COLUMBIA — What seemed like every business in town had a car and/or signage, along with some politicians (it is an election year). There were so many vehicles on Main Street for Sunday's parade celebrating South Carolina’s national championship that it took 95 minutes for the reasons for that parade — the team — to get to the Statehouse, a mere six blocks away.
But nobody moved from the crowd, which began trickling in at 10 a.m. for a 2 p.m. start. Nobody wants to ignore this; everybody wants to get used to this.
“They say nobody’s perfect ... but this team was on 38 straight game days,” emcee and radio play-by-play voice Brad Muller said. “Who says you can’t win ’em all?”
The Gamecocks, each dressed in their new Under Armour shirts with the phrase, “You win some, you lose none” etched across the chest, once again rode Main Street adored by throngs of fans on each side and more packed into the patch of green flanking the main entrance to the State House. The usual suspects spoke — athletics director Ray Tanner, school president Michael Amiridis, Mayor Daniel Rickenmann and Congressman Jim Clyburn — while coach Dawn Staley and her players soaked up the applause and hammed it up for the cameras.
Chloe Kitts flashed a new shirt given to her on the parade route with a word that rhymes with “switch” in front of “I’m a Gamecock.” MiLaysia Fulwiley, even as the mercury crept toward 85 degrees and several fans were having the heat affect them, kept her black letter jacket with the leather sleeves zipped to the top.
Raven Johnson held a cardboard sign also picked up during the parade that read “Ravenge Tour,” the moniker she chose for this season. Next year, as teammate Te-Hina Paopao joyfully shouted at the podium, is the repeat tour.
“Dawnasty? Dynasty?” asked Amiridis of Staley. “I don’t know what the word is, but you’re building an empire.”
Staley spoke of how she envisioned herself and her team being back at that same spot in 2023, following the 2022 team’s run to the title. It hurt her, deeply, when that team fell short to Iowa in the Final Four, to the point where she never questioned her faith but asked God why it happened.
A form of salvation arrived from what her parents used to tell her while growing up. “I can show you better than I can tell you” was a mainstay, and that’s what entered her head after last year.
Coming into this season, she knew preseason workouts had not been sharp. She knew she’d lost an entire starting five, and while the cupboard wasn’t bare, this team was young and inexperienced. Asked in the preseason to describe it, she said, “Expect the unexpected.”
Looking back on it, she has no idea why she said that. But “unexpected” definitely covers that young and inexperienced team going 38-0, winning the national title and beating Iowa in the final game.
Rickenmann, after dropping a reference to his favorite “Schoolhouse Rock” song, “Three is a Magic Number,” announced that April is now National Championship Month in Columbia and gave each player a framed proclamation from his office. Pondering what to give a woman who already has a street named after her and will soon have her own statue in downtown Columbia, Rickenmann presented the fashion-conscious Staley with what was missing from her wardrobe.
A WWE-style championship belt, complete with the requisite gold and bling. Staley cheerfully accepted it, and left no doubt that it won’t be changing hands anytime soon.
Mayor Daniel Rickenmann presented Dawn Staley with the only bauble missing from her wardrobe during Sunday's national championship parade.
Cardoso checking out
Kamilla Cardoso, starting center and Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, was at the festivities. She skipped WNBA draft orientation in New York to attend.
Cardoso is expected to be a top-five pick in the April 15 draft.
