Stephanie White hired as Fever head coach days after parting ways with Sun
HARTFORD, Conn. — Four days after the Connecticut Sun mutually parted ways with coach Stephanie White, she was hired Friday as the head coach of the Indiana Fever.
Indiana fired second-year coach Christie Sides on Sunday after a 20-20 season in 2024 that ended in the Fever’s first WNBA playoff appearance since 2016, though they were swept 2-0 in the first round by White’s Sun. Sides had a 33-47 record over two seasons in Indiana.
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White inherits a Fever team that looks dramatically different from the one Sides took over after it won five games in 2022. Indiana has built one of the most exciting young cores in the league around back-to-back No. 1 picks — center Aliyah Boston in 2023 and guard Caitlin Clark in 2024. Boston and Clark both won Rookie of the Year in their first seasons, and Clark became the first rookie to make the All-WNBA first team since Candace Parker in 2008.
White’s connections to the Fever run deep: She is from Indiana and signed her National Letter of Intent with then-coach Lin Dunn, now a senior advisor in the Fever front office, to play at Purdue from 1995-99. White was drafted by the Charlotte Sting in 1999 but played only a single season there before she was traded to Indiana, and she spent the rest of her career with the franchise from 2000-04.
“I am incredibly proud and honored to return home to Indiana and lead the Fever during such a pivotal moment in this franchise’s history, as well as during during such an important time throughout women’s athletics,” White said in a statement. “This franchise has and always will be committed to winning and I look forward to working every day to help deliver another WNBA title to the greatest basketball fans in the world.”
Indiana also gave White her first head coaching job in the WNBA in 2015, replacing Dunn after seven seasons as Fever head coach. White began her pro coaching career as an assistant with the Chicago Sky from 2007-2010, then joined Dunn’s Indiana staff in 2011. She was a part of the Fever’s only WNBA championship in 2012 and led the team back to the Finals in her first season after taking over for Dunn. Her departure in 2016 was by choice, to return to the college ranks as the head coach at Vanderbilt.
“As we enter this new era of Fever basketball, I am thrilled to welcome Stephanie back to the franchise,” Fever president of basketball operations Kelly Krauskopf said in the statement. “Stephanie is a part of the fabric of this franchise, both as a former player and as a member of our championship coaching staff, so I’m quite familiar with her elite basketball IQ and leadership style. I am confident there is no one who better understands our culture or is more equipped to lead our group of players to the next level.”
The Sun are now one of six franchises with head coach openings: The Los Angeles Sparks fired second-year coach Curt Miller on Sept. 24, and the Chicago Sky parted ways with Teresa Weatherspoon after a single season two days later. Atlanta Dream coach Tanisha Wright, Dallas Wings coach Latricia Trammel and Washington Mystics coach Eric Thibault were all let go in October, after three seasons for Wright and two for Trammel and Thibault.
For the first time in league history, seven teams in the WNBA (not including the Golden State expansion franchise) will enter 2025 with a new head coach.
