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The Indiana Fever have announced the hiring of Stephanie White as the team's new head coach.
White is a former Fever player and coach, and takes over the franchise after they recently parted ways with Christie Sides. She initially spent six years with the team, including four years as an assistant and two years as head coach.
The 47-year-old was an assistant under Lin Dunn, who is now a Fever senior advisor, during the team's only championship run back in 2012. White also led the franchise back to the Finals in 2015 while serving as head coach.
She spent the last two years as head coach of the Connecticut Sun, the team that knocked the Fever out of the 2024 playoffs. However, White and the Sun parted ways back on Monday even though she had a year left on her contract.
"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," said White.
"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."
White hoping to continue Fever's success
The Fever are coming off a productive WNBA campaign, making the playoffs thanks to a promising young core in Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston.
They finished 20-20 last season and reached the playoffs for the first time since 2016, the last season White was coach.
However, expectations will surely rise next season due to the presence of Clark on the roster.
It appears Clark and White are already on good , as the rookie of the year spoke glowingly of White, who called many of her games at Iowa while serving as a basketball analyst for ESPN and the Big Ten Network.
"I just think she has a really great basketball mind. I think she's done a great job calling college games. ... She's been a trailblazer, honestly. I think she's always been somebody that's been ive of my game. It's been fun to talk to her at shootarounds throughout my college career," Clark said.
White's hire means there are still six coaching vacancies across the WNBA - the Los Angeles Sparks, Sky, Dallas Wings, Atlanta Dream, Washington Mystics, and Sun.
The Sun are the only team that finished last season with a winning record.