A’ja Wilson’s imprint on South Carolina’s program stretches far beyond the court

Dawn Staley first met A’ja Wilson in 2009.

Staley had just finished her first season as the head coach of the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team, a program that had long been dormant prior to her arrival.

Around the city of Columbia, South Carolina, Staley would run into Wilson’s father, Roscoe, on more than one occasion – the Wilson family lived in nearby Hopkins. Each meeting, he would bring up his daughter A’ja. 

“She’s good. She’s going to be good. She’s there,” he would say.

Each time, Staley’s response would be to bring Wilson to her local basketball camp.

“It’s surreal that when I took A’ja to Dawn’s camp, man, she was trash,” Roscoe Wilson said laughing. “I told her, ‘I’m just going to take you down here and let you [go].’

“You can kind of tell where your child is by where they are in the camp. A’ja was in the up-and-coming area. I told her, I said, ‘You got to work hard. There’s 150 kids here. You’re one. You be that one.’”

A’ja “was good at everything but basketball,” Staley jokes, adding she had one redeeming quality.

“She was tall,” Staley said. “I don’t even think basketball was in the forefront of her mind.”

Little did Staley know that she had just met the person and player in Wilson that would ultimately catapult Staley’s program to new heights. 

A decade ago, after emerging as the No. 1 overall recruit in the Class of 2014, Wilson would commit to playing for Staley at South Carolina. She would go on to lead the Gamecocks to the women’s basketball program’s first national championship in school history while becoming one of the most decorated and dominant players in the game.

On Sunday, South Carolina will honor its hometown kid as she is enshrined as a hometown legend, retiring Wilson’s No. 22 jersey in the rafters of Colonial Life Arena.

Wilson’s legacy, however, stretches far beyond the accolades she collected on the court for South Carolina. On a national level, Wilson’s success, alongside Staley, gave the sport a champion it had never seen before. At a local level, the ripple effects of Wilson’s impact on the region can be felt through multiple generations of Gamecocks teams and players.

“When people have contributed to their university, their athletics department, their city, their state, and then nationally, it’s only fitting that we honor them. A’ja is probably the top of the top when it comes to what she’s meant to our program,” Staley said. 

When Wilson committed to South Carolina in 2014, she broke rank from No. 1 overall high school recruits of the recent past. 

From 2007-2013, each of ESPN’s No. 1 ranked high school recruits committed to a program or coach that had won at least one national championship: Holly Warlick at Tennessee; Kim Mulkey at Baylor; Tara VanDerveer at Stanford; and Geno Auriemma at UConn. Of the top-ranked players from that period, only Brittney Griner (2009), committed to a school in her home state (Baylor).

“I said, ‘If you go to a North Carolina or a UConn, you can be one of 1,000 ladies to go through there and succeed and go on to the WNBA or other careers in their lives,” Roscoe Wilson said. “Or you can go to a school and carve your own legacy.’ … I was trying to tell her that the shiny ones are good, but there are some others that can be shiny, too.”

When Wilson committed to play for Staley and the Gamecocks, it put the sport on notice. 

“When A’ja committed, it was surprising because you’re still like, ‘Well, why don’t you go to Connecticut where you know you’re going to win a championship?’” basketball analyst and former coach Shimmy Gray-Miller said. “But it wasn’t as big a deal because you could see the direction in which the program was headed.”

By 2014, Staley’s South Carolina transformation had been building momentum for multiple seasons. The season prior to Wilson’s arrival, the team had made an appearance in the Sweet 16 and won the first Southeastern Conference regular-season title in program history, led by SEC Player of the Year Tiffany Mitchell.

Staley said Wilson’s commitment legitimized the program.

“It was perfect timing,” Staley said. “We were in a position where you could kind of see the missing pieces of a program about to take off, and it was the talent. …  A’ja, once she came to our team, the talent that we did have, she elevated just by her committing to us and being there for us and working with her teammates every day. She allowed us to grow in more ways than one.”

