WNBA's Fever names Stephanie White as new head coach

The Indiana Fever has hired Stephanie White as their new head coach, the team announced Friday.

White, who spent the last two seasons as head coach of the Connecticut Sun, is taking over a franchise led by WNBA star Caitlin Clark.

“As we enter this new era of Fever basketball, I am thrilled to welcome Stephanie back to the franchise,” President of Basketball Operations Kelly Krauskopf said in a 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 am quite familiar with her elite basketball IQ and leadership style. I am confident that there is no one who understands our culture better or is better able to take our group of players to the next level.”

Building on a promising young core in Clark and Aliyah Boston, the last two No. 1 draft picks, White will look to lead Indiana to the organization's first championship since 2012.

White – an Indiana native and former star at Purdue – is familiar with the Fever, having served on their coaching staff from 2011 to 2016, including the last two years as head coach. She was a member of the franchise's inaugural roster in 2000 and played for the team for four seasons.

“I am incredibly proud and honored to return to Indiana and lead the Fever at such a pivotal moment in this franchise's history and (during) such an important time in women's athletics,” White added in the Fever's statement added. “This franchise has always been committed to winning and I look forward to working every day to bring another WNBA title to the biggest basketball fans in the world.”

White went 55-25 with the Sun in consecutive semifinal appearances and was named the 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year. Before returning to the WNBA, she coached at Vanderbilt for five seasons and worked as a basketball analyst for years.

She replaces Christie Sides, who led the Fever to a 20-20 record last season and their first playoff berth since 2016. The organization announced Sunday that she is replacing Sides, who just completed her second season at the helm. The Sun announced Monday that White was out after two seasons with the team.

White's hiring is the latest major move for The Fever, which named Krauskopf its new president in September and Amber Cox its new COO and GM last month.

The arrival of Clark — the 2024 Rookie of the Year and a first-team All-WNBA selection — sent the Fever into a different stratosphere of relevance: The franchise led the league this season with an average of over 17,000 fans per contest, regularly over one Million spectators for games.

Without the league's newest expansion team in Golden State, the WNBA is expected to have seven new head coaches at the helm for the 2025 season, a record, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.