The Dallas Wings are the third WNBA team to hire a new or first head coach since the end of the 2025 season. The Portland Fire hired Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Alex Sarama, the Toronto Tempo landed former Liberty coach Sandy Brondello, and the Wings settled on USF coach Jose Fernandez.
Brondello is the only one out of that group with head coaching experience in the WNBA. The Fire will have to be patient with their rookie head coach, who will have to make the transition from focusing on player development to leading a team. The Wings, however, can look at a recent precedent that promises notable first-year success.
The Atlanta Dream hired a long-time college coach ahead of the 2025 season. Karl Smesko was one of seven rookie head coaches. While Sydney Johnson set the foundation for a strong rebuild in Washington and Rachid Meziane got the Sun to improve towards the end of the season, Smesko and Nakase were undoubtedly the most successful rookie head coaches. Nakase won Coach of the Year while Smesko finished second. Smesko’s experience of coaching at the same school for 22 years helped him quickly implement a successful offensive system and take the challenges of leading a team in stride. If Jose Fernandez can make a similarly smooth transition, it bodes well for the Wings’ future.
Jose Fernandez has a lot of coaching experience
Fernandez’s coaching career began in 1991 as an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at Miami-Dade CC Kendall. In 1996, Fernandez began coaching girls’ basketball at Lourdes Academy. Three years later, he moved on to college basketball, first with a job at Barry and then at the University of South Florida where he coached between 2000 and 2025.
Over those 25 years, Fernandez led his team to 10 NCAA Tournament appearances and 485 total wins and 317 losses. He also coached current WNBA players Courtney Williams and Kitija Laksa and 1997 WNBA Champion Wanda Marie Guyton.
Due to his long history of coaching college basketball, Fernandez knows how to work with young players, which is the majority of the Wings’ roster, and already has systems and philosophies he can bring to the WNBA, ideally minimizing the adjustment period of getting comfortable in his new role.
The Wings have to build a winning culture
The Wings haven’t found much success in recent years. Since 2019, they have gone to the playoffs three times, losing in the first round twice and in the semifinals in 2023. They also lost All-Stars like Allisha Gray, Satou Sabally, and Natasha Howard, and found themselves at the bottom of the league in the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Since 2019, which is when the Wings drafted Arike Ogunbowale, the team has also had four head coaches, providing their All-Star with little consistency.
It is time for the Wings to find some stability and build a winning culture, so they don’t lose Paige Bueckers like many of their top picks in the past. Hiring an experienced head coach who lasted 25 years in his last job and accumulated a winning record is a good first step in the right direction.
Karl Smesko led his team to the playoffs in his first season. However, the Dream’s roster also features a lot more veteran star power than the Wings. So, while Fernandez might not lead his young team to the playoffs right away, it might not be much longer until Wings fans will get to see Bueckers play in the postseason.