TORONTO — The process to hire the first head coach in Toronto Tempo history began in July. Monica Wright Rogers, the team’s general manager, naturally had her own thoughts about the type of leader an expansion franchise needed. But this was not just any other hire. The Tempo coach would immediately become the face of the franchise and by extension, the face of women’s basketball for an entire country.
For a hire of this significance, Wright Rogers wanted input from plenty of stakeholders, including team president Teresa Resch, assistant general manager and senior vice president of basketball strategy Eli Horowitz, and of course, top ownership. A process and timeline were created, and Rogers’ contact list included international coaching candidates.
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Wright Rogers was firm on two requirements. First, she wanted a head coach who could attract free agents, especially given the current state of the WNBA’s CBA. Second, she was convinced the head coach needed WNBA experience to avoid a steep learning curve.
“I got to a final list and then something happened in New York,” Wright Rogers said.
What happened was Sandy Brondello became available.
“We were able to have a crack at one of the best coaches in WNBA history,” Wright Rogers said. “And I took a swing.”
The swing landed about as well as Bo Bichette’s did off Shohei Ohtani in the third inning of Game 7 of the World Series. (Let’s not talk about the ending in Toronto, OK?). On Tuesday morning at an event space located in Toronto’s King West neighbourhood, an eight-minute walk from the Rogers Centre, Brondello was introduced as the Tempo’s inaugural head coach. Her credentials include two WNBA championships with two different franchises (one of only two coaches in league history) and four WNBA Finals appearances. Her experience as a global citizen is also important, given Toronto (and Canada writ large) has a massive diaspora. Brondello has been the head coach of the Australian national team since 2017 and played in Europe in addition to the WNBA.
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Wright Rogers said she and Brondello did not know each other well when the hiring process began, but they had plenty of friends and colleagues in common, including Indiana Pacers assistant coach Jenny Boucek, who is tight with both. (Boucek had head coaching stints with the Sacramento Monarchs and Seattle Storm before moving to the NBA.) Brondello said she took four weeks to determine what she wanted next in her basketball journey and told The Athletic that she received formal offers from multiple teams, though she would not provide a specific number of teams or the teams themselves. “A few,” she said, laughing.
She spoke repeatedly on Tuesday about looking for alignment with the front office and ownership as part of her decision-making process. You could read between the lines that it was a reflection on how it ended in New York. At 57, she liked the idea of building a legacy, which an expansion team affords her.
“I was very intentional with my thinking about where I felt was the next challenge for me, where I felt most supported, and where I was most aligned,” she said. “All the teams were different in what they could present there, but ultimately, I chose this as where I wanted to be. Doing something from the beginning, that’s what really sold me. To be able to build a team right from the get-go and having my handprint over that.”
Wright Rogers said Brondello signed a multi-year contract. Brondello and her agent, Boris Lelchitski of Sports International Group (SIG), called the Tempo officials last month to formally accept the offer.
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“Pure excitement,” Wright Rogers said she felt when she learned Brondello was taking the job. “They said, “We’re in,’ and ‘Let’s go, Tempo.’”
Brondello was peppered with questions by reporters on Tuesday about how she will approach the job. She said hiring a staff is immediately on her agenda. On the topic of drawing prospective free agents, Brondello said, “Most players know me, and I think I have a pretty good reputation in this league. Being only one of three former players who are head coaches, I think that matters to players. It’s a great opportunity here, and hopefully free agents see that and will be excited about joining an expansion team.”
Brondello said establishing culture for her was more important than X’s and O’s. She has not set a style of play for the Tempo other than to feature an entertaining basketball product and to be tough. Rogers noted that Brondello has the tall task of not being just a head coach but an ambassador of basketball for a country.
“The head coach, especially for a brand new team, is the person who turns vision into reality and potential into performance,” Wright Rogers said. “As we began our hunt, we knew we were looking for a bit of a unicorn. We needed someone who shared our vision to build a world-class franchise that competes at the highest level. Someone who could develop talent, create identity, and can compete from Day 1. We needed someone to share our commitment to excellence and our passion for someone with a global perspective, but also a community mindset. Someone who understands the responsibility we carry as a new franchise in a country with a rising generation who deserve to see what is possible.”
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Brondello said she wanted to have a Canadian player on the roster. “Hopefully, that does happen,” she said. “They still have to choose us, not just us choosing them, if some are free agents. I’d think it’d be great to entice some Canadian players back here to play for the Tempo.”
Naturally, she was asked about the success of the Golden State Valkyries, who finished 23-21 in the regular season and qualified for the playoffs in the franchise’s first year of existence.
“Yeah, they’ve hit the ground running, haven’t they?” Brondello said. “They’ve done a really great job, and it started with the ownership and bringing the right people in. I think (head coach) Natalie’s (Nakase) done a great job of coaching that team.”
In Toronto, as a press corps of about 30 media members started to get to know her, she effectively sold herself as someone who could attract players, especially those who might be incentivized to build something from the ground up.
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“I am not a dictator coach,” she said. “I’m more like a servant leader more than anything, a player’s coach. I’m a coach who doesn’t get too high or too low. I’m always solution-based. What do we need to do to be better? That’s what my focus will be on.
“Yes, it will be different because it is an expansion team, but that’s also exciting because now you can build from the ground up,” she continued. “You can bring players in that will represent this city and this team in the right way. But the goal is to bring a championship to Toronto. My narrative has not changed. I like winning.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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