Fever Coach Stephanie White Will Miss Valkyries Game to Address Personal Matter

The Indiana boss is stepping away briefly.

Stephanie White watches the Fever play the Liberty. / Grace Smith/IndyStar

The Indiana Fever will be without their coach for the immediate future.

Fever coach Stephanie White is stepping away from the team briefly to attend to a personal matter, the organization told reporters Thursday afternoon ahead of the team's game against the Golden State Valkyries. Assistant coach Austin Kelly will coach the Fever in her stead, and per the team, White is currently expected to return for Sunday's game against the Las Vegas Aces.

"It's going to be the same. I think we are an extension of each other," Kelly said Thursday via Kendra Andrews of ESPN. "The message is still the same that we talk about in the locker room: playing for each other, getting it done on the defensive end and then having that help fuel us on the offensive end. But the vibes are good."

White is in the first year of her second stint with the Fever, and the team is currently 6-5—a pace that if maintained over the entire season would be the team's best since 2015 during her first stint.

Kelly, a longtime women's basketball staffer, played football as a wide receiver for Duke from 2007 to '10.

Editors’ note, June 19 at 10:10 p.m. ET: An earlier version of this story misstated that White is out indefinitely. In fact, she is expected to return for the Fever’s game against the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday.

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