<\/p>\n
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley relies on her ability to guide her team through coaching. In one instance, she leaned on the faith of a star player\u2019s mother. In sports, faith occasionally takes on an entirely different meaning. Granted, many will pray within their chosen belief system. However, talent and skill guide you through the games\u2019 positive and negative aspects.<\/p>\n
South Carolina HC Dawn Staley Praises Aliyah Boston\u2019s Mother for Faith-Based Positivity<\/p>\n
Staley knows how little elite talent exists in the game. Coaches from over 361 other schools contend to stack their rosters with the best of the best. Sometimes they land the top athletes. Meanwhile, on different occasions, a rival will scoop that talent. As a result, coaches will attempt to maximize the player\u2019s skills for as long as they have them.<\/p>\n
When Staley signed center Aliyah Boston out of the U.S. Virgin Islands, she envisioned a talent that could fill the void after the graduation of A\u2019ja Wilson. However, when Boston herself graduated, Staley developed a worry. She shared this concern<\/a> on a recent episode of the \u201cPost Moves with Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cHey, I got to shout out to your mom, Aliyah. Miss Boston is a praying woman. If you want something done, you give it to Miss Boston. Seriously, I never thought I would coach another player like Aliyah. She was like, \u201cYes, you are.\u201d She was like, \u201cI\u2019m praying on it. Yes, you are. Believe in it.\u201d Right. So, now that we are talking about Miss Boston, I know you will watch this. Miss Boston, I need some heavy-hitting recruits.\u201d<\/p>\n During her tenure in Columbia, Boston probably exceeded Staley\u2019s demands and expectations. In 138 games for the Gamecocks, Boston averaged<\/a> 14.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks while shooting 54.6% from the field.<\/p>\n Additionally, she led South Carolina to a record of 129-9 and the 2021-22 national championship. The Indiana Fever chose Boston with the first overall pick of the 2023 WNBA Draft. Since her departure, Staley\u2019s team has won 73 of 77 games, including the 2023-24 national title.<\/p>\n Players can endure rough times and struggles, but a head coach cannot endure a rough recruiting cycle. The transfer portal may absorb some of the sting when you lose a recruit. Still, what helps sustain those long stretches of dominance is the ability to draw talented freshmen into her curated program<\/a>. Staley appears to continuously succeed at that particular aspect of the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley relies on her ability to guide her team through coaching. In one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[4,76833,983,15134,57607,99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-119110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-dawn-staley-makes-an-earnest-plea-to-aliyah-bostons-mother-ahead-of-2025-26-season","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-newsbreak","12":"tag-pfsn","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}