May 12, 2015

COLUMBIA – University of South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley received the Willie Jeffries Ambassador for Sports Award at the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame annual banquet and induction ceremony Monday night at the Columbia Metro Convention Center. She is the fifth recipient of the award and the second from the University, joining then-baseball head coach Ray Tanner.

In her seventh season at South Carolina, Staley led the Gamecocks into the program record books in 2014-15 with the program’s first SEC Tournament title and NCAA Final Four appearance. The Gamecocks repeated as SEC regular-season champions and won a school-record 34 games en route to the national semifinals. After being ranked No. 1 for 12 weeks of the season, South Carolina finished the campaign ranked No. 3 in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Polls, the highest final ranking in the program’s history. For the second-straight season, Staley was named SEC and WBCA Region 3 Coach of the Year as well as being a finalist for the Naismith National Coach of the Year award.

This Willie Jeffries Ambassador for Sports Award is sponsored by Defender Services and is named in honor of South Carolina State’s legendary football coach, Willie Jeffries, a member of seven halls of fame, including the South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame.