South Carolina received a bright spotlight when winning the women’s basketball national championship. Yet Dawn Staley continued to cultivate close ties to local journalists.
David Cloninger has covered South Carolina throughout Staley’s 16 seasons as head coach. He told Front Office Sports’ Margaret Fleming that Staley has never neglected local reporters even as the program received more attention across the country.
“She will always make time for whoever’s asking for a piece of her time. Even though these days, there are more and more people who are asking,” Cloninger said. “She’s never refused me an interview, even when you have to talk about difficult subjects.”
Amanda Poole, a reporter for Columbia’s WACH Fox affiliate, told Fleming that local media is “spoiled” by the access Staley provides. Chase Justice, who covers the Gamecocks for NBC’s WYFF in Greenville, said Staley “just gets it.”
“She could be off after these games doing quite literally anything that she wanted to,” Justice said. “But she’s taking time to build connections with the media because she understands how far that coverage goes. That’s special, and that’s not something that happens very often.”
Staley explained why she considers local journalism so important to expanding interest in the game.
“I think local media is the soul to the local team,” Staley said. “I hope that … whatever market that you’re in, that you allow your local media access to your team. Because the community is listening, and that’s your fan base.”
Staley added that she prefers talking to beat reporters who “know the type of questions they need to ask” because of their enhanced knowledge of the team.
“They’ve watched us, and they’ve followed us, and they know what our standard is, and when we don’t play to our standard, they recognize it,” Staley said. “So it’s not like the national media who sees you once or twice or three times, and that’s their opinion. Or they’ll speak from a historical standpoint, not knowing real-time what our team is all about. But the local media, they know.
“I’d rather spend my time with the people that really know our team, that’s going to report back to our fan base and give them the real.”
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, a station in Columbia sent five people to cover the Sweet Sixteen and Final Four. Staley lauded the significance of WIS investing heavily in NCAA tournament coverage.
“I got to shout them out because a decision maker decided to blow the budget on women’s basketball,” Staley said. “And that’s unheard of.”