Since hiring head coach Dawn Staley more than a decade ago, the South Carolina women’s basketball team has been among the best programs in the nation. Staley arrived in 2008, and since then, the Gamecocks won national championships in 2017 and 2022.
Morgan County Lady ‘Dogs head coach Milfred Franklin took his players last week to Staley’s camp in Columbia, S.C., and shared with the Lake Oconee News that his girls learned “a lot” from “such a great coach.”
“We had a great time, too, and played some tough competition from schools in South Carolina,” Franklin added. “We were able to sit down for a coaching session at the camp, where Coach Staley went over some of the concepts she has implemented in her program. We also got to ask her a few questions and the girls got some valuable information from her during that session.”
Morgan County also played a few games with some positive results. After dropping the first game of the camp, the Lady Dogs ended the camp with two consecutive wins against out-of-state programs.
Staley also taught Morgan County’s players a few important lessons that helped them during their scrimmages.
“One of the main things she taught was how important it is to play defense,” Franklin said. “She was telling her [collegiate] girls that if they don’t play defense, they won’t play [in a game]. You might be a terrific scorer, but you’re more valuable to your team if you can play defense because you’re not a liability. So, I was pleased she mentioned that to our girls. They most definitely listened to that part.”
Overall, it was a great way to end an action-packed summer for Morgan County. The Lady Dogs also competed and played against other teams before leaving for Columbia to cap off the month of June.
A few weeks ago, Morgan County faced Commerce at home, where the Lady Dogs and Lady Tigers went back and forth in a close game. They also squared off with a few other schools in June.
“The girls impressed me with wanting to end the summer on a good note,” Franklin said. “It was great.”
Morgan County heads into July with some downtime before the new academic school year. Several of the Lady Dogs’ key players, including returning starters Jaden Young, Kymora Smith, and Cydney Burke, among others, will be participating with various AAU and travel teams this month, too.
Franklin said he felt this summer was a success, especially following last year’s since he was introduced as the new head coach later in June. So, this past month has been all about working hard.
“With us playing so many games this summer, I felt like our girls gained some valuable experience,” he said. “Another reason we played so many games was that I had a lot of girls returning, so I also didn’t have to spend a lot of time introducing our program like I did last year.”
Franklin expects a lot out of his players, and according to him, they’ve exceeded his expectations so far.
“The girls responded well. Overall, we competed a lot during the summer, and the girls also wanted to show up,” he said. “Several of them called me on our days off, and they wanted to have the gym to shoot, which is great. It’s hard to get girls in the gym sometimes in the summer, but this group is very eager.”