feel like she’s going to water me in a lot of ways that naturally, becoming a head coach will be my next step. ... If I do what I’m supposed to do here, I feel like I’ll be equipped for that next call.”
This story was originally published June 23, 2025 at 7:15 AM.
