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South Carolina women's basketball: First impressions wow recruits

On3 imageby: Chris Wellbaum07/12/23ChrisWellbaum
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Dawn Staley (Photo by Chris Gillespie)

South Carolina Women’s Basketball: News • Recruiting • Schedule • Roster • Stats • SEC • Polls • Scholarships

Getting a scholarship offer from South Carolina hits differently for most players. It’s true whether that first phone call comes in middle school or the junior year of college. 

During the NCAA tournament, The Athletic polled current players about a variety of topics, including which coach (other than their own) they would most want to play for. Dawn Staley received 49 votes. All the other coaches in the country combined received 50 votes, with nobody receiving more than eight votes. 

There’s something special about that Staley phone call.

Like a lot of young girls, MiLaysia Fulwiley grew up dreaming of playing for Staley and the Gamecocks. She grew up some ten minutes from campus and attended her first game when she was seven or eight years old. She attended games with her mother and grandmother, and they told her they wanted her to play at Colonial Life Arena one day.

“That was before I was even good,” Fulwiley said. “We used to sit nosebleed, all the way up, really high. I fell in love with it. That was when A’ja played. I fell in love with the FAMs. It was just unreal. The support was crazy. It was a crazy atmosphere.”

Fulwiley became good in a hurry. By middle school, she was starting for the varsity team at W.J. Keenan High in Columbia, and her friends and family were already imagining her as the next great Gamecock. Fulwiley brushed off the hype, at least until she led Keenan to the state championship as an eighth-grader and Staley called with Fulwiley’s first scholarship offer.

“It was crazy,” Fulwiley remembered. 

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It isn’t just the players who are wowed, their parents are too. When South Carolina offered 2026 forward McKenna Woliczko this past March, her father was the one who seemed star-struck. Aaron Woliczko is a West Coast Conference associate commissioner, and he was traveling for the men’s tournament.

McKenna is still years away from committing, but the first impression is there on Twitter for all to see.

Tessa Johnson and Sahnya Jah didn’t get early offers like Fulwiley or Woliczko. Johnson had had some contact with South Carolina, but a broken left femur slowed her recruitment. Things were heating up when Johnson attended the 2022 Final Four suburban Minneapolis hometown. She fell in love with Staley and South Carolina.

“I was with my aunt and I literally told her I was like, I love their style. I was just like, I love it,” Johnson said. “I love how Coach Staley coaches. It was amazing.”

Johnson knew then that she wanted to be a Gamecock, and a visit in the fall sealed the deal. Jah didn’t have an injury, but also flew somewhat under the radar. Like Johnson, she fell in love immediately.

“It’s like the first phone call I got from Dawn it was already like home to me because she’s like, the energy she gave to me,” Jah said. “I was like, yeah. I’ve got to come here.”

Jah was so determined to sign with South Carolina that she transferred to Montverde Academy in Florida for her senior season. She thought the prep school would be better preparation for what she would see at South Carolina.

“I wanted to be mentally prepared a year early,” Jah said.

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For transfers Te-hina Paopa and Sakima Walker, the process was different. Paopao played three seasons at Oregon while Walker played two at Rutgers and one in junior college. Neither had been recruited by South Carolina before, although assistant Jolette Law recruited Walker’s high school teammate Jordan Horston.

For both, the call from Staley was a shock.

“My coach just called me one day he was out on the road, like ‘Oh, I got a big phone call today,’” Walker said. “I’m like, OK, and then he says South Carolina, and I’m like, Oh yeah! I was really excited. So then I got on the phone with Coach Staley the next day.”

Staley reached out to Paopao’s high school coach, who called Paopao while she was driving to class.

“She was like, hey, South Carolina wants to talk to you. I was like, who? Coach Staley South Carolina?” Paopao said. “I had to like, pull over and talk to Coach Staley. I was like, give me a call right now.”

Walker chose South Carolina over Ole Miss. Paopao also considered another school she declined to name, but after that first phone call, it was over.

“I knew in my heart it was South Carolina,” she said.

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