Dawn Staley Appears at WNBA Game to Watch Former South Carolina Players originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
For many years, Dawn Staley has been one of the best coaches in women’s college basketball. She took over the head coaching job at South Carolina in 2008, and since then, the school has become an NCAA powerhouse.
It won the women’s national championship in 2017, 2022 and 2024. In 2024, South Carolina not only became the champion but also finished with a perfect record. As a coach of the Gamecocks, Staley has coached several notable players, including multiple women who are now in the WNBA.
On Sunday, she was in attendance at Chase Center as the Golden State Valkyries took on the Seattle Storm, which gave her a chance to watch three of her former players: Laeticia Amihere, Bree Hall and Zia Cooke.
Heyyy Coach 🫶
Dawn Staley is sitting courtside to watch her former @GamecockWBB players Laeticia Amihere, Bree Hall, and Zia Cooke!
SEA-GSV | League Pass pic.twitter.com/pij26foMtM
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 30, 2025
Amihere, Hall and Cooke were all on that 2022 Gamecocks team that won it all, and Hall, who was a second-round draft pick this year, also won another national title with them in 2024. In 2023, Cooke won the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award and earned her second First-team All-SEC selection (the first being in 2021).
The Valkyries defeated the Storm, 84-57, as Amihere contributed 15 points and eight rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench. With a 9-7 record, the Valkyries have been surprisingly competitive for a first-year expansion franchise.
Staley was once a star point guard at Virginia in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and during her time there, she became the school’s all-time leader in points. As a coach, she also guided Team USA women’s basketball to gold medals in the 2018 FIBA World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics, and as a player, she won three additional Olympic gold medals.
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 30, 2025, where it first appeared.