{"id":337753,"date":"2025-12-10T22:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T22:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/337753\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T22:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T22:55:09","slug":"four-time-wnba-mvp-aja-wilson-named-2025-time-athlete-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/337753\/","title":{"rendered":"Four-Time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson Named 2025 TIME Athlete of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NWSL transfer and hiring market is ramping up, with both the 14 existing clubs and two incoming expansion teams<\/a> busy bolstering their 2026 ranks just weeks into the offseason.<\/p>\n

Last week, Bay FC announced that England U-23 head coach Emma Coates will become the 2024 expansion club’s second-ever manager, with fellow England youth national team and WSL staffer Gemma Davies joining Coates’s NWSL crew as an assistant coach.<\/p>\n

“I’m truly honored and super excited to build on the strong foundations that have already been established and to implement a clear identity both on and off the pitch,” Coates said in Thursday’s statement<\/a>. “[Bay FC] shares my passion for people, performance, and culture, which I believe are fundamental to sustained success.”<\/p>\n

“Emma is not only an excellent coach, but she also has a proven track record of developing players to compete at the highest levels of both the domestic and international game,” remarked Bay Collective CEO Kay Cossington. “Emma has consistently demonstrated an ability to bring players and teams to the next level with clarity, care and purpose. She understands what it takes to build environments where people thrive and perform at their best.”<\/p>\n

“Bay FC is gaining not only a great coach, but also someone that understands women’s football and our athletes inside and out.”<\/p>\n

While Coates will wrap up her nearly three years at England’s U-23 helm to join Bay FC in the coming days, three other NWSL teams are still searching for permanent sideline leaders this offseason, as the Kansas City Current<\/a>, North Carolina Courage, and Portland Thorns continue to conduct coaching searches.<\/p>\n

The Thorns joined the leaderless ranks in late November, parting ways with manager Rob Gale following the team’s NWSL semifinals exit<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NWSL transfer and hiring market is ramping up, with both the 14 existing clubs and two incoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[148176,128159,4662,147902,49,48,11628,4233,138137,104807,3460,82,630,67826],"class_list":["post-337753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-2025-time-athlete-of-the-year","tag-2025-wnba-championship","tag-aja-wilson","tag-athlete-of-the-year","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cathy-engelbert","tag-cba","tag-cba-deadline","tag-cba-negotiations","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-mvp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}