This is an opinion column.

They don’t have to be giant to be giant.

Dawn Staley was never the tallest on any stage. Yet she has always been a giant — as a dominating player (in many ways the pioneering Caitlin Clark of her era) and now among the most influential coaches of this generation. In any sport.

The former point guard, Basketball Hall of Famer and South Carolina women’s basketball coach since 2008 has won three national championships and has been named the Naismith Coach of the Year four times, including the last three consecutive seasons. (She’s a finalist for the award this year.)

On Sunday, she seeks to lead the Gamecocks to their seventh Final Four during her tenure as they battle Duke in the Elite Eight at Legacy Arena in Birmingham.

With success, Staley has become far more than an resonant voice for women’s basketball as it ascends to historic highs in popularity. She’s a bold, unapologetic advocate for change beyond the sport — a model for an emerging collective of African American coaches and players.

“I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” she shared earlier this week. “I’m comfortable in my skin, with dealing with look, sound, feel. If something looks, sounds or feels off, then I address it. If it looks, sounds or feels great, then I promote it.

“Our program has been very successful, and more times than not, the questions about the state of our game are directed towards the most successful coach. I don’t mean to sound like I’m patting myself on the back, but it’s just how it is in our sport. It just gravitates towards who’s had the most success to get quotes about our game.”

Just as she stands on the shoulders of pioneering Black women such as the legendary C. Vivian Stringer, the first coach, male or female, to take three different schools to the Final Four; and former Purdue coach Carolyn Peck, the first Black woman to coach an NCAA championship team, Staley’s shoulders are lifting others.

She’s one of three Black coaches to lead their team to the Birmingham Regional. She was joined by Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey and Kara Lawson at Duke, both of whom are also former players (Ivey at Notre Dame, Lawson under the legendary Pat Summit at Tennessee) who’ve forged successful coaching careers.

“I’m fortunate that I have a lot of role models I look up to,” Ivey said before the Irish fell to TCU, 71-62 on Saturday. “Dawn Staley is one of mine. She’s somebody who has always reached out to me, empowered me. I understand the magnitude of being in this position, being in a leadership position as a Black woman, having success and hopefully opening doors for more Black women. Being able to relate to my players and being a leader is big for them to see, as well. That’s a big piece of recruiting, and I take it on like a cape. It’s something bigger than me.”

Lawson, also a former WNBA and Olympic champion, has said while she and Staley aren’t close friends, she characterizes their relationship as “respectful competitors,” a sentiment echoed by Staley.

“For someone that has devoted and served our game as long as she has, you’ve got to tip your hat to her,” Staley added.

Last year was a historic season for South Carolina. It went undefeated en route to the 2024 national championship. This year has been more challenging. The Gamecocks won 33 games but lost three times, in part due to Staley curating one of the most difficult schedules in the nation.

South Carolina entered March Madness as the second-overall seed behind UCLA, which Staley criticized when the seeds were announced, saying that her team should not be punished for playing a tough schedule. In Birmingham, she sought to contextualize her stance.

“In speaking out about not being the number one overall seed, I hope didn’t diminish what UCLA earned and deserved and accomplished,” she said. “I should have led with that. Me speaking out is more about what should happen in the future.”

Staley knows her words matter, as a diminutive giant now on the stage she helped build.

“I would probably say the same thing today that I would have said 15-20 years ago,” she said, “but we were just still trying to become a prominent program. I only want our game to grow, even though, even if that’s a detriment — momentarily — to our program. I’m okay with that.”

Let’s be better tomorrow than we are today. My column appears on AL.com, and digital editions of The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times, and Mobile Press-Register. Tell me what you think at [email protected], and follow me at twitter.com/roysj, Instagram @roysj and BlueSky.