On Friday, women’s basketball head coach and former player Dawn Staley reportedly inked a massive contract extension with the South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team. Sources told ESPN that Staley, 54, received a $25 million contract extension through the 2029-30 NCAA season. With the contract extension, Staley will become the highest-paid head coach in women’s basketball history.
The University recently approved Staley’s contract extension of South Carolina’s board of trustees. Staley’s contract extension will start with an annual salary of $4 million. It will include a $500,000 signing bonus and an annual $250,000 escalator, bringing the total value to approximately $25.25 million. Read on for further details.
Dawn Staley’s Contract Extension
Dawn Staley has been the head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team since 2008. Staley, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, native, previously served as the head coach of the Temple Owls women’s basketball from 2000 to 2008. Staley played professional basketball from 1994 to 2006 with the Tarbes Gespe Bigorre, the Richmond/Philadelphia Rage, the Charlotte Sting, and the Houston Comets.
Staley, who wore jersey No. 5, played college basketball at the University of Virginia as a point guard from 1988 to 1992. Staley attended high school at Dobbins Tech. Staley’s parents, Clarence and Estelle Staley moved to North Philadelphia from Orangeburg County, South Carolina, in the 1950s as teenagers. Staley’s parents reportedly married early and eventually moved into a three-bedroom, one-bathroom row house in 1967.
Dawn Staley Makes History
After reportedly receiving the $25 million contract extension, Dawn Staley became the richest head coach in women’s basketball. Staley has won three national championships with the South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team since becoming head coach in 2008. Staley’s most recent achievement was last season’s 38-0 title team. Dating back to the 2013-14 NCAA season, South Carolina has been 165-15 in SEC regular-season play.
Athletic director Jeremiah Donati told ESPN, “Dawn Staley is a once-in-a-generation coach who has made a tremendous impact on the University of South Carolina … She has elevated the sport of women’s basketball on the national level and here on campus, and I am excited that she will be representing our University for many years to come.”
Dawn Staley In Good Company
Dawn Staley is — and has been — in good company. Staley made $3.2 million this season before the contract extension went into effect. Staley, UConn’s Geno Auriemma, LSU’s Kim Mulkey, and Maryland’s Brenda Freese are the only active head coaches who have won the national championship in women’s basketball. Staley also led the United States women’s basketball team to the gold medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks’ lone loss came on November 24, 2024, a 77-62 rout by the UCLA Bruins at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles’ Westwood Village. Fast forward to the present, where No. 2 South Carolina is 17-1, with its most recent win, a 76-58 blowout of the No. 19 Alabama Crimson Tide at the Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Thursday night.
Staley told ESPN, “I’m proud to represent the University of South Carolina and of its investment in women’s basketball … What we’ve been able to accomplish on the court is a testament to what can happen when you bring together the right people from a team perspective but also have the right commitment from the university, the athletics department and the community to providing that team with everything it needs to be successful.”
