All About South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley’s Parents and Siblings
All About South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley’s Parents and Siblings
Emily BlackwoodFri, April 3, 2026 at 10:15 PM UTC
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Head coach Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks cuts down the net after the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament National Championship on April 07, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio.Credit: Gregory Shamus/Getty -
Dawn Staley was raised by her parents, Clarence and Estelle, in North Philadelphia
She grew up with four siblings: Lawrence, Anthony, Tracey and Eric
Both of Dawn's parents and her brother, Anthony, have died
University of South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has long traced the discipline that defines her on the court back to her upbringing.
"I'm thankful," the NCAA championship-winning head coach told ESPN in March 2018. "Because the life lessons taught in my house? They stuck. My parents made me. My foundation is rooted in discipline. They gave me that."
Clarence and Estelle Staley raised their five children — Lawrence, Anthony, Tracey, Eric and Dawn— in the Raymond Rosen projects of North Philadelphia.
Clarence worked as a part-time carpenter before his death in 2006, and her brother, Anthony, died of COVID-19 in 2020, per GQ. Estelle was a domestic worker who lived in South Carolina with her daughter until she died of Alzheimer's in 2017.
Here's everything to know about Dawn Staley's parents and siblings.
They moved to Philadelphia from South Carolina
Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks during practice for the Sweet 16 NCAA Women's Basketball Regional on March 27, 2026 in Sacramento, California.Credit: Supriya Limaye/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty
While they were teenagers in the 1950s, Estelle and Clarence left their home in South Carolina to move to Philadelphia in pursuit of more opportunities.
"Segregation was still legal," Dawn wrote of her mother's history in a November 2018 essay for The Players' Tribune. "Separate bathrooms. All of it. She left the South at the age of 13, seeking equality and opportunity."
According to Estelle's obituary in The State, she returned to her native state of South Carolina when her daughter was named the university's head women's basketball coach.
Dawn revisited the full-circle moment in her essay, writing that, "She left South Carolina because of the racial divide. I came back with a hope to bridge it."
Dawn has four siblings
Head coach Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks on January 18, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland.Credit: G Fiume/Getty
The Gamecocks coach is the youngest of five. She told ESPN that her parents moved into a three-bedroom, single-bath row house in the housing projects of North Philly after they married in 1967, where they would raise their three sons and two daughters.
"We grew up in poverty," Dawn wrote in The Players' Tribune. "My mom was a domestic worker. She cleaned houses and buildings. That was her only real employment option."
She continued, "We didn’t have a lot of nice things — clothes and shoes, things like that. You don’t think much about it when you’re young. Maybe I wanted some nice sneakers sometimes, but where we were from was all we knew."
Her mother was a strict disciplinarian
Head coach Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks speaks during a press conference on April 02, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.Credit: Sarah Stier/Getty
Dawn told ESPN that, though she was close to her mother, she also "feared" her because of her strict disciplinary methods with her five kids.
"She didn't spare the rod," the coach recalled. However, as long as she got good grades, her mother would let her play basketball.
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“I carry with me my mother’s wrath and all the things she stood for,” the three-time Olympic gold medalist told The Post and Courier in February 2021. “My humble beginnings of being a rules-follower growing up under my mother’s roof is the very thing that guides me."
Her mother wasn't the only family member who was tough on her. Dawn recalled to The Post and Courier how her four older siblings also "thought it was their right to tell me what to do."
Dawn supported her older sister when she was diagnosed with leukemia
In 2021, Dawn shared that her older sister, Tracey, had been diagnosed with leukemia the previous year, the reported.
The coach oversaw much of Tracey's treatment, which included calling "everybody in America" and testing family members to find a match for a necessary bone marrow transplant.
Tracey eventually received stem cells from their brother, Lawrence, and by the following March, she had recovered enough to attend one of her little sister's games.
“My sister being here is an awesome thing,” Dawn told the in March 2021. “I look forward to hearing her call my name out. I know once I hear it, I give her a little Philly nod saying, ‘I hear you but can’t see you, especially if I don’t have my glasses on.’ ”
Her parents and her brother Anthony died
Sadly, three of Dawn's immediate family members have died. Clarence died from an illness in 2006, and Estelle died from Alzheimer's in 2017, per ESPN.
Three years later, the coach's older brother, Anthony, died after contracting COVID-19. Though he went to the hospital for an incessant cough, doctors told him he could return to work.
Anthony had a major stroke a week later, and Dawn told GQ that it was "just downhill from there."
“Even if he recovered, he would have been in a state that he wouldn't want to be in," she told the magazine in 2021.
Dawn added, "You know... I sang to him, put the gospel on, we talked to him, we told him we loved him ... I'm in a good place knowing that it was peaceful.”
Dawn said she relied on one of her favorite phrases to get through those hard times: "control what you can control."
“We fought our way out of it," she said, noting that her role as a coach gave her something to move toward. "My work isn't done ... I feel like there's more for me to do.”
on People
Source: “AOL Sports”
