A senate RESOLUTION

TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR Coach DAWN STALEY for her impressive career with the University of South Carolina's Lady Gamecocks.

Whereas, the members of the South Carolina Senate are pleased to recognize Coach Dawn Staley for her impressive career with the University of South Carolina women's basketball team, the Lady Gamecocks; and

Whereas, Coach Staley has received her third straight SEC Coach of the Year honor from her colleagues after becoming the first coach to lead a program into the SEC Tournament with an undefeated record in multiple seasons. It is her seventh season winning the award, which puts her just one behind legendary head coach Pat Summitt for the SEC record; and

Whereas, Coach Staley's team is ranked fourth in the nation in scoring offense (86.1 ppg) and twenty-fourth in scoring defense (56.3 ppg) and is the only team ranked among the nation's top thirty in both categories; and

Whereas, the Gamecocks' seven wins against ranked opponents are the second-most in the nation, and their seventeen wins against NET top-fifty opponents are more than any other team in the country. Five Gamecocks average double-figure points, and the six-woman bench is second in the nation with 33.2 points per game; and

Whereas, in her twenty-fourth season as a head coach, Dawn Staley has a .765 (606-186) winning percentage, which ranks tenth in the nation among all active head coaches and sixth among those with at least twenty years in the position; and

Whereas, the unanimous 2020 National Coach of the Year, Coach Staley became the first person to win both Naismith Player of the Year and Naismith Coach of the Year and the first Black head coach to win multiple national championships in men's or women's basketball. She has been named national coach of the year by at least one organization four times, including three times in the last four seasons; and

Whereas, in her sixteen seasons with the Gamecocks, Coach Staley is the program's all-time winningest coach (434) with a program record of twelve postseason appearances. She accounts for all five of the Gamecocks' Final Four appearances (2015, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023) and the first NCAA National Championships in program history (2017, 2022); and

Whereas, Coach Staley won her six hundredth career game as a head coach with a 72-44 win over Alabama (February 22, 2024), needing just one hundred four games to go from her five hundredth win (vs. Mercer, March 21, 2021) to the six hundredth; and

Whereas, Coach Staley's eight SEC regular-season championships trail only Pat Summitt's sixteen in league history, and her seven SEC Coach of the Year awards trails Summitt's league record by just one. Staley's one hundred ninety-nine SEC regular-season wins are the most among active league coaches and third all-time behind just Summitt (Tennessee, 306) and Andy Landers (Georgia, 273). Her 12.4 SEC wins per season is the best in league history among coaches with more than three years in the league, and her .783 SEC winning percentage (199-55) is second only to Summitt (.874) among coaches in that group; and

Whereas, the members of the South Carolina Senate greatly appreciate the dedication and commitment that Coach Staley has shown in serving the people and the State of South Carolina.  Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the Senate:

That the members of the South Carolina Senate, by this resolution, recognize and honor Coach Dawn Staley for her impressive career with the University of South Carolina's Lady Gamecocks.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Coach Dawn Staley.

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