Interest in women’s basketball has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2024, the WNBA reported a record-breaking season “with an average of 1.19 million viewers, a 170% increase from last season.” This increase in viewership is mainly caused by the star players, including A’ja Wilson and Angel Reese, but Black female basketball coaches are also behind the scenes helping these players and women’s basketball shine.
Here are seven Black female basketball coaches to watch this year.
Dawn Staley
Dawn Staley is the head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks. Staley has been managing the women’s basketball team since 2008. She’s the first Black college basketball coach to win three national championships. In addition, the head coach is part of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Staley’s team is talented. In 2024, the Gamecocks featured the second most players in WNBA training camp of any college.
Aqua Franklin
Aqua Franklin is now the head coach at Lamar University, but has had a long, impressive career. After graduating from Texas A&M University, Franklin played in the WNBA for two seasons. Playing for the Sacramento Monarchs, she helped lead her team to the opening round of the 2008 WNBA playoffs.
Teresa Weatherspoon
Teresa Weatherspoon is the head coach of the Vinyl BC basketball club. The club is under the women’s basketball league Unrivaled. Unrivaled features 36 WNBA players again in 3-on-3 games, as an alternative to playing overseas post-season. Weatherspoon is a former WNBA player and WNBA head coach of the Chicago Sky team. However, after one season, the head coach was suddenly fired.
“All the crazy circumstances that we went through this year & when your back was against the wall, you always believed,
Angel Reese said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I came to Chicago because of YOU. You were an unsung hero in my life.”
Bridgette Gordon
Bridgette Gordon is actually the head women’s basketball coach at Florida A&M University. Before taking the gig in 2023, Gordon played overseas in the 90s and in the Sacramento Monarchs WNBA team from 1997 to 1998. While pursuing her undergraduate education, the athlete was one of the best women’s basketball players in the University of Tennessee history. In college, she earned the most career steals, won an Olympic gold medal in 1988 and was a two-time NCAA national champion.
Kara Lawson
As the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils women’s basketball team, Kara Lawson knows how to lead. From 2022 to 2023, Lawson led the Devils to 26-7 overall. She’s also a former WNBA player. She played on different teams including the Sacramento Monarchs, the Connecticut Sun and the Washington Mystics.
Niele Ivey
Niele Ivey is a former WNBA player and the current head coach of the Fighting Irish team at the University of Notre Dame. Since joining the team in 2020, Ivey’s made history as the school’s first ever Black female coach. She’s also a former WNBA player for teams like Indiana Fever, Detroit Shock and Phoenix Mercury.
Tanisha Wright
Tanisha Wright is the assistant coach for the Chicago Sky of the WNBA. Similar to other Black female coaches, Wright was also a former WNBA player. She was the first-round draft pick in 2005 and was a guard under the Seattle Storm team. Wright ranks among 10 players in WNBA history with at least 3,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,200 assists.