Dawn Staley Went Woke Again

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There’s no denying University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley is the best in the country at what she does. In addition to winning eight Southeastern Conference (SEC) tournament championships and eight regular season conference titles, her Gamecocks have captured a pair of NCAA crowns (in 2017 and 2022). South Carolina was the runaway favorite to win another championship in 2020 – but Covid-19 canceled postseason play that year. Last season, Staley’s team was undefeated prior to losing to No. 3 Iowa in the Final Four in Dallas, Texas. This afternoon, they seek revenge against the Hawkeyes – and their third national title – in the NCAA championship game.

What Staley has accomplished is beyond remarkable – to say nothing of transformative for the Gamecock program.

After going a middling 67-58 (.536) during her first four years in Columbia, Staley’s teams have gone 372-48 (.886) since – including a 166-9 (.949) record over the past five seasons. South Carolina has not missed the NCAA tournament since the 2010-2011 season – a run of twelve straight appearances.

That is nothing short of dynastic, people.

Along the way, though, Staley’s incessant “wokeness” – which is sadly par for the course at the taxpayer-funded institution which employs her – has rubbed many fans (including this one) the wrong way.

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It all started back in 2017 after South Carolina captured its first national crown and the head coach was asked whether she would accept the traditional invitation extended to championship programs to visit the White House.

“Yeah, I’m going to the White House,” Staley told The Associated Press. “It’s what it stands for.  It’s what national champions do.  We’ll go to the White House.”

Staley was praised for putting sports over politics … at least initially. Months later, though, the 53-year-old Philadelphia native flip-flopped – rebuffing an invitation from the administration of former president Donald Trump.

Things escalated when Staley received a seven-year, $22.4 million contract extension in 2021. Obviously she deserved every cent of the money, but in announcing the new deal she blasted both the university – and the taxpayers who provided all that money to her – for their “rich history of racism.”

That’s right …

Staley further had the audacity to refer to her $800,000-a-year pay raise (which brought her annual salary to $2.9 million) as “progressive” – a curious description coming from a multi-millionaire taxpayer-funded employee who works in one of the poorest states in America.

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Lately, the wokeness has gotten out of control. Two years ago, en route to her program’s second title, Staley’s players refused to take the court for the playing of the national anthem prior to their semi-final victory over Louisville. Staley insisted it was all about timing – that appearing for the anthem would have interfered with their pregame routine – but she previously stated her team was boycotting the national anthem to “bring awareness to racial injustice in our country.” 

Staley further stated her team would boycott the anthem “until we’re able to come to the table with tangible things that change the way that people are treated – people of color, black people, minorities.”

In the fall of 2022, Staley stepped in it again when she canceled (literally) South Carolina’s scheduled 2022 and 2023 games with Brigham Young University (BYU) after a Cougar fan allegedly “directed racial slurs at a black Duke volleyball player during a game.” Evidence of these alleged slurs never materialized, though, despite extensive investigation by local law enforcement and the university.

Staley refused to back down, saying her “personal research” led her to believe the slurs were real.

To be clear: I’ve always given Staley the benefit of the doubt when it comes to her political beliefs. I’ve even acknowledged she’s not wrong in saying racism in America exists and needs to be called out (no matter from whence it originates).

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Sadly, the latest iteration of Staley’s woke crusade stabs at the very heart of the institution she has helped define – and which has helped define her – over the course of her life. Left unchecked, in fact, I believe it would destroy that institution. Asked this weekend whether biological males should be allowed to compete in NCAA women’s sports, Staley said … yes.

Wait … what?

“I’m of the opinion that if you’re a woman, you should play,” Staley said, according to The Associated Press. “If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports, or vice versa, you should be able to play.”

I’m sorry … come again?

As someone who has spent the better part of the last two decades defending individual liberty, I believe – like Staley – that people have a right to identify as whatever they want to.

“People should be free to make choices about who they want to be – even if those choices are in a constant state of flux,” I wrote back in the fall of 2018. “It is not up to us to judge – and it certainly isn’t up to government to judge.  In fact, government is bound by the Fourteenth Amendment to provide equal protection to all of its citizens.  That includes men, women and … well … whatever.”

Here’s the thing, though: Equal protection does not mean compulsory acceptance. Nor should liberty create an obligation – or expectation – of special treatment. You can identify as anything you want – Alexander the Great, Beavis, Count Chocula, Donald Duck – but as much as the “gender affirmers” want you to believe otherwise, wishing doesn’t make it so. Far from it. Oh, and you don’t get to turn around and play the victim when people call you crazy. If you think you are a duck … you probably are crazy.

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Most importantly, this so-called “liberty” – which in most cases is culturally stimulated insanity – can never and must never infringe upon the greater liberty of others. In other words, its expression cannot create unfair and unlawful discrimination against others.

I made this incontrovertible dogma unambiguously clear two years ago in addressing the very issue Staley is now weighing in on so unfortunately …

“The hill I will die on every time is this absurd notion that inherent unfairness can somehow promote equality,” I wrote. “That aspirational inclusion can somehow justify actual exclusion. And that those who refuse to fall in line with this insane new orthodoxy are somehow morally inferior to those attempting to foist it upon us and our children.”

Because make no mistake: They are coming for your kids.

Indoctrination notwithstanding, it boils down thusly: If men are allowed to compete in women’s sports … what is the point of having women’s sports?

Of all people Staley ought to know that. Unless, of course, she thinks it would be fair for the Iowa men’s basketball team to replace the women (well, maybe not Caitlin Clark) in today’s championship game.

In the cover image chosen for this story, Staley is seen at a recent men’s basketball game wearing a WNBA sweater.

My question to the coach is simple: If we follow her newly expressed views on transgender athletes … what does the “W” stand for?

I’ll wait for an answer …

_{^{BANNER: Travis Bell Columbia SC Photographers}}

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.

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