‘I’m full’: Dawn Staley stepping down as Team USA coach after winning in Tokyo
Dawn Staley has won three Olympic gold medals for Team USA as a player and was part of two gold medal teams as an assistant coach and one as head coach.
Shortly after leading the Team USA women’s basketball team to a gold as head coach Sunday in a 90-75 victory over Japan, Staley revealed that her time as an Olympic head coach is over.
“Our country has a lot of great coaches that can get the job done,” Staley told reporters Sunday in Tokyo, according to USA Today reporter Dan Wolken. ”Me, being a part of I believe six, that’s enough. I’m full, I’m full.”
Staley was announced in March 2017 as the USA head coach building up to the Tokyo Olympics, succeeding UConn’s Geno Auriemma. She was 45-0 in her time since 2017 leading the U.S. national team.
She has been with Team USA in Olympics mode for almost a month straight. They started preparations in mid-July in Las Vegas before making the trip to Japan.
Team USA won its seventh Olympic gold medal in a row and has won 55 straight Olympic basketball games. Staley, earlier in August in an essay to The Undefeated, acknowledged how much pressure she felt as the Olympic head coach.
“During this experience, I’ve had feelings that I’ve never had before as a head coach,” she wrote. “This feeling, it’s a lot different than any that I have experienced. I’m nervous. Being in this position, you feel the pressure of having to succeed.”
Team USA won its six games in Tokyo by an average margin of 16 points. The 2024 Summer Olympics are in Paris. Staley told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that she’d recommend WNBA coach and Team USA assistant Cheryl Reeve as her replacement.
It’s been a busy offseason for the Gamecocks’ leader. While coaching the 2021 USA Women’s AmeriCup Team in Puerto Rico, Staley acknowledged she had spoken with the NBA’s Portland TrailBlazers about their head coaching vacancy. The Blazers hired Chauncey Billups.
Team USA headed to the airport in the hours after Sunday’s win to return home.
Staley’s Gamecocks continue preseason workouts through the next two months. Official practices typically begin in early October, with the season tipoff in November.
This will be Staley’s 14th season coaching at South Carolina. The Gamecocks are coming off their third Final Four appearance since 2014-15 and will be working with a roster that’s overflowing with talent.
Everyone from the 2020-21 Final Four team is back. Staley also signed the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class and landed transfer Kamilla Cardoso, a former five-star prospect who was ACC Rookie of the Year in her one season at Syracuse.
This story was originally published August 8, 2021 at 10:33 AM with the headline "‘I’m full’: Dawn Staley stepping down as Team USA coach after winning in Tokyo."
