Stephanie White spent the last year working as a basketball analyst. But at her core, she always knew she was a coach.

White remembers having dinner at restaurants on the road after calling games, and she would move the salt and pepper shakers around like they were players. She couldn’t stop drawing up plays, even if spices and condiments were her personnel.

Now, White gets to trade her salt shakers for flesh-and-blood players as she returns to the coaching world, this time as the head coach of the Connecticut Sun.

The Sun are coming off a run to the WNBA Finals, where they lost in four games to the Las Vegas Aces. During the two previous seasons, Connecticut advanced to the semifinals before being eliminated.

“What we want to do is we want to bring a championship here to Connecticut,” White said in her introductory press conference Tuesday. “We have the pieces to do that. We have the mentality to do that. We’re going to put the staff together that puts the best product on the floor and put our players in position to be successful night in and night out.”

🗣 A message from @StephanieWhite: pic.twitter.com/llzKCwp6zU

— Connecticut Sun (@ConnecticutSun) November 21, 2022

White, 45, previously helped the Indiana Fever to a title in 2012 as an assistant coach before she served as the head coach at Vanderbilt from 2016-21. Now she takes over in Connecticut for Curt Miller, who left to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks.

With the Sun, she plans to run a five-out offense using players such as Jonquel Jones and Alyssa Thomas, who can slide into a variety of positions to play a free-flowing attack.

“We want to be a fast-paced, up-tempo, free-flowing offensive team,” White said. “You have a certain structure that can allow players spacing, they can allow them opportunities to be creative.”

But before focusing too much attention on schemes, White is getting to know her players. The coach started reaching out Monday night, she said, and she will chat with each player, fitting the calls into their busy offseason schedules, with many playing overseas.

“I’m looking forward to beginning to build relationships with these players, to letting them know just a little bit about myself, who I am, what my style is, and go from there,” White said.

She will have to work quickly when it comes to building those relationships, and in turn, building a championship team. Jonquel Jones, DeWanna Bonner and Jasmine Thomas all will be free agents at the end of the 2023 season, and Alyssa Thomas’ contract is up the following year.

The coach will have one season to prove to the Sun core that she has what it takes to get them to a championship. Otherwise, if they leave in free agency, the Sun will need to embark on a total rebuild.

Jones in particular is a player White will want to stick around. Not only does she fit the style of positionless basketball White hopes to implement, but she is also the kind of generational talent to build a roster around. Jones won the league MVP in 2021.

White is fully aware of her situation with the Sun ahead of the pivotal 2023 season for the team, and she’s ready to tackle it head on.

“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” White said. “We need to add a couple of pieces, we need to retool a little bit. We need to prepare because we know our windows are getting shorter and shorter to win a championship.”

Sun president Jen Rizzotti sees similarities between Connecticut and Las Vegas, despite their contrasting personnel and playing styles last season.

Las Vegas made it to the WNBA Finals in 2020, and then the conference semifinals in 2021, before Becky Hammon came in and coached them to a championship in 2022. The 2022 team did not change drastically compared to the previous seasons, but Hammon was able to make the right changes to propel the team forward.

“I wish I could say there was a formula that we could follow that would guarantee us a championship,” Rizzotti said. “You look at Chicago, and they added a big piece in Candace Parker in order to win their first championship. And then you look at Vegas, and they subtracted a big piece when they traded Liz Cambage to create more open flow in their offense. So there’s different ways of accomplishing your goal.

The Aces also went from Bill Lambier to Hammon. Lambier had success with the Aces, but they didn’t get over the hump until Hammon took over. Rizzotti thinks the Sun could do the same thing with White at the helm.

“It’s going to be Stephanie’s job to figure out the actions that put our players in the best positions to be successful,” Rizzotti said.

The 2025 Women's World Cup journey of the U-17 USWNT came to an end on Tuesday, when the US fell to the Netherlands in the tournament's Round of 16 after a 1-1 draw led to a tense penalty shootout.

FC Twente forward Liv Pennock gave the Dutch a one-goal lead in the third minute before a bullet from Chicago Stars attacker Micayla Johnson pulled the USWNT level in the game's second half, but the US couldn't finish the job, losing 7-6 in penalties.

The USWNT has never won a U-17 Women's World Cup, finishing as runners-up in the tournament's inaugural 2008 competition before taking third in the 2024 edition.

