Dover, Del. (Aug. 8, 2022) --- Philadelphia native Dawn Staley, the second African-American female to coach a team to a NCAA women's basketball championship, has shared the joy of her achievement with a special group of her peers.
This past spring, Staley led the University of South Carolina to its second NCAA women's basketball title during her tenure as head coach, defeating the University of Connecticut in the championship game.
Since winning her first title in 2017, Staley has shared a piece of the net she helped cut down after the championship game win with fellow African-American women head coaches throughout the country, including Delaware State's E.C. Hill.  
In 1999, Carolyn Peck became the first Black coach to win a women's basketball national championship. "When I was described as the first, that meant there was going to be a second," Peck told the Undefeated in 2017.
But for over a decade, Peck remained the sole member of that club.
In 2015, Peck decided to give Staley a piece of her 1999 net. But there was one condition: when Staley won her national title, she had to pass it on, Peck told her.
Staley tucked the piece of Peck's net in her wallet and, two years later, she climbed the ladder at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, to cut her own championship net off of the hoop.
Staley returned her gifted piece of net back to Peck, but it took her a few years to pass her own net along.
She decided to send a piece of her net to every Black woman basketball head coach.
Staley said it was her way of sharing her accomplishment with others. "I figuratively give them a piece of the net because there's so many people involved in a big accomplishment like winning a national championship," she explained.
"It's such an encouragement and an honor that Dawn thought enough of her peers to share in this great achievement," said Hill, who is in her second year as Delaware State's head women's basketball coach. "She is a tremendous inspiration and role model to all coaches and student-athletes, as well as someone who represents the best of college athletics."