Stephanie Joanne White (born on June 20, 1977) was a professional basketball player from America. At present, she is serving as a head coach of Vanderbilt Commodores women’s basketball team. Before joining Vanderbilt Commodores, she served as a head coach of Indiana Fever (Professional basketball team based on Indianapolis) for the 2015-2016 seasons for WNBA. She became the top female basketball player and the winner of the wade trophy as an intercollegiate athlete back in 1999.
Related : Megan Mahoney
Early life
Stephanie loves sports since her childhood. When growing up in a rural area, it was challenging to be a woman athlete during the 80’s. But Stephanie was exceptional; she could overcome all the barriers. She played on the YMCA boys’ team. Stephanie played with the boys’ team because, at that time, there was no girls’ team, and there were not many opportunities for girls to play any sports. She was one of the few girls at that time who took the challenge.
Stephanie became the “Indiana Miss Basketball” (Best high school girl basketball player in Indiana state, US) IN 1995. In the same year, she also became the national player of the year named by The Gatorade Company, Inc. (an American manufacturer of sports-themed beverage and food products) and USA daily (American daily newspaper).
While attending Seeger High School in Indiana, she became High School All-American by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). She also earned the most valuable players award in 1995, where she scored seventeen points WBCA High School All-America Game. She played WNBA for five years, four with the Indiana Fever and one with the Charlotte Sting.
Dream Of Getting Scholarship
From a young age, Stephanie had the goal of playing basketball at the college. She told her parents about her desire that she wanted to get a college scholarship. Her parents also wanted to support her with the decision. But that didn’t seem realistic considering the context of that time. But her parents did every possible thing and encouraged her to get a scholarship. They helped Stephanie to play for Amateur Athletic Union Girls Basketball. During high school, her dream of getting a college scholarship seems achievable. In middle school, she got her first college letter from Louisiana Tech’s Nell Fortner, who became her college coach later.
While attending Purdue University, she was the National College Player of the Year, Big Ten Conference Player of the Year, and Indiana NCAA Woman of the Year in 1999.
Family
Michelle Fletcher is the spouse of Stephanie Joanne White, and they have three children. Aside from her profession, she loves to spend time with her family. Her children also fond of games and sports. From the social media appearance, we can assume that she loves her children very much, and they hang around a lot.
Professional career As A Player
In 1997, Stephanie played for the Jones Cup Team with USA Basketball. They won the silver medal in Taipei. During that season, most of the games were close. USA team won 4 games, including the overtime game in the semifinals against Japan. Stephanie’s average score was 10.3 PPG, and she was the second-highest scorer for her team.
In 1999, Stephanie started her five year WNBA career with the Charlotte Sting. Then again, she signed in with Indiana Fever in next year. Then till 2004 with Indiana Fever, she ranked third in total games played, fourth for scoring, and three for point field goals. On average, she had 5.9 points and 2.0 assists per game. Then she retired as a professional player from WNBA in 2004.
Coaching career
Stephanie started her coaching career as an assistant coach wiry Ball State (2003–04). Then she continued her coaching career with Kansas State (2004–05), and the University of Toledo (2005–06 and 2006–07). She involved with several coaching works, for instance – on-floor coaching, scouting, academic support, recruiting, etc. Stephanie also worked as a college basketball analyst for Big Ten Network and ESPN.
After four years of working as an Assistant coach, she began her career as a head coach with Indiana Fever after the retirement of Lin Dunn. With her coaching, Indiana Fever went to the second WNBA finals. Unfortunately, Fever lost the best-of-five series to Minnesota.
However, in 2016 Stephanie got a head coaching job for Vanderbilt Commodores women’s basketball. She finished the 2016 season, where Fever went 37–31 overall records and 6-6 in the postseason.
Achievements & Awards At A Glance
- Gatorade National Player of the Year and USA Today National Player of the Year 1995
- Indiana Miss Basketball in 1995
- MVP honors for WBCA High School All-America Game in 1995
- Wade Trophy 1999
- Honda sports awards 1999
Personal struggle
Often there were few setbacks in Stephanie’s own life. It was not easy to maintain her family, relationship, and basketball at the same time. Growing up in a small town, she always had in her mind that she needs to get married, have children, and these are going to happen. When Stephanie shined in her basketball game, her personal life associated with relationships and some internal struggles. She used to date with her ex-husband since she was 14, and she was very immature at that time. And as an immature and young couple, they had to deal with many issues, like – finances, relationship games, and so on. She was struggling with her identity. That was a tough time. She said she was not in a perfect place.
After the divorce of Stephanie, it took a long time to get rid of being depressed. It took years to get herself out of worrying and to find her level. She was struggling to find real happiness in life apart from basketball.
Final words
There are many interesting sides of Stephanie White’s life, family, relationship, and achievements, which I tried to demonstrate in this article. I hope you enjoyed reading this. Be with us to know more about other basketball player’s life and some exciting facts about them.
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