With three pros on the roster — Johnson, Gotham FC striker Mak Whitham, and Utah Royals forward KK Ream — as well as one player, defender Sydney Schmidt, on an amateur contract with USL Super League side Sporting JAX, the U-17 USWNT did manage to put together their most impressive group-stage performance yet, taking all nine points from their three opening matches for the first time in team history.

Even more, the team did so in dominant fashion, taking down Ecuador 3-0 and China 5-2 before blasting Norway 5-0 to advance to the knockouts.

The young USWNT will have another shot at a world championship next year, when the now-annual U-17 World Cup returns for its second straight edition in Morocco.

Malawi made women's soccer history on Tuesday, qualifying for the Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) for the first time in program history — and giving sister duo Temwa and Tabitha Chawinga the chance to shine on the global stage in 2026.

The Scorchers advanced through the second qualifying round with a 2-0 second-leg win over Angola on Tuesday, with defensive midfielder Faith Chinzimu's late brace securing the aggregate advantage to win the round.

Malawi now joins Cape Verde as the two debutantes to clinch spots in the expanded 16-team 2026 tournament.

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Even more, the Scorchers' breakthrough will give two of soccer's biggest club stars their biggest platform yet, as sisters Temwa and Tabitha Chawinga gear up for the first major international tournament of their decorated careers.

While 29-year-old OL Lyonnes forward Tabitha participated in this week's WAFCON qualifying round, 27-year-old Kansas City Current striker Temwa sat out after the 2024 NWSL MVP suffered an adductor strain in her club's 1-0 upset loss to the Houston Dash on October 18th.

"It means more opportunities and great exposure to both older and upcoming players. It is a continental platform to bring football dreams alive," Tabitha told BBC Sport Africa this week.

The 2026 WAFCON tournament will see the Chawinga sisters and Malawi contend with powerhouses like host nation Morocco and reigning 10-time champion Nigeria when the continental competition kicks off on March 17th.

The Kansas City Current and San Diego Wave are leveling up, with the NWSL teams set to represent the US in the first-ever North American edition of the seven-a-side tournament World Sevens Football (W7F).

Kicking off December 5th in Fort Lauderdale, the NWSL clubs will join Northern Super League side AFC Toronto, Brazilian powerhouse Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, and Colombian contender Deportivo Cali — as well as Liga MX titans Club América and Tigres UANL — on the W7F tournament pitch.

W7F will announce the eighth and final team to join the competition at a later date.

Armed with a $5 million prize pool, December's W7F competition follows a successful May 2025 debut of the soccer venture in Portugal.

"Our team thrives on intensity, creativity, and competition, which fit perfectly with the 7v7 style of play," said Kansas City assistant coach Milan Ivanovic. "This tournament is an incredible opportunity for our players to test themselves against some of the world's best in a dynamic, fast-paced environment."

"We're proud to represent Kansas City and the NWSL on the international stage and to continue pushing the women's game forward," added Ivanovic.

How to watch December's W7F tournament

There will be four competition sessions in the upcoming W7F event, with two days of group play before the semifinals, third-place, and championship matches take place on December 7th.

All W7F matches will stream live on DAZN.

Angel City co-founder Alexis Ohanian stirred the pot this week, divulging the circumstances behind the NWSL club's 2024 sale on Front Office Sports podcast "Portfolio Players" on Tuesday — and calling the original ownership model of the 2022 expansion team "a terrible idea."

Ohanian said he regretted relinquishing control to three of his co-founders — actor Natalie Portman, venture capitalist Kara Nortman, and current club CEO Julie Uhrman — claiming they invested "no money" themselves.

"I was [the] founding control owner in the eyes of the league, so it's my ass on the line," Ohanian continued, adding that last year's $250 million sale of Angel City directly stemmed from the celebrity-driven investment group's unsustainable startup-like ownership structure. "That works great in tech. In sports, it's a terrible idea."

Following a clash between Ohanian and his fellow ACFC owners on the team's operational and financial future, Disney CEO Bob Iger and USC dean Willow Bay stepped in to purchase the team, aligning board control with stakeholder interest.

"I think the best outcome here is, you got Bob and Willow, they have board control, and it's good," he said. "It's a rebuild."

Angel City did not immediately respond to Ohanian's interview, with Portman and Uhrman remaining on the club's board of directors while Nortman is a non-voting investor.