{"id":15789,"date":"2025-10-25T02:41:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T02:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/15789\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T02:41:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T02:41:25","slug":"liberty-assistant-sonia-raman-takes-storm-head-coaching-gig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/15789\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty assistant Sonia Raman takes Storm head coaching gig"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liberty assistant Sonia Raman is leaving New York to become the next head coach of the Storm, sources confirmed Friday.<\/p>\n

Raman was the in-house candidate<\/a> for the Liberty head coaching job.<\/p>\n

She ultimately, though, agreed to a multiyear deal with the Storm, making New York the last WNBA team with a head coaching vacancy.<\/p>\n

Raman\u2019s historic hiring, first reported by ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania, makes her the first Indian-American woman to be a head coach in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

Raman, 51, replaced Noelle Quinn, whose contract wasn\u2019t renewed last month after four seasons. She\u2019ll have the chance to play an integral role in 2025 No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga\u2019s development.<\/p>\n

\"CoachCoach Sandy Brondello and Sonia Raman of the New York Liberty talks during the game against the Washington Mystics on September 9, 2025 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Raman brings decades of experience at the college, NBA and WNBA levels.<\/p>\n

Former Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins once lauded Raman for her high basketball IQ and \u201ctremendous ability to teach the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former Tufts walk-on, Raman got her first shot at being a head coach in 2008, when she was hired to lead the MIT women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

During her 12 years there, she guided the Engineers to two Division III NCAA Tournaments and remains the winningest coach in program history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raman joined Jenkins\u2019 staff in Memphis before the 2020-21 season. Her responsibilities started on the defensive side of the ball before she transitioned to the offensive side in her third season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Liberty assistant coach Sonia Raman coaches during warmups before a WNBA game between the New York Liberty and the Connecticut Sun on August 3, 2025. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Liberty added Raman to Sandy Brondello\u2019s coaching staff last season. She was considered a candidate for the Liberty as recently as Friday.<\/p>\n

Her departure leaves three holes on the Liberty\u2019s bench that need to be filled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brondello, whom the Liberty fired last month, was hired this week to be the Toronto Tempo\u2019s first head coach<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney’s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Wings are set to hire South Florida women\u2019s coach Jose Fernandez, and the Fire have inked a deal with Cavaliers assistant Alex Sarama to be their first head coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brondello\u2019s husband, Olaf Lange, who served as an assistant on her staff in New York, left the Liberty after this season.<\/p>\n

With Raman off the market, the Liberty\u2019s pool of candidates includes former Nets assistant Will Weaver, G League head coach Joseph Blair and Mercury associate head coach Kristi Toliver.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s plenty of uncertainty regarding what rosters may look like next season since the majority of players are free agents, Raman has an opportunity to work closely with one of the league\u2019s most exciting prospects, Malonga, who has drawn comparisons to Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liberty assistant Sonia Raman is leaving New York to become the next head coach of the Storm, sources…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,8915,10,11453,319,11452],"class_list":{"0":"post-15789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-liberty","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-seattle-storm","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}