The Indiana Fever will be without their coach for the immediate future.
Fever coach Stephanie White is stepping away indefinitely from the team 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.
"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.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Fever Coach Stephanie White Taking Indefinite Leave to Address Personal Matter.