Photo: Getty Images
South Carolina women's basketball head coach Dawn Staley has been honored for her accomplishments with a statue.
On Wednesday (April 30), the city of Columbia unveiled a statue honoring Staley at the University of South Carolina, where she led the Gamecocks to an overall record of 475-110, three national championships, and nine conference titles.
Staley said she hopes girls of the future will see the statue and look up to her as a "champion for equity and equality."
"I agreed to the statue, not for me, but for the girl who will walk by one day and wonder who I was," Staley said. "Maybe, she’ll look me up. She’ll see that I did some things in basketball, of course, but I hope she sees much more. I hope she sees that I was a champion for equity and equality, that in my own way, I pushed for change, that I stood proudly in the space God called me to inhabit, but as a regular gurl who used her gifts to open doors so other girls wouldn’t have to knock as hard.”
Staley, who's been at South Carolina since 2008, has made the NCAA tournament every season dating back to 2011.
After the erection of her statue, Renee Brown, Staley's former USA Basketball assistant coach, said in a statement: “She’s used to gold, but bronze ain’t bad today."
The Black Information Network is your source for Black News! Get the latest news 24/7 on The Black Information Network. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app or click HERE to tune in live.