Dawn Staley has been a trailblazer for women athletes and coaches throughout her career. She was an All-American and All-Pro player in her college and WNBA days, and has since become one of the nation’s finest women’s college basketball coaches. But last week she achieved a new status, that of precent-shattering figure. Staley signed a seven-year, $22.4 million contract extension.
The new deal makes her the nation’s highest paid Black woman coach and one of the top period. It comes on the heels of Staley leading the U.S. women’s team to the gold medal in the Olympics and taking the Gamecocks to the Final Four. During that NCAA Tournament Staley got headlines in major newspapers across the country after she blasted NCAA officials for the inequities in facilities and coverage. She’s been a tireless campaigner for equity in treatment for women athletes and pay for women’s sports coaches, and has now been rewarded for the success she’s achieved and impact she’s made, both at South Carolina and overall.
Staley told USA Today’s Lindsay Schnell that she wanted her deal to “be a benchmark, an example for other universities to invest in their women’s basketball programs, too.” “I didn’t do this for me,” Staley added. “I am an advocate of equal pay and overall, this is a huge statement for women and for Black women — and not just in sports but all over the country — when you think about how much less they’re paid on the dollar compared to men.”
For the coming season the 51-year-old Staley will make $2.9 million, a $800,000 raise from her previous slated salary for 2021-2022. It is second to only Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma’s $3 million for women’s basketball coaches at public institutions. Auriemma signed a new contract last May. Staley’s in her 14 season at South Carolina. The new deal includes a $1.9 million base salary in the first year, the school said. The outside compensation will increase by $100,000 each of the seven years, making her total package in 2027-28 $3.5 million.
“Credit where it’s due,” Staley added. “This university and this state have a rich history of racism, and I’m not going to disregard that. But this is one of the most progressive decisions they’ve ever made. They need to be recognized for being committed to leading the way in gender equity in America. This is an equitable statement and in the midst of all our inequities in our country, I hope it’s a turning point.”
Salaries for women college basketball coaches have been a sore point for many years to equity advocates. There are about 12 women’s college basketball coaches who have broken the $1 million per year mark that about 70 men’s coaches eclipsed. They are, per USA Today Sports, Adia Barnes (Arizona), Gary Blair (Texas A&M), Brenda Frese (Maryland), Kelly Graves (Oregon), Kim Mulkey (LSU), Vic Schaefer (Texas), Vivian Stringer (Rutgers) and Jeff Walz (Louisville). As the list discloses not all of them are women, which raises another issue. Women’s opportunities thus far have predominantly been restricted to only women’s sports. There are a handful of women, among them Tennessee State University’s Director of Track and Field Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice, who are in charge of either a men’s squad or both, but for the most part in college sports women coach women and men coach both.
Staley’s Gamebocks have won six SEC Tournament titles and one NCAA crown. They’ve been to the Final Four three times in the last six years, and been to the Sweet 16 every year since 2014 except for the canceled 2020 Tournament. She’s also only the second Black women coach to win an NCAA title.
“Dawn Staley is one of the nation’s top coaches, regardless of the sport,” South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner said in a release. “She has built our women’s basketball program from the ground up, and her teams have produced champions, both on and off the floor. The ability to keep Coach Staley at the University of South Carolina is great news for all Gamecocks. I join with our fans in looking forward to seeing the great achievements her program will continue to produce in the future.”
Hopefully other universities will follow South Carolina’s example in the years ahead.