Despite Staley knowing Wilson since she was in middle school and establishing a rapport with her family, Wilson still kept her eventual head coach on her toes prior to committing.

“We didn’t even get a home visit invite. We were the only school on her list that did not go to her home,” Staley recalled. “I had to be thinking, ‘We got her? But we’re not even in the picture.’ She just said, ‘We’re all right here [in South Carolina]. I see y’all all the time.’”

Wilson’s initial takeoff in Columbia wasn’t the smoothest. 

When she first joined the South Carolina program, Roscoe Wilson envisioned a collegiate career for his daughter in which she would slot at the three position within the Gamecocks’ system instead of the four.

“I had already been through with her back to the basket. Post moves, she had that down. I wanted her to be a combo,” he said. “I wanted her to face the basket out in space.”

In her first game with the Gamecocks, Wilson started at the three. She played 16 minutes and shot 2-of-7 from the field while totaling five rebounds, a block, a steal and three turnovers.

“After that performance, it lends itself to me just doing what I wanted to do from the beginning, which was just bring her off the bench,” Staley said. “She came with a whole lot of publicity and high regard, and A’ja really shied away from all of that. I wanted her to be under the radar a little bit.” 

“Starting was not natural for her at the three,” Staley added. “Coming off the bench and playing the four, she could just do what she normally had done in high school and our preseason workout.”

There was a bit of hesitance around the move, both from Staley and Wilson’s parents, particularly around the optics of benching a No. 1 recruit – especially one in Wilson, who had generated a sizable buzz in her home state. When the decision was brought to Wilson, however, she was relieved. 

“She already felt pressure,” Staley said. “It was a hard decision, but it was the best decision.”

The moment became an important one in beginning to deepen the confidence between player and coach. 

“It was really all about trusting, trusting me and some of the decisions I made that may not look good from the outside in. And it was the right thing to do for A’ja,” Staley said.

The move paid off. Wilson wouldn’t start another game the rest of her freshman year, but she would quickly emerge as one of the top talents in the country. By season’s end she would be named the SEC freshman of the year, be named to the All-SEC First Team and even be selected to The Associated Press’ All-America Third Team. 

“Starting is really a privilege and a right, but it doesn’t define the great ones,” Staley said.

In Gray-Miller’s over two decades of coaching, she can’t remember a player’s year-over-year development being as explosive as Wilson’s from her sophomore to junior seasons. 

Serving as an assistant coach at the University of Florida from 2015-2017, Gray-Miller, who coached the Gators’ frontcourt, was in charge of scouting Wilson whenever they matched up. During Wilson’s sophomore season, Gray-Miller’s preparation for the 6-foot-4 forward wasn’t particularly complex. 

“She still was pretty one-dimensional,” Gray-Miller said. “She was pretty primarily, at that point, right shoulder, left hand dominant. She didn’t have a lot of moves. She really wasn’t able to face up. She had started to move a little bit away from the basket, but she wasn’t close to what she’s doing now.”

Even so, Wilson would still play at an All-American level as a sophomore, leading the Gamecocks to a second-consecutive SEC championship while earning her first conference Defensive Player of the Year and Player of the Year awards. 

However, by the time Wilson came to Gainesville, Florida, during her junior season, Gray-Miller couldn’t believe the exponential jump Wilson had made in her game. Wilson could now face up, deploy counter moves and use her right hand. Overall, she was more efficient and effective on the floor.

“It was something like I’ve never seen,” Gray-Miller said. “Just a much more mature and developed player. She just carried herself differently.”

Wilson would finish her junior season with the Gamecocks as an All-American, SEC Player of the Year and a national champion. 

In Wilson, who grew up just 20 minutes away from Colonial Life Arena, South Carolina had its first true local superstar. As a standout at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Wilson was considered a household name. Her games drew large crowds that would pack the school’s gymnasium to capacity. 

