INDIANAPOLIS — For Stephanie White, basketball isn’t just a passion—it’s practically in her bloodstream. She’s Indiana’s golden girl, born and raised just 90 minutes from Indy, crowned Miss Basketball, led Purdue to glory, and played for the Indiana Fever. Oh, and let’s not forget she was part of the coaching staff that helped bring home the Fever’s only WNBA championship in 2012. If Indiana had a basketball Mount Rushmore, she’d probably be etched into the limestone.
After departing as head coach in 2016 to take a job at Vanderbilt, White couldn’t stay away from her Hoosier roots for long. “This place is special. It’s in my DNA,” she said. Yeah, Steph, we get it. Indiana might as well rename itself White’s Land at this point.
But coaching in Connecticut for the Sun the past two seasons threw her a curveball—or maybe a bad bounce, considering the difficulty of balancing a WNBA coaching gig with family life. Not only was White named WNBA Coach of the Year in 2023 (no big deal, right?), but she led the Sun to two straight semifinal appearances. Still, it was a logistical nightmare for her and her family. Nashville has no direct flights to Hartford—yes, Hartford—and to make matters worse, after flying in, there’s an hour-long drive to Uncasville. Talk about a road trip from hell just to see your kids!
And speaking of kids, White’s got four of them at home: one 13-year-old and three 11-year-olds—so basically, a full-court press of her own. For anyone wondering how she was balancing all this, it turns out she wasn’t. “I would sit down with my family every year, and say, ‘Hey, are we on board with this?’” White shared. The answer: increasingly less “on board.” Between coaching and ESPN analyst gigs, White wasn’t seeing much of her kids—or her partner, ESPN’s Lisa Salters. That’s a recipe for disaster when your family is grounded in Nashville and your job is halfway across the country.
“I wasn’t seeing my kids from August to October,” White said. Now, even for a coach used to making tough calls, that’s a brutal game plan. White saw the writing on the wall: she could stick out one more season of her contract with the Sun, or make the bold move back home. No-brainer, right? “For those of us who have children, you know you don’t get these years back,” White said, adding that her family had already sacrificed enough. And White was done sacrificing her time, too.
Cue the Fever’s rehire of White, which feels like the perfect rom-com moment where the characters finally admit they belong together. White’s back in the Hoosier state, a mere four-hour drive from Nashville, and suddenly her life doesn’t look like a long-distance ping-pong match. “You can’t have one without the other,” White explained. “It can’t just be close to home without being a good professional situation, and vice versa.”
Enter Indiana: home sweet home, and a franchise that’s not exactly looking shabby. With young talent like Aliyah Boston, Lexie Hull, and Caitlin Clark (yeah, that Caitlin Clark), the Fever aren’t just thinking about rebuilding—they’re thinking about winning. “Our window has been accelerated,” Fever president Kelly Krauskopf said, clearly eyeing the WNBA trophy shelf with a bit more optimism these days.
As for White? She’s ready to settle down (geographically, at least) and take on the challenge of steering her beloved Fever back to glory, all while getting to be more present for her kids and family. The stakes are high, but so are the rewards—and if anyone can juggle it all, it’s Indiana’s golden girl. Welcome home, Steph. The Fever’s window is wide open, and the clock’s ticking.
