Dawn Staley Feature from The Temple News

The Temple News wrote a great article on the school’s former head coach and South Carolina’s current head women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley.  Click here to read – “Success at South Carolina.”

“The SEC is a challenge every single night,” she added. “[In] the SEC, you can try all you want to out-work somebody, but you get out-talented every single time. Talent wins in the SEC. You have to keep up with the Joneses in the SEC. Every team has an All-American in their recruiting class every single year.”

Talent is on the way, as Staley welcomes the No. 4-ranked recruiting class led by Kelsey Bone, Ieasia Walker and Ashley Bruner. Like Staley’s teams at Temple, she promises that the Gamecocks will be competitive for all 40 minutes.

“I know we’re going to work hard,” Staley said. “I know we’ll be in a position to win more basketball games than we did last year. We got to first get into the middle of the pack, and then we can talk about winning championships.”

Dawn Staley 3-on-3 Tip-Off

Women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley hosted the first “Dawn Staley 3-0n-3 Tip-Off” last night and from all reports, it was a rousing success.

• The turnout was great – 32 teams participated in the event and there was actually a waiting list of another 20 teams.
• Based on the success of Thursday night, look for this to become an annual event and possibly expanding the field.
• Each team received three Gamecock reversible practice jerseys.
• Free food, free drinks and a DJ were all available at the event
• Each game was played to 11 points (teams had to win by 2). A 20-minute time limit per game was also in effect.
• Before the tournament started, Coach Staley challenged the students to give the Gamecocks the best student attendance in the country at women’s basketball games

The two finals teams will compete at halftime of the women’s basketball game vs. Penn State on Nov. 22nd. Coach Staley will buy spring semester books for the winning team. Make sure you stick around at halftime to see it (from what we saw of the other tournament games, competition will be fierce!).

Click here for a photo gallery from the event

Season tickets for women’s basketball are on sale now at the South Carolina Athletics Ticket Office. Call 800-4SC-FANS or visit GamecocksOnline.com to order today. Season ticket plans start at just $50.

Cocks Crow: Staley, NFL, FB, Women’s Soccer

• A WNBA rookie was starstruck seeing Coach Dawn Staley at the Atlanta Dream – L.A. Sparks game last night.
• Former Gamecock wideout Troy Williamson had a big night this weekend in preseason play as he tries to lock down a permanent spot on the Jaguars roster.  Click here for video highlights of the Jags game vs. Tampa Bay.
• Football walk-on Bryce Sherman “came out of nowhere” to impress coaches in preseason camp.
• Congrats to the women’s soccer team for their performance in a 2-0 win against Mexico on Friday night in Greenville.  I’ll have my take on the game up later in the day.

First Night Carolina

Several members of the athletics department helped welcome new South Carolina freshmen students to campus at First Night Carolina on Saturday night.  Nearly 3,000 freshmen heard from women’s soccer coach Shelley Smith, men’s soccer coach Mark Berson, women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley and men’s basketball coach Darrin Horn as part of the event at Williams-Brice Stadium.

• Coach Berson and Coach Smith introduced their freshmen players to the crowd and encouraged the students to support their teams this season.
• Coach Staley offered Gamecock apparel to the first ten people who tweeted “First Night Carolina” to her Twitter page.
• Coach Horn arrived in a Garnet Army t-shirt and talked about the student section at basketball.  He also left with the quote of the night: “This ain’t your daddy’s Carolina… this Carolina doesn’t lose at home!”

Students also received information about the new Student Rewards program – a way to earn points for Under Armour merchandise just for attending Gamecock events.  Click here for more info on the rewards program.

Cocks Crow: Helmet Schedules, Charleston Classic, Dawn Staley

• I don’t know who came up with the idea of football helmet schedules online, but they are awesome.  This site lets you create your own based on a number of criteria.  Very cool.
• Tickets went on sale this morning for the Charleston Classic.  The Gamecocks play La Salle at Carolina First Arena on Nov. 19th at 9:30 p.m.  Tickets for the entire tournament (12 games) are just $90.  For more info, click here.  After making my first trip to Charleston this weekend, I’m definitely planning on traveling to this event.
• Good to see some positives come out of Sunday’s football scrimmage for the offense.  I’m excited to see the new running game in action this season.
• Women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley made it to football practice on Friday night.  If you follow her on Twitter (@dawnstaley) – you know that she enjoyed herself and even made it to the scrimmage on Sunday.  Here’s a photo of her and director of basketball operations Angela O’Neal at Friday’s practice: