University of South Carolina Women’s Basketball Coach Dawn Staley Will Speak at 2025 Fred Barakat Sports Dinner

Three-time NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship coach and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Dawn Staley will be the featured speaker at the 2025 Fred Barakat Sports Dinner benefitting the Greensboro Aquatic Center’s Learn-to-Swim Program, the Greensboro Sports Council announced.

Founded in 2008, The Fred Barakat Sports Dinner was renamed in 2011 in memory of the late associate commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The 2025 event is set for Monday, April 28 at the Greensboro Complex. 
 

Since joining the University of South Carolina in 2008, Staley and the Gamecocks have challenged for Southeastern Conference and national championships ever year. Staley led the Gamecocks to the national title in 2017, ’22 and ’24, and the perennial national championship contender advanced to the NCAA Final Four in six of the last nine seasons. In addition, Staley’s Gamecocks:
 

• Were ranked in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll every week since Dec. 10, 2012.
• Spent 38 weeks at No. 1 in the Associated Press Poll – just the third program to go wire-to-wire in back-to-back seasons. 
• Spent 83 weeks at No. 1 in the Associated Press Poll, the third most in poll history.
• Won eight SEC regular-season championships: 2014-’17, 2020, 2022-’24.

Staley began her coaching career at Temple University winning the first A-10 Championship in school history. Her coaching career followed her standout playing career; she was a three-time All-Star in six WNBA seasons. While at the University of Virginia, she made three trips to the NCAA Final Four and a national championship game appearance in 1991. She was ACC Rookie of the Year in 1989 and ACC Player of the Year in 1991 and ’92. She finished her Virginia career as the only player in ACC history, male or female, to record more than 2,000 points, 700 rebounds, 700 assists and 400 steals. The Olympic Gold Medal winner was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 2013, and as a three-time national championship coach and the only black head coach with multiple titles, she seems a lock to also be inducted as a coach.

ESPN College Basketball analyst Debbie Antonelli will interview Staley at the event. The Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer calls some 80 college basketball broadcasts each season; a native of Cary, N.C., she is an alumna of NC State University.
 

The Greensboro Aquatic Center’s Learn-to-Swim program aims to teach water safety skills to every second-grade student attending Guilford County Schools at no expense to the family; the Learn-to-Swim program is mostly privately funded - money generated by this event is vital for the program. Last year’s Fred Barakat Sports Dinner featuring ESPN College Basketball Analyst Seth Greenberg contributed $45,000 to the Learn-to-Swim program.

Barakat joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1981 as the supervisor of men’s basketball officials.  He was later named assistant commissioner and was then promoted to associate commissioner, director of men’s basketball. For 16 years he served as the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament director along with his other basketball responsibilities that included scheduling, managing the league’s television partners and officiating. He passed away in 2010.

The Fred Barakat Sports Dinner is open to the general public; corporate partnerships offering access to the VIP reception with Staley are currently being sold by the Greensboro Sports Council. Individual tickets are $175, tables of 10 are $1,500; for additional information, please visit www.greensborosportscouncil.com or contact Tyler Key, tylermkey@yahoo.com. For additional information on the Learn-to-Swim program, please visit www.greensboroaquaticcenter.com/learn-to-swim.