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.

USWNT stalwart Alex Morgan will miss at least one week of NWSL action after suffering a left ankle knock in her last club appearance, Wave manager Casey Stoney said on Thursday.

Morgan was helped off the field after rolling her ankle in the later stages of the Wave’s 1-0 loss to the Orlando Pride last weekend, despite the San Diego side being out of available substitutes.

“She's got an ankle injury and she's out for this weekend, and then it'll be week by week from there,” Stoney said, confirming that Morgan’s been ruled out for Saturday’s showdown with NWSL newcomer Bay FC.

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Depending on its severity, Morgan’s ankle issue might have larger ramifications than missing a few weeks of NSWL play. Morgan was added to the team's Gold Cup roster after an ACL injury sidelined young striker Mia Fishel, and she's since made a number of USWNT starts in the team's Gold Cup and SheBelieves wins. A long-term injury could potentially derail the center forward’s Olympic plans.

With her return timeline uncertain, it's possible the injury could also impact Morgan's ability to participate in new head coach Emma Hayes' first U.S. friendlies in June and July.

Morgan's injury concerns aren't uncommon in the U.S. player pool, but add a sense of urgency as Hayes eyes the NWSL for top-performing players in the upcoming weeks. Gotham's Tierna Davidson and Rose Lavelle have also been dealing with injuries: Lavelle has yet to appear for Gotham, while Davidson exited last weekend's match early with a hamstring injury.

Gotham has yet to issue an update concerning Davidson's status.

This week, legendary Brazilian superstar Marta announced that she’ll retire from the national team at the end of 2024.

In an interview with CNN Esportes published Thursday, the iconic footballer confirmed that she would be hanging up her boots regardless of whether or not she ends up making Brazil's 18-player roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

“If I go to the Olympics, I will enjoy every moment, because regardless of whether I go to the Olympics or not, this is my last year with the national team,” she said. “There is no longer Marta in the national team as an athlete from 2025 onwards.”

Marta will retire as a giant of the women's game, having appeared in five Olympics and multiple World Cups. When discussing her retirement, she stressed confidence in the rising generation of Brazilian players, noting that she was, “very calm about this, because I see with great optimism this development that we are having in relation to young athletes." 

The statement echoes back to a plea she made during the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup after Brazil lost to France 2-1 in the Round of 16. “It's wanting more. It's training more. It's taking care of yourself more. It's being ready to play 90 plus 30 minutes. This is what I ask of the girls,” she said then, addressing the young players following in her footsteps. 

In 2023, she signaled a farewell to World Cup competition with the same sentiment, telling media, “We ask the new generation to continue where we left off.”

If selected for the 2024 Olympic team, Marta has a shot at extending her own consecutive-scoring record with the ability to score in an unbelievable sixth-straight Olympic Games. She currently stands as Brazil’s top goalscorer, racking up 116 career goals in 175 matches, as well as the leading goalscorer in any World Cup, women’s or men’s, with 17 to her name. 

Marta will continue to play for the NWSL’s Orlando Pride through at least the end of 2024. The longtime forward and club captain has already contributed to multiple goals this season.

U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday that the USWNT will play their last home game on July 16th in the lead-up to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

The 2024 Send-Off Match against Costa Rica will take place at Washington, DC’s Audi Field — home to both the Washington Spirit and DC United — at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 16th. The friendly rounds out a four-game Olympic run-up campaign under incoming head coach Emma Hayes’ side, with the last two set to feature the finalized 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team roster.

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Hayes will appear on the USWNT sideline for the first time this June, helming the team as they embark on a two-game series against Korea Republic hosted by Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado on June 1st followed by Allianz Stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 4th. 

The team is then scheduled to meet a talented Mexico squad on July 13th at Gotham FC’s Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, where the Olympic-bound lineup will attempt to rewrite February’s shocking 2-0 loss to El Tri Femenil in the group stages of this year’s Concacaf W Gold Cup. And while clear roster favorites have emerged from both of this year’s Gold Cup and SheBelives Cup rosters, a spate of recent and recurring injuries means making it to the Olympics is still largely anyone’s game.

Broadcast and streaming channels for the USWNT's final July 16th friendly at Audi Field include TNT, truTV, Universo, Max, and Peacock.

The USA Basketball Women's National Team is still considering Caitlin Clark for a spot on the Paris Olympics squad, says selection committee chair Jennifer Rizzotti. 

On Monday, Rizzotti told the AP that the committee will be evaluating the college phenom’s Olympic prospects by keeping a close eye on her first few weeks of WNBA play with Indiana.

The move is somewhat unconventional. While Clark was invited to participate in the 14-player national team training camp held earlier this month — the last camp before Team USA’s roster drops — she was unable to attend due to it coinciding with Iowa’s trip to the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

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Judging by the immense talent spread throughout the league in what might be their most hyped season to date, competition for a piece of the Olympic pie could be fiercer than ever before.

"You always want to introduce new players into the pool whether it's for now or the future," said Rizzotti. "We stick to our principles of talent, obviously, positional fit, loyalty and experience. It's got to be a combination of an entire body of work. It's still not going to be fair to some people."

Of course, Clark isn’t the first rookie the committee has made exceptions for. Coming off an exceptional college season that saw her averaging 19.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 4 assists per game for UConn, Breanna Stewart was tapped to represent the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil less than two weeks after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Seattle Storm. Eight years prior, fellow No. 1 pick Candace Parker punched her ticket to the 2008 Games in Beijing just two weeks after making her first appearance for the L.A. Sparks.

In the lead-up to Paris’ Opening Ceremony on July 26th, USA Basketball Women’s National Team is scheduled to play a pair of exhibition games. They'll first go up against the WNBA's finest at the July 20th WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix before facing Germany in London on July 23rd.

While an official roster announcement date hasn’t yet been issued, players won’t find out if they’ve made this year’s Olympic cut until at least June 1st.