The Connecticut Sun officially announced Stephanie White as their new head coach Monday.
White — who most recently coached at the college level at Vanderbilt — replaces longtime Sun coach Curt Miller. He left the team earlier this offseason to take over as head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks.
“Stephanie White is the right coach at the right time for our organization,” Sun president Jen Rizzotti said in a statement. “She’s a proven winner that understands the high expectations we have within the Connecticut Sun organization and our fan base. She has been a part of championships as both a player and a coach, and that is the mentality I was looking to add.”
White, 45, played in the WNBA for five seasons — one with the now-defunct Charlotte Sting and four with the Indiana Fever. After her playing days were over, White spent a decade as an assistant coach in women’s college basketball and the WNBA, with stops at Ball State, Kansas State and Toledo, and then with the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever.
The Fever won the WNBA championship with White on-staff in 2012. When she became head coach in 2015, she took Indiana back to the Finals, but lost to the Minnesota Lynx in five games.
In 2016, White left the Fever to coach at Vanderbilt. The Commodores struggled to find sustained success under her, though. Vanderbilt never finished with a winning record in White’s five seasons on the job and she was fired in 2021.
A national champion as a player at Purdue, White most recently worked as a television analyst for ESPN and the Big Ten Network.
For the Sun, White is the first head coach they’ve hired with playing experience in the WNBA. Connecticut brings back a team that includes 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones.
Miller had been the coach of the Sun since 2016 and took the team to the Finals twice.
The Sun and Sparks are among the five WNBA teams that made coaching changes this offseason.
–Field Level Media
