Image courtesy of Hannah Foley.
The Connecticut Sun have kicked off their training camp and are gearing up for another run at the organization’s first championship.
The 2021 regular-season champions were shocked in the semi-finals last year with a 3-1 series loss to the eventual league champions, Chicago Sky. The 2021 Sun team boasted the Most Valuable Player, Most Improved Player, and Coach of the Year on their squad, but for the second time in the past 5 years, they couldn’t finish the job of bringing home a championship to Connecticut. As they say though, third time’s a charm, and that’s exactly what General Manager/Head Coach Curt Miller is hoping for.
The Camel community has been engaged in multiple ways with the Sun organization. Currently, the College’s Strength & Conditioning Coach, Analisse Rios, is starting her third season as the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Sun. Rios said, “One of the reasons I love my job so much is that I love the challenge of taking elite athletes to a new level through strength training.” And she does exactly that. Rios’s job is not only to help players during the season with their fitness, but also out of season: “I think many of the returning players have bought into consistent strength training during the WNBA off-season so I think there will be many who look stronger, faster, and more powerful than last season,”
Two members of the class of 2022, Jenna Whelan and Audrey Shaev, are currently interns with the Sun and have received offers to continue working with the organization through the summer. Whelan is an intern in the Communications and Public Relations department, and Shaev is a Graphic Design Intern. “I think this season is going to be super special,” said Shaev. “We have the core of our team coming back, along with the addition of All-Star Courtney Williams who helped lead us to the finals in 2019. I think we’re all expecting nothing less than a championship this season.”
Whelan agreed, adding “We have really high expectations for this upcoming season… with an early loss in the postseason, I feel like the team has a lot of unfinished business that they are ready to prepare for and achieve this year. The front office and staff have been working extremely hard to get ready for the start of the season and I think that competition is just getting stronger and stronger, so this season is going to be a really great thing to be a part of.”
English Professor Blanche Boyd has been a season ticket holder with the Sun for roughly 15 years. Her children used to walk around the stadium boasting their season ticket holder badges as little kids, and now they’re graduating college with a continued love of sports, especially women’s basketball. When asked what she is expecting out of this season, Professor Boyd said, “I think Alyssa Thomas is gonna set the world on fire! And DeWanna Bonner, both of them together…I think it’s going to be fantastic.” Thomas has been battling injuries the past few years but was playing in games again by the end of last season, so fans are excited to see what she can do at full strength again.
In the offseason, Miller and his staff (which includes team President Jennifer Rizzoti and Director of Franchise Operations Morgan Tuck, both former UConn basketball stars) re-signed 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones, as well as Natisha Hiedeman, Stephanie Jones, Beatrice Mompremier, and former crowd favorite Courtney Williams. Williams was traded after the 2019 season but two seasons later she has returned. “I am very excited to work with her this season,” said Rios. “She left the team right before I started working with the Sun, but I know she is a very explosive and powerful player who only gets better with each season.”
Miller also extended training camp contracts to seven players who were either free agents, playing overseas, or went undrafted in the 2022 draft. Training camp contracts last until the first day of the regular season when the teams either cut them or their contracts become 1-year, minimum salary contracts. Teams are capped to 12 players or $1,379,200 in total team salary for the 2022 season, whichever comes first. Most teams who sign training camp players aren’t actually able to sign them for full season contracts because of the salary cap, but teams are able to pick up a player during the season if they are given a hardship exception by the league, so training camp is a sort of tryout for the on-call slot for the team. Since the start of training camp last Sunday, April 17, Miller has waived three players from camp in his efforts to get the roster down to 12 by the start of the season.
On Monday, April 11, the WNBA Draft was held in New York City and players from all over the world were drafted. The Sun drafted Nia Clouden, Jordan Lewis, and Kiara “Kiki” Smith.
“Nia Clouden from Michigan State was a first-round pick and brings a lot of versatility in being able to score in lots of different ways,” said Whelan. “Jordan Lewis coming in from a grad year at Baylor has a lot of defensive energy and great basketball IQ, and Kiki Smith, although suffering from injury currently, also had an incredible college career.”
Shaev added, “All of the rookies are very promising and it’ll be interesting to see how the roster shapes out and who can come in and make an immediate impact on an already talented team.”
No matter who makes the roster, the Sun are expected to have a championship-caliber team. The home opener of the WNBA regular season will be Saturday, May 14 at Mohegan Sun, the perfect night out before finals ramp up. Tickets are on sale now. Good luck to the Sun this season and our Camel family involved!
