Stephanie White
speaker
65 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Stephanie White’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I appreciate you having me on.
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because people, when they ask about my background, I consider myself a community project. You know, I grew up in a very small town in the state of Indiana. And of course, you know, anybody who knows basketball knows the rich history of basketball in the state of Indiana and typically that works through the cornfields, right? So it's country and it's basketball.
And that's really how I grew up. And I grew up in a small community, no stoplights in our entire county, right? Everybody in our county went to one high school. And growing up in that area, it was thought at the time that no one from a small school would get a college scholarship offer. I wasn't going to be able to do that unless I moved to the city or I moved to a bigger school.
And everyone in my community was dead set on helping me accomplish my goals, whether that was from the time I was 10 years old playing with the guys who I called the old men in our town who played on Sundays and Wednesdays, who were probably in their 30s maybe at the time.
allowing me to play with them and really trying to teach me the game to, you know, when we couldn't afford to send me to AAU national tournaments, you know, that, that our community got behind that and had fundraisers and helped me, you know, get to the point where I could be seen by college coaches. I mean, remember, you know, that was a long, long time ago. So no social media, right?
Like very little, very little television, no internet, you know, none of that stuff. It was, You go to a couple of tournaments a year that college coaches are there. You go to one AAU national tournament, the college coaches are there, and that's how you get seen. And so I do feel like I was a community project.
And so being from Indiana, being able to continue my career in college and the WNBA in Indiana, It's just in my blood. You know, it's in my blood. It's who I am. And so the opportunity for me to be able to come home and I really, you know, mean that it's not just a phrase to me to come home, you know, was was it just I didn't know that I didn't think that that would happen.
And so the ability for that to happen and the opportunity that presented itself, it was too good to be true.
Yeah, you know, the interesting thing about Tamika, when she was drafted, I don't know if you recall when she was drafted, she was injured. She had hurt her knee. She was not going to play her rookie year. And I was a part of the team at that time. Tamika and I were roommates a lot on the road. And I remember she didn't say a lot, right? She didn't talk a lot. She wasn't playing.
She wasn't actively involved in practice every day. But we didn't win a lot, right? Like, we were an expansion team. We didn't win a lot. but she still had this competitive fire. And so when she did speak in the locker room, whether it was about our habits or about the way we were approaching games or like, and she was not used to losing, right? She was used to winning.
You know, it said a lot to me about the type of number one player in person and competitor that she was, but number two leader she was going to be. that she was not actively involved in playing or participating at that time, but she was actively involved in where we were going to be and how we were going to go about our business on a daily basis. And I loved that about her. And that's who she is.
Ultimately, that's who she is. And I remember as a teammate, You know, it was, Tamika sets the standard because she works in practice the way that she plays, which is all out every day.
Yeah, you know, I think one of the early conversations, you know, for us as a coaching staff has just been about connection and building relationship and, you know, approaching the players who were in that locker room a year ago in, hey, like, you know, what is it that you want to accomplish? You know, you don't, what is it that we can help you? Like, you don't know what you don't know, right?
And most of those guys were pretty young, certainly pretty young in terms of playoff experience. And then approaching them in sort of a self-scout way, like this is what we would do to you when we played you. So these are the things that we want to work on. So first establishing with those players that had been here,
And continuing to work on our communication and relationship building, because we know at the end of the day, you know, it doesn't matter what you know, you know, if you don't have connection, if you don't build relationship and if you don't build trust. And so we really started from a foundational level of that. And then it was really important who we added in free agency and in the offseason.
fit who we already had. I mean, look, our big three with Caitlin and Kelsey and Aaliyah, like you got to have certain kinds of vets that fit around them. That number one, fill the gaps that we need in our lineups, in our rosters. But number two, have accomplished, you know, multiple things that can lead them in a way that they haven't been led before. But also understand that
where they fit in the scope of what the Indiana Fever is about now and what we're about in the future. And that give us a chance to compete for championships. And I think that Amber and Kelly did an outstanding job. I mean, certainly- They crushed it. I mean, they crushed it. They did.
You know, you think about bringing in Natasha Howard, who was drafted by the Indiana Fever when I was an assistant coach, was traded by the Indiana Fever when I was the head coach, just went out and won multiple championships after that, you know, continued to become- Absolutely.
To continue to become one of the greatest players in the history of our league, played every different kind of role, is soft-spoken. So when she speaks, you listen because it matters, right? Gives us a little bit different look at that position than we've had before. Dewana Bonner. who, again, winner, right?
Has won at every level, competed and won her championship in Phoenix, competed for championships with us in Connecticut. Versatility, which is critical for our system and what we want. Ultra competitive. Um, and, but also like a mother hen, right?
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