Caitlin Clark has a new head coach for her second season in the WNBA. Stephanie White expects the Indiana Fever to be one of the best teams in the league for as long as the greatest rookie of all-time is on the roster.
The 47-year-old believes the 22-year-old superstar (and the roster around her) is talented enough to lift the championship trophy not just once, but multiple times throughout the course of her career.
Christie Sides drew a lot of criticism for how she led the Fever last season. Caitlin Clark at one point looked entirely unimpressed by her head coach’s play call in the final minute of an early loss. Although Indiana made it to the playoffs for the first time since White’s first tenure with the organization in 2016, it decided to go in a different direction after a .500 record in 2024.
With back-to-back No. 1 overall picks and Rookies of the Year on the team, nothing short of a WNBA championship will do. White feels the same way. She set a high bar for the future during an appearance on The Coaching U Podcast. One title is not enough.
She’s a great player, she’s a high IQ player, she’s adjusted really quickly to this league, and now it’s about becoming not just a great player, but becoming a great leader for this team. So that we can win not just a championship, but championships.
— Stephanie White on The Coaching U Podcast
White was hired on the first of November. It has been about a month. There are still about five months until the start of the new WNBA calendar year. Time is currently in abundance so White has been able to take it slow. She is just getting to know her players and their goals, especially Caitlin Clark.
First and foremost, just talking basketball. Just having general basketball conversations about what she’s watching, what she likes, what are some of her thoughts from not just what the Indiana Fever have done, but from the game of basketball in general.
— Stephanie White on The Coaching U Podcast
A foundation must be established before the Fever can build. White wants to understand Clark before she tries to coach Clark.
My first conversation with her about X’s and O’s the other day, I was just like, “How do you want to improve? What are some of the things you want to improve on?” And then we’ll talk about how we want to do that. I talked to her about how we can use her to help her be more efficient, help her be more effective, to help our team be better in general.
— Stephanie White on The Coaching U Podcast
The future is very bright in Indianapolis. No disrespect to Christie Sides, but Stephanie White’s plan for how to develop Caitlin Clark already seems to be more calculated.