The Indiana Fever group is gearing up for the upcoming WNBA season with a brand-new head coach: former Fever standout Stephanie White, who’s contemporary off of a two-year tenure as head coach of the Connecticut Solar.
White has spoken glowingly in regards to the alternative to guide the Fever, a company she beforehand performed and coached for.
“It appears like the celebrities simply completely aligned,” White stated. “So, whereas at instances there’s anxiousness by transition, there simply hasn’t been for me. It’s been very calming, it feels excellent. This franchise has been part of my DNA from Day One, and can all the time be. When issues are supposed to be, it feels actually good.”
Whether or not or not White would carry together with her Solar assistant coach workers was an excellent query. However, this week, the Fever introduced two assistant coach hires. Austin Kelly, beforehand a key member of White’s workers in Connecticut, will be a part of White in making the leap to Indiana.
There, Kelly will crew up along with his spouse, Karima Christmas-Kelly, a returning assistant coach on the Fever.
Austin Kelly was an assistant underneath White for 2 years at Connecticut, serving to run the Solar’s offense. Previous to that WNBA stant, he was an assistant coach and recruiting director at College of Texas-Arlington (from 2021 to 2023) and the director of recruiting at Vanderbilt (from 2019 to 2021).
Karima Christmas-Kelly, in the meantime, is a former WNBA participant herself. She performed within the league from 2011 to 2020 — with stints on the Washington Mystics, Tulsa Shock, Indiana Fever, and Minnesota Lynx — after which joined Christie Sides’ workers on the Fever in 2023 as an assistant coach. The previous Duke standout’s major focus was working with guards throughout her two-year tenure in Indiana Fever.
Christmas-Kelly and White are fairly conversant in each other; the previous was on the 2012 Fever championship-winning crew, whereas the latter was an assistant coach on that squad.
Fever information: Austin Kelly is coming with Stephanie White from Connecticut, and White is retaining Karima Christmas-Kelly. (Which may also be big for his or her younger household)
I anticipate Austin to be a head coach within the WNBA quickly. He was accountable for the Solar’s offense. pic.twitter.com/d3LQgN8SKT
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) November 26, 2024
The intriguing element in regards to the assistant coach information is that Austin Kelly and Karima Christmas-Kelly are married. They’ve a one-year-old, Zayn, who lives with Christmas-Kelly 12 months spherical.
Final 12 months, the couple was cut up up for the WNBA season, with Kelly rooted in Indiana and Christmas-Kelly in Connecticut. The 2 even confronted off within the first spherical of the playoffs when the Fever took on the Solar.
Now, the couple will share the sidelines for the primary time.
The Fever have but to announce the destiny of their different assistant coaches underneath Christie Sides, and it’s not but identified if White will carry together with her another assistants from Connecticut.
White’s lead assistant, Briann January, is very considered one of many high assistant coaches within the league. Whether or not she’ll keep in Connecticut stays to be seen.
