Staley, Dawn M.
Basketball
b. May 4, 1970, Philadelphia, PA
The 5-foot-5 Staley was named national high school player of the year in 1988 by USA Today, the only player under 6 feet tall to win that honor. She became a starter at the University of Virginia as a freshman, averaging 18.5 points a game.
Staley won the Naismith Trophy as the nation's outstanding woman collegiate player in 1991 and 1992 and was the winner of the 1991 Honda Broderick Cup as the outstanding college athlete of the year.
In her four years as a starter, Staley scored 2,135 points, an average of 16.3 per game, and had an NCAA record of 454 steals. She was named the outstanding player in the 1991 NCAA tournament, when Virginia lost in the finals to Tennessee.
Staley played professionally in Europe and Brazil before signing with the Richmond Rage of the newly-organized American Basketball League (ABL). The ABL folded during its third season and its players went into a draft pool for the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
The Charlotte Sting of the WNBA chose Staley as the 9th pick overall and she played for the Sting until she was traded to the Houston Comets during the 2005 season. She retired as a player when the season ended.
Meanwhile, she had began a coaching career at Temple University in 2000. In eight seasons, she compiled a 172-80 record and reached wins faster than any other coach in the history of women's college basketball. Her teams won or tied for the Atlantic 10 championship four times and went to the NCAA tournament six times.
She became the head coach at the University of South Carolina in 2008 and has had a 24-31 record in her two seasons there.
Staley had 1,055 career assists in the WNBA, the third highest total in league history, and she also ranks third in the ABL with 606 assists. She played for three Gold Medal Olympic teams, in 1996, 2000, and 2004, and was an assistant coach with the 2008 team, which also won a Gold Medal.