COLOMBIA, SC – Dawn Staley quickly covered her mouth with embarrassment. She swore while telling the story of how she was kicked out of a convenience store when trying to buy lottery tickets.
The moment came and went in the blink of an eye, a second in almost an hour of face-to-face conversations with Atlético spread over the past month. But it is a succinct way of telling a long story, which is how the head coach of the United States women’s team and South Carolina’s 7th position in Gamecocks find themselves at the confluence of so many forces at such a tense moment.
Staley reached the peak of his profession twice. Before being one of the most recognized and successful coaches in the sport, she won three Olympic medals as a player and was named one of the 15 best WNBA players of all time. Prior to that, she was twice the NCAA’s best player of the year.