Inside Day 4 of Indiana Fever training camp: Stephanie White, Natasha Howard look ahead to preseason
Fever camp continued Thursday with Day 4 — with a focus on rotations, defense, and situations. They have one more practice before two exhibition games this weekend.
It was back to the practice court Thursday morning for the Indiana Fever after a busy Wednesday filled with media obligations. While it’s still referred to as "media day," the majority of their responsibilities included photo shoots, recording the team intro video, filming scoreboard content, promoting upcoming initiatives, and much more.
For the top players, there were up to 31 stations — including time with reporters.
After handling all of that, it was back to work for Day 4 of training camp. The team will practice once more on Friday before opening the preseason schedule this weekend.
Head coach Stephanie White met with reporters following practice and discussed how they’re preparing to evaluate lineups in live-game settings. The coaching staff is emphasizing foundational elements like spacing, pace, and defensive execution, while also ramping up physicality and intensity ahead of Saturday's exhibition opener.
There are 15 players in camp — 10 of them new — but only 11 roster spots to start the season due to salary cap limitations, with 10 already guaranteed. That means five players are vying for the final spot.
With two new starters in Natasha Howard and DeWanna Bonner, the coaching staff is also focused on building chemistry among the core group.
“It's the hardest thing about training camp,” White said of balancing practice reps. “We used those first three practices to get everybody ingrained in our base level of how we want to play. And we started focusing a little bit more on rotations today. And certainly after the weekend and after we have a couple of games, it'll tighten up even more. And really trying to get our core rotational players quality minutes together.”
From Day 1, the emphasis has been on defense. The Fever believe they have the scoring talent — led by Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, and Aliyah Boston — but they’re determined to improve on last season’s defensive rating, which ranked 11th out of 12 teams. For contrast, White’s Connecticut team led the WNBA in that category last year.
“We’re putting a little bit more ownership on them in coverages and recognizing action and recognizing when you're beat,” White explained. “Recognizing action before it happens as opposed to waiting until it happens. … We use three A’s: active, anticipate, and be aware. And that's the mindset that we have to have on the defensive end.”
Veteran forward Natasha Howard, a key offseason addition, emphasized the team’s evolving identity and her role in setting the tone on defense.