“You have to understand, she has been a darling to our city,” Staley said.

When Wilson committed to South Carolina, along with her came a fan base that has contributed to changing the game in women’s college basketball. In the year before Wilson’s arrival, South Carolina drew an average of 6,371 fans per game to Colonial Life Arena. During Wilson’s freshman season, that number grew to 12,293. By her senior season, it stood at 13,239.

South Carolina has led the nation in attendance for women’s basketball games each season since 2015. 

“The thing about South Carolina is, South Carolina loves winners,” Gamecocks freshman forward Joyce Edwards said of the state’s support of Wilson. “I just know the community in South Carolina, especially now since I’m actually in it, it just supports you so much.”

Added Staley: “I don’t think it moves as much if A’ja didn’t come to South Carolina.”

There were times when the attention and celebrity that came with Wilson being anointed local basketball royalty came at a price. She was often unable to experience a normal collegiate, even civilian, life. It’s an aspect of Wilson’s time at South Carolina that Staley said goes understated. 

“There was a time when A’ja couldn’t be an 18- to 20-year-old while she was living here because everybody knew her,” Staley said. “She couldn’t be normal. She couldn’t just go to the mall and pick up a pair of sneakers. They love her so much that she would have to stop, take pictures and have conversations. … We prepared her for her life right now.”

During her South Carolina tenure, Wilson’s ascension would not only captivate the in-state fans that packed into Colonial Life Arena, but she also would inspire the next generation of homegrown hoopers. One of those kids was Edwards, who currently leads this year’s South Carolina team in scoring.

Edwards, then a middle school student, had a front-row seat to the Wilson era when she attended Gamecocks home games as a “mop girl.” Edwards’ father, Charlie, was a big fan of Wilson’s and would use her as an example for Edwards, observing how Wilson can read defenders and dominate at her position. 

“Watching her play kind of just inspired me,” Edwards said. “It inspired me just to see what Dawn Staley can do with you when she comes to our program. She [was] just so dominant.”

At the time of Edwards’ commitment to South Carolina in November 2023, she was the No. 2 recruit in the country, making her the highest rated commit to the program since Wilson nearly 10 years earlier.

Prior to South Carolina’s national championship win in 2017, college basketball had never seen a Black coach and Black superstar player reach the mountaintop of the sport together. South Carolina’s success, piloted by Staley and Wilson, had disrupted the status quo of women’s college basketball. 

When Staley reflects on what she and Wilson were able to accomplish, as well as endure, during Wilson’s tenure, she said it comes down to one condition – trust. 

“When a player of her caliber trusts you – trusts you with their career, trusts you with their life, with their development – and you’re able to actually tangibly feel the success, it creates an instant bond,” Staley said. “A’ja allowed me into her life at a deeper level.”

It’s a bond they have maintained as Wilson has gone on to flourish at the next level as one of the faces of women’s basketball. As a pro, Wilson has become a two-time WNBA champion, three-time MVP and two-time Olympic gold medalist. 

“I sit back and I’m just proud,” Staley said. “I’m proud to know that no one’s going to take advantage of her, ever. If she deserves something, she’s going to speak her mind. She’s going to speak her mind, and she’s going to know her worth and she’s going to know how to articulate her worth.”

When Gamecocks fans enter Colonial Life Arena and look up at Wilson’s retired No. 22 jersey, they will be flooded with their own personal memories or stories of their hometown hero. For Edwards, it may be when she watched one of her basketball idols from the arena baseline as a kid. Perhaps Staley will be reminded of the tall, awkward teen she met 16 years ago. 

Staley hopes that seeing Wilson’s jersey in the rafters will serve as a reminder to dream big.

“A’ja has given hope to every little boy and girl who dare to dream and have their dreams realized before their very eyes,” Staley said. “Young people know A’ja and love A’ja and are adding discipline to their life because of her reality. Her reality is she’s the best player in the world – from our city.”