18.7 million people tuned in to watch the University of South Carolina Gamecocks take down the Iowa Hawkeyes in the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship. Interestingly, the national champs have an Aiken connection. Freddy Ready, an Aiken native, is the Director of Player Development for South Carolina’s women’s basketball program. Ready attended Aiken High School, where he played football, ran track and field and played a little basketball. He still has family in the area.
While a student during the Lou Holtz era at Carolina, Ready, unable to play due to blown-out knees, worked with the football team in the front office. He was open when Susan Walvius, the former women’s basketball coach, approached him about helping out with her team. He felt that working with a women’s program and learning the ins and outs of Title IV would be essential to achieving his long-term goal of being an athletic or assistant athletic director. What started as a one-year internship while he waited out a graduate assistant spot in football has turned into a 22-year career with one of the country’s most successful women’s basketball programs.
Ready worked part-time for Walvius and was in his first year as a graduate assistant when she left the program in 2008. Women’s basketball legend Dawn Staley replaced her and planned to bring a graduate assistant from Temple University with her. Fortunately for Ready that didn’t work out, and Staley gave him an opportunity to show what he could do for the program. In 2010, she created the Director of Player Development position for him.
One of his primary responsibilities is recruiting and training the Highlighters. This male practice squad helps prepare the team for each opponent it will face during the season and tournament. Ready looks for players with a high basketball IQ who can read defenses and run the offensive schemes the team expects to see from upcoming opponents. They are not on athletic scholarships but are treated like family and receive championship rings as an important part of the team.
He oversees academics for the student-athletes, manages the playbook and assists the coaching staff as needed.
The 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship is the Gamecocks’ third in seven years. Ready has logical reasons why each is his favorite:
2017 because you never forget your first child, and it was meaningful to do that for Coach Staley and with home-grown talent, A’ja Wilson.
2022 because that group was special and had been through a lot of adversity, being favored to win it in 2020 before the tournament was canceled due to COVID and losing a heartbreaker to Stanford in the semi-final in 2021.
And the third championship this year because it was unexpected after the 2023 team lost seven players, including all the starters.
Ready appreciates the opportunity to make a difference in young athletes' lives. Some athletes who come through the program are first-generation college students, and others are making a difference in their family's lives. He loves to watch them mature over the four years they are there and notes that if they come to Carolina, they will be graduating.
Ready did not have much chance to rest after cutting down the nets after the championship as he went into full-on summer camp mode. Registration began on April 5th, and by April 9th, 190 girls were on the Elite Girls’ Camp waiting list. He will also run the Little Gamecock Camp for boys and girls in 1st through 5th grades.