Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White's 3-word endorsement of her former player's ascent

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Stephanie White is entering her first year in this stint with the Indiana Fever, a team with which she has a lot of familiarity. White spent four years playing for the Fever during her WNBA career from 2000 to 2004. She also previously coached the Fever during the 2015 and 2016 WNBA seasons, helping the team to a WNBA finals appearance in 2015.

During White’s last stint coaching with the Fever, she trained someone who is now making some noise in the coaching world herself. Briann January was one of White’s players on the Fever for both years she coached the team, although the former played on the Fever from 2009 until 2017, winning a WNBA championship with them in 2012.

January is now an assistant coach for the NBA G-Leagues Motor City Cruise. She recently received praise from some of her players saying that she was a big-time coach, and White agreed to it on her Instagram story, posting a three-word reaction in support of January:

Stephanie White with some words of encouragement for former player Briann January (Image via Instagram @s_whitej2)

“Yes she is!” White said about January while sharing wnba’s social media post.

White will have her hands full this season trying to coach Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever back to a WNBA championship. If the Indiana Fever were to win it all this season, it would be their second total WNBA Championship, with the first being the 2012 Fever team, featuring Briann January.

“We have to get to the middle of the pack” – Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White details what her biggest goal for the Fever is in her first year

Stephanie White has the chance to coach one of the most exciting teams in the WNBA, the Indiana Fever. The Fever’s superstar, Caitlin Clark, is the center of much of the excitement.

Clark is coming off a season in which she won Rookie of the Year and made the All-WNBA team while leading the Fever to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Conveniently, 2016 was also the last time Stephanie White coached the Fever.

White made it clear she has expectations for this team. During an interview, White talked about what she believes will be one of the biggest challenges for her team this season, the defensive side of the ball:

“The biggest challenge for this group is we’ve gotta go from 11th or 12th in the defensive end of the floor to the middle of the pack… There are gonna be days where we’re not great offensively. There are really good defensive teams and players in our league that are gonna make us uncomfrtable. So we have to get to the middle of the pack on the defensive end of the floor”

The Indiana Fever had the second-worst defensive rating in the WNBA last year, and it was a big reason why White’s former team, the Connecticut Sun, eliminated the Fever in the first round of the WNBA playoffs last season. White will try to fix that for the Fever in the 2025 WNBA season.