Stephanie White: ‘No better time to be a woman in sport’
The Purdue legend and new Indiana Fever coach talks about her days on campus, coaching Caitlin Clark and why evaluating talent extends to what you do with your shopping cart in the parking lot
Support for this edition comes from the Builders Association of Greater Lafayette, presenting the BAGL Home Building & Remodeling Show Feb. 22 at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds. Get advance tickets at www.bagl.info.
STEPHANIE WHITE: ‘NO BETTER TIME TO BE A WOMAN IN SPORT’
Stephanie White – Purdue and Seeger High School basketball legend, now head coach of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever – this week offered Purdue President Mung Chiang a quick primer on evaluating talent to find who fit on a roster and in a locker room.
Competitive spirit, drive, good body language, an ability to fail and learn from it, helping teammates up, being a good sport, looking people in the eye, a willingness to be challenged, not having to win at all costs. And this …
“It’s just how you view what you do every single day,” White said. “Like for me, as a human being, if you’re leaving your shopping cart out in the parking lot? I’m judging you.”
Chiang brought White back to campus Tuesday for an installment in the Presidential Lecture Series to talk about her days at Purdue, the 1999 National Championship and her role with the Fever in what has become an epicenter of women’s sports.
Here were a few moments from the talk.
ABOUT WHAT HER TIME WAS LIKE AS A STUDENT ATHLETE AT PURDUE: It wasn’t as hard as it is now for college athletes, she told Chiang.
“We didn't have as many distractions. We didn't have as many people in our ears. It really was: We go to school, we go to class, we go to practice, we go back to the dorm, we eat the dorm food. We didn't have all these luxuries that they have now. And we studied. That was about it. It was pretty much a regular cadence, a disciplined cadence. My teammates used to say I was pretty square, so I didn't do a lot of fun things in college. To me, basketball’s fun. And I was a competitor, so I wanted to be elite in academics, and I wanted to be elite in athletics. I stayed pretty linearly focused on those two things.”
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