hired Fernandez<\/a> as their new head coach, bringing the lifelong south Florida resident to Texas for his first job in the WNBA.<\/p>\n\u201cYes, I\u2019m a rookie in the W,\u201d Fernandez admitted.<\/p>\n
He is no rookie to coaching, though. The Miami, Fla. native spent the last 25 years leading the women’s basketball team at the University of South Florida.<\/p>\n
Fernandez decided it was time for a new chapter as the WNBA continues to flourish while college hoops becomes increasingly difficult for head coaches \u2014 due in large part to the transfer portal and reliance on NIL offerings to recruit competitively.<\/p>\n
“The change in landscape, not only in women\u2019s college basketball but college athletics,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cI was coaching professional sports in college, so why not make the leap to the WNBA?\u201d<\/p>\n
At age 54, the father of five daughters jumps to North Texas with his wife, Tonya, and their eight dogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s excitement,\u201d he said. \u201cMy wife\u2019s been extremely supportive. Now, how we\u2019re going to move eight dogs to Dallas, that\u2019s going to be a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fernandez inherits a Wings roster anchored by franchise star Paige Bueckers, who’s the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n
“Paige is a relentless worker. She wants to be the best,” Fernandez said. \u201cShe\u2019s got one of the best mid-range games in the entire world. A three-level scorer \u2014 getting to the rim, mid-range game and also shooting the three.”<\/p>\n
Before formally stepping into the role, Fernandez spent a handful of days visiting with longtime friend and legendary UConn head coach Geno Auriemma who coached Bueckers in college.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good understanding on how she responds to coaching, how she wants to be coached, and certain things with her, with the basketball, what she really likes,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n
Like last year, the Wings hold the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft. Unlike last year, the top pick is not as clear and obvious as Bueckers was in 2025.<\/p>\n
However, Fernandez suggested the team may have already narrowed its focus to one or two players for that top selection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been some separation by some folks,\u201d he smiled. “I think whoever we take No. 1 is going to be a great fit in the locker room, a great fit in our culture, in our standards and in the way that we want to play.”<\/p>\n
Much of the Wings’ success in 2026, though, will depend on free agency and who the front office is able to add around their 24-year-old superstar.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can put a really good roster together around the current players that we have, there should be no reason why we\u2019re not a playoff contender,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n
And he is aiming even higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have taken this job if I didn\u2019t think I could be a great change to the organization,\u201d Fernandez asserted. \u201cThey\u2019re going to play with great passion. There\u2019s not going to ever be a reason for anyone to think they didn\u2019t play hard. My expectation in taking this job is to win a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 25 years in college basketball, Jose Fernandez enters a new chapter as head coach of the Dallas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-478087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478087","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=478087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}