Dawn Staley has been voted Philadelphia’s Best College Coach in Philadelphia Magazine’s annual “Best of Philly” edition.

The magazine, on newsstands now, picks Philadelphia’s best in categories ranging from restaurants to doctors. Honorees are selected based on nominations sent in by fans and staffers.

Now entering her eighth season, Dawn Staley is well on her way to shaping the Temple women’s basketball program into the national powerhouse that she promised when taking over on April 12, 2000. The 2004 and 2005 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year and 2005 Regional Coach of the Year, Staley has won 151 games, becoming the fastest coach in Temple women’s basketball history to reach 100 wins. She has led the Owls to their first-ever A-10 Tournament titles (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006), five NCAA appearances since 2002 and a first-ever Top 25 National Ranking.

In 2006, Temple won its third straight Atlantic 10 title, a feat that has been accomplished just one other time in A-10 history.

She also helped to produce Temple’s first-ever WNBA First Round Draft Picks, when Candice Dupree (‘06) and Kamesha Hairston (‘07) were drafted by the Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun, respectively.

A four-time Philadelphia Big 5 Coach of the Year, Staley’s Owls earned their first-ever NCAA Tournament at-large bid last season and advanced to the Second Round for just the third time in program history.

In her first head coaching stint with USA Basketball, Staley is fresh off a gold-medal performance in the 2007 Pan American Games. The USA defeated host Brazil last week to earn its first gold medal since 1987. In February of 2006, Staley was selected as an assistant coach for the 2006 USA Women’s World Championship Team, headed by former Olympian and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm Head Coach Anne Donovan. Staley coached the squad to a bronze medal alongside Duke Head Coach Gail Goestenkors and the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun Head Coach Mike Thibault at the 2006 FIBA World Championships held in Sao Paulo Brazil. The staff has been retained for the Women’s Senior National Team through the 2008 Olympics, provided the U.S. qualifies for the Beijing Games.

This article was originally published on www.owlsports.com.
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