South Carolina’s Dawn Staley effect: ‘I was dying to get a picture with her’

South Carolina, in want of assist at vast receiver, pulled out all of the stops in March when Corey Rucker made an official go to.

The itinerary for the potential switch from Arkansas State featured a dry-aged ribeye on the upscale Halls Chophouse, a customized photograph shoot at South Carolina’s soccer facility and speaking ball with the offensive employees. A bar in Columbia’s standard nightlife space splashed “WE WANT COREY RUCKER” on its marquee.

That’s why it took Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer without warning when he heard what Rucker thought-about the most effective a part of his journey. Nothing topped the second, Rucker mentioned, when he obtained to satisfy South Carolina’s different well-known coach — Daybreak Staley, in fact.

“It form of shook me slightly bit,” Beamer mentioned, laughing. “I’m like, ‘Nicely gosh, bud. You’ve been right here 48 hours and we’ve been to 2 dinners and breakfast and lunch and talked soccer and frolicked with the coaches and gamers, and that’s the spotlight.

“However no, I feel it’s incredible. … I like watching Daybreak’s groups play and am so grateful that she was keen to do one thing like that for Corey.”

Staley has led the ladies’s basketball program to 2 nationwide championships, together with the newest in April over UConn. Because the face of her sport, she speaks out about social justice and girls’s athletics. And because the face of South Carolina athletics, she has additionally develop into a further weapon for Beamer on the recruiting path.

Rucker, a self-professed Staley superfan who had 59 catches for 826 yards and 9 touchdowns final season at Arkansas State, dedicated to the Gamecocks in April.

“I don’t know what all people does on their campus, however I do know what we do right here at South Carolina, and it’s an all-hands-on-deck method to any customer that we now have in any sport,” Staley mentioned.

“I might do something to ensure that our scholar/athletes to have a fantastic expertise right here. And it takes a few of all of us to make that occur.”

Staley arrived on South Carolina’s campus in 2008 and naturally is aware of all concerning the significance of recruiting. She has signed two high lessons, in 2019 and 2021, and completed with the No. 2 class in 2014, per ESPN. Star ahead A’ja Wilson, who now has a statue on South Carolina’s campus, was the top-ranked participant within the Class of 2014 by ESPN and performed for Staley earlier than turning into a WNBA All-Star. Aliyah Boston, the Gamecocks’ present star ahead and Naismith Nationwide Participant of the 12 months, dedicated to Staley and South Carolina over UConn, Notre Dame and Ohio State within the Class of 2019.

It’s not unusual for Staley to pitch in with softball, males’s basketball or monitor and discipline recruiting efforts when athletes are on campus and coaches ask for a particular look.

She just lately made a cameo for the soccer group in a “Full Home” impressed video, showing in a scene with quarterback Spencer Rattler. The 2 hadn’t met earlier than they shot, which, to their credit score, took solely about two takes. Justin King, South Carolina’s director for brand new and inventive media, first got here up with the concept for the video, which reveals off the “forged” of the soccer group in a nod to ABC’s Eighties and Nineteen Nineties hit concerning the Tanner household.

“It’s identical to with all of the groups and coaches on this campus, we wish to create an edge. Wherever we are able to get it,” Staley mentioned. “Everyone is aware of what we’re making an attempt to do for one another and what we’re making an attempt to do for our respective applications. And it’s only a cellphone name. It’s identical to that right here at South Carolina. A cellphone name, a textual content message — ‘Hey, is coach busy?’”

Staley first obtained phrase that Rucker was itching to satisfy her simply earlier than his official go to got here to an in depth. He posted the pictures from his photograph shoot on social media with the caption, “that is @dawnstaley nation,” across the identical time Jessica Jackson, South Carolina’s director of on-campus recruiting, requested if there was something that might make his journey extra memorable.

That’s when he floated the concept of assembly Staley, whom he accurately assumed was about to win one other nationwide championship. A local of Bentonia, Miss., about two hours south of Starkville, Miss., Rucker began following Staley’s profession when the Gamecocks beat Mississippi State within the 2017 nationwide championship.

“I used to be dying to get an image along with her,” he mentioned. “Needed to get an image along with her.”

On the time of Rucker’s go to, Staley’s Gamecocks have been within the thick of Candy 16 preparation for a recreation towards North Carolina in Greensboro, N.C. However the two-time Naismith Coach of the 12 months made time anyway. Staley initially deliberate to ask Rucker and his household to her workplace. However she did one higher, assembly them at her dwelling  — “she has a phenomenal home; oh my God it’s insane,” Rucker mentioned. Rucker mentioned he was so excited to satisfy her that he hardly slept the evening earlier than. His abdomen, he mentioned, “went by means of the ground.”

When Rucker and his household arrived, Staley confirmed them round and, in fact, launched them to her canine, Champ, who has develop into a bit of an internet sensation.

Essentially the most memorable second, although?

“She simply form of informed me it wouldn’t be a nasty resolution. She mentioned on the finish of the day, I’ve to do what’s finest for me. However I assume her convincing assertion was, ‘You look good in garnet,’” Rucker mentioned.

“I blushed slightly bit.”

Staley mentioned she recurrently talks to oldsters throughout soccer video games and appreciates Beamer for the best way he desires each program in Columbia to win. If Rucker is Staley’s greatest fan on the soccer group, then freshman guard Bree Corridor is Beamer’s greatest fan on the ladies’s basketball group. And Beamer doesn’t hesitate to return favors for Staley.

Staley’s Gamecocks misplaced solely two video games final season, one among which got here within the SEC match championship recreation towards Kentucky. Between that loss and the NCAA Match, Beamer swung by a observe, the place Staley requested him to share a couple of phrases along with her group. Just a few weeks later, he took his household to Minneapolis to cheer on the Gamecocks once they captured one other championship.

“Beamer is, to me, he simply tries to get it achieved. He’s man, he’s at all times obtained a constructive spin on (issues) and he makes his method — he makes his rounds,” Staley mentioned. “He made it a degree to go see each sport (on campus) play. Like, each sport.

“Our gamers actually love him.”

Beamer mentioned he hopes that his recruits make the most of having Staley round, significantly due to the attitude she has from constructing a once-struggling program right into a nationwide champion. He added that a couple of of the moms of recruits who took visits to campus final month performed school basketball and definitely are acquainted with Staley.

“Corey’s the one one who has particularly requested to sit down down along with her, however he undoubtedly received’t be the final. And I need them to,” Beamer mentioned. “I need to have the ability to get different recruits round her.”

Rely four-star quarterback Dante Reno, a South Carolina commit within the Class of 2024, amongst those that have already heard about Staley’s standing on campus.

“I haven’t met her,” Reno mentioned in a direct message. “However I’ve heard she is the G.O.A.T.”

(High photograph of Daybreak Staley: Kirby Lee / USA Right now)