Mary Wooley

In Summer 2022, Dawn Staley welcomed Mary Wooley back to the South Carolina staff, on which she served three previous seasons as the director of recruiting operations. Wooley was hired as the program’s director of recruiting and strategy before adding an assistant coach title in July 2023. She now has 11 seasons of coaching experience in addition to stints as director of recruiting operations and director of basketball operations on Staley-led staffs at South Carolina and Temple, respectively.

In her 11 seasons coaching, Wooley has helped her teams to a National Championship; three NCAA Tournament appearances; four WNIT showings, including a runner-up finish; two regular-season conference championships and two conference tournament titles.

The National Championship came in Wooley’s first season on the Gamecock sideline in 2023-24 as South Carolina posted just the 10th undefeated National Championship season in NCAA history. She also guided recruiting efforts that landed the No. 2 class in the country, which came on the heels of her role in securing the top-ranked group in the Class of 2019 as the Gamecocks’ director of recruiting operations in her first stint in Columbia (2017-20).

After leaving the Gamecocks’ staff at the end of the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season, Wooley returned to the sidelines as an assistant coach at Villanova for two seasons. In her first season, the Wildcats reached the WNIT Quarterfinals and built on that momentum in 2021-22 with a second-place finish in the Big East and a spot in the NCAA Second Round behind a 24-9 overall record.

Just before her first stint in Columbia, Wooley was an assistant coach at Loyola (Md.) in 2016-17, following four seasons at Hawaii (2012-16), including the last three as the associate head coach. She helped the Rainbow Wahine to the 2015 Big West regular-season title and to the postseason all four seasons of her tenure, including the 2016 NCAA Tournament after they won the Big West Conference Tournament. Wooley’s first coaching position came as an assistant coach at Southern Cal. In her three seasons in Los Angeles (2009-12), the Women of Troy went 61-37 overall and were the WNIT runner-up in 2010.

Wooley’s return to the Gamecock staff marks her third time working for Staley, who launched her career by hiring her at Temple as a graduate extern and director of basketball operations (2003-09).

After Wooley’s own basketball career at USC Aiken, which included the program’s first Peach Belt Conference Championship and NCAA Tournament berth, closed with her 2002 graduation with a bachelor’s degree in experimental psychology, Staley welcomed her to the Temple staff (2003-09) as Wooley pursued her master’s in counseling psychology, which she completed in 2005. She served as the program’s director of basketball operations for three of the six seasons she was on Staley’s staff.

The Wooley Capsule

Coaching Experience

South Carolina, assistant coach, 2023-present
Villanova, assistant coach, 2020-22
Loyola (Md.), assistant coach, 2016-17
Hawaii, associate head coach, 2013-16; assistant coach 2012-13
Southern Cal, assistant coach, 2009-12

Other Experience

South Carolina, director of recruiting and strategy, 2022-23; director of recruiting operations, 2017-20
Temple, director of basketball operations, 2006-09

Playing Experience

USC Aiken, 1999-2002

Education

Bachelor of science, experimental psychology, USC Aiken, 2022
Master of education, counseling psychology, Temple, 2005