Gail Goestenkors and Gary Kloppenburg added to Indiana Fever coaching staff
Release from the Fever:
The Indiana Fever has named Gail Goestenkors and Gary Kloppenburg as assistant coaches to join Stephanie White in her first season as head coach on the Fever sidelines.
Goestenkors and Kloppenburg both have head coaching experience and last year they worked together as assistant coaches with the Los Angeles Sparks. Goestenkors was a long-time head coach at Duke and Texas in the college ranks, and last year made her coaching debut in the WNBA. Kloppenburg, a former Indiana assistant under Lin Dunn from 2008-11, was the head coach of the Tulsa Shock in 2012 and 2013.
White and Kloppenburg shared the Fever sidelines with Dunn during a 2011 season that saw Indiana finish 21-13 atop the Eastern Conference before falling in the conference finals. In separate seasons with Indiana, each was voted by league GMs as the top assistant coach in the WNBA.
“I am very excited to add Gail and Gary to our staff. Their experience is second to none,” said White, whose own WNBA resume includes five years as a player and eight as coach. “Both bring a wealth of knowledge and understanding of our league, the players and what it takes to put a successful team on the floor. Most importantly they are both quality people who fit perfectly into our franchise and our community.”
One of the most accomplished women’s basketball coaches in the nation, Goestenkors is scheduled for induction in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on June 13, 2015. The head coach at Duke from 1992-07, she led the Blue Devils to an NCAA-record seven consecutive 30-win seasons while making 13 straight NCAA Tournament appearances. She was named the ACC Coach of the Year a record seven times and, during her final ten seasons at Duke, she led the Blue Devils to NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances every year, seven Elite Eight appearances, four Final Four appearances, and two appearances in the NCAA Championship game.
A former assistant coach at Purdue under Dunn (1987-92), Goestenkors left Duke to take the reins as the Texas head coach from 2007-12. Last summer, she spent her first season in the WNBA as an assistant to Carol Ross.
“Gail has accomplished so much in her career as a coach and I have great respect for not only what she has accomplished, but the way in which she has done it. Her X’s and O’s are outstanding, she has great relationships with players, and she will be a terrific resource for me and our team on a number of levels.”
“Klopp is one of the best defensive minds in the game and having him back will help us re-establish our defensive identity. His experience at the professional level on both the men’s and women’s side is a great asset to our franchise. I enjoyed working with him when I first came back to Indiana and look forward to working with him again.
Kloppenburg begins his second stint with the Fever, returning to Indiana where he helped design a trademark defensive unit that has had the Fever among the WNBA’s top three scoring defenses every season since 2005. Kloppenburg coached under Dunn in Seattle (2000-02), spent 2003 with the Phoenix Mercury, and resumed ties with Dunn in Indiana before embarking on his first head coaching role with the Shock. The 2014 season with L.A. was his 11th in the WNBA.
Kloppenburg was on the staff of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats where he served under head coach Bernie Bickerstaff for three seasons from 2004-07. He was hired by Bickerstaff when the Bobcats were founded as an expansion team in 2004 – continuing a family bond established when Bickerstaff was in college, and strengthened when Gary’s father Bob coached in the NBA with Bickerstaff in Seattle and Denver. Kloppenburg has coached at virtually every level of college and professional basketball, ranging from his beginnings in the California community college ranks to stops in the NBA, WNBA, Continental Basketball Association and internationally.
