Gamecock Women’s Basketball Staff Updates
COLUMBIA, S.C. – This June has included several staff updates for South Carolina women’s basketball, including contract extensions (to March 2023) and raises for associate head coach Lisa Boyer and assistant coaches Fred Chmiel and Jolette Law. Head coach Dawn Staley also brought Mary Wooley back to the staff as director of recruiting and strategy and added Tracy Murphy as assistant director of operations.
Two other staff members changed their roles with the program. Ariana Moore moving into the director of basketball operations position following the departure of Cynthia Jordan, who was named an assistant coach at Florida. Dianne Palmer is now the special assistant to the head coach.
Boyer has been part of the South Carolina staff since Staley took the reins for the 2008-09 season, and the pair has shared the sideline for a total of 19 seasons. She has 34 years of experience at all levels, including head coaching at the college and professional level. In her 19 seasons alongside Staley at Temple and South Carolina, Boyer has helped guide teams to nine conference tournament titles and seven conference regular-season championships.
Chmiel’s seven seasons at South Carolina have included both National Championship seasons and a total of four SEC regular-season and five SEC Tournament titles. His 15-year careers as a college assistant coach encompasses 10 conference regular-season championships, six conference tournament titles and 11 WNBA draft picks.
Law’s 28 years in coaching include five at South Carolina as she returned to her home state in June 2017. Law has been a head coach, an associate head coach and an assistant for five different programs, including some of the most successful season at long-time women’s basketball powers. She has coached 22 players who were selected in the WNBA draft and, after amassing 14 NCAA Sweet 16 appearances, nine Elite 8 seasons, three Final Fours and one national runner-up finish, she was part of her first National Championship team in 2021-22.
Wooley returns to the Gamecock staff, on which she spent three seasons (2017-20) as the director of recruiting operations, taking on a similar but broader role this time around. Her resume includes 10 seasons as an assistant coach with stints at Villanova (2020-22), Loyola (Md.) (2016-17), Hawaii (2012-16) and Southern Cal (2009-12). Following her playing career at USC Aiken, she got her start on the sidelines with Staley at Temple (2003-09), serving as a graduate extern while pursuing her master’s in counseling psychology and then as the director of basketball operations.
Murphy joins the women’s basketball staff after 15 years as an assistant at the Gamecock Club.
Moore moves into the basketball operations position after originally being hired in Spring 2013 as the special assistant to the head coach. The Temple alumna was a four-year letterwinner for Staley before earning her bachelor’s degree in 2005.
Palmer takes over the special assistant to the head coach position after spending her first 11 years in Columbia as the women’s basketball administrative coordinator.
Continue to check GamecocksOnline.com and the team’s social media accounts (@GamecockWBB) for the most up-to-date information on the women’s basketball program.
