Coming from a mid-major college basketball program may not afford new Dallas Wings head coach Jose Fernandez the immediate name recognition to make his hiring as splashy with the casual fan as it is in WNBA circles.
But make no mistake, Fernandez is here to win, and he’s here to do it at a level the Wings and their fans have only ever dreamed about.
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Fernandez was introduced to the media as the 14th head coach in Wings franchise history at a press conference at Dallas’ Reunion Tower on Thursday, where both he and team general manager Curt Miller reiterated the high stakes and higher expectations that come with the job.
“A lot of people were scared of this job,” Fernandez said at the press conference. “I wasn’t scared. There’s a lot of pressure here, but pressure is a privilege. You have to be calm under pressure and under chaos in this position. I look forward to bringing a level of championship excellence in everything we do.”
Miller seconded the notion, saying, “This job isnt for everybody. This job is a tough job. The scrutiny that comes with the Dallas [Wings] job scares some people. It motivated Jose.”
The scrutiny is there because of the team’s 19-65 record over the past two seasons. It’s there because of the young talent on the roster led by reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers, who averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game in her rookie year with the Wings after being taken with the No. 1 overall pick in April’s 2025 WNBA Draft.
“The results are coming — I promise,” Bueckers told the crowd that gave her a standing ovation after the Wings’ season-ending 97-76 win over the eventual WNBA Finalists Phoenix Mercury at Arlington’s College Park Center on Sept. 11. “Stick with us.”
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The scrutiny is there because of a new practice facility being built for the team in West Oak Cliff ahead of the 2026 season and a new arena a little further down the line. It’s there because the team holds the highest odds to get the first overall pick in the upcoming 2026 WNBA Draft.
The scrutiny is there because the opportunity of coaching a sleeping giant comes along with it.
“We found our guy in Jose,” Miller said on Thursday. “Over 800 games coached. Closing in on 500 wins. Fourteen straight seasons with 19 or more wins. It’s amazing how respected Jose is from coast to coast, and all over the world.”
Fernandez comes from the University of South Florida. Followers of the women’s college game and international know his name and his reputation for building winners. He’s been at USF for the last 25 seasons.
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His knack for recruiting and developing international talent, as well as his innovative offensive approach, have made him a name to know in WNBA hiring circles the last few seasons. He was a finalist for the Wings job a year ago, when Miller and the Wings’ front office chose to go with the relative unknown Chris Koclanes for the 2025. season
“This won’t be the same old Dallas Wings,” Fernandez said. “Change is coming, and we’re going to win here. I came here for one reason — I came here to win because I believe in ownership, I believe in the franchise and I believe in the front office that we’re going to be successful here.”
Fans may not have agreed with Koclanes’ rotations or his fit in Dallas, but Miller took the opportunity to thank Koclanes and his outgoing staff as he welcomed Fernandez into the fold on Thursday. The Wings got off to a rough 1-11 start to usher in the Paige Bueckers Era and suffered another stretch of 15 losses in 16 games near the end of the season. Five season-ending injuries surely contributed to the Wings woes as the season wore on, but Koclanes could never escape the questions over his
“It’s a credit to the former coaching staff and to our players for really sticking together through all the adversity last year,” Miller said. “That adversity that this group went through last year will absolutely accelerate what happens in the future. Chris and his staff’s footprint will be felt in this team’s culture for years to come.”
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Fernandez has run a pro-style program at the mid-major South Florida for the full 25 years of his tenure at the helm of the program. He has sent nine players from South Florida on to careers in the WNBA, none of whom came to college as top-100 recruits. More than 100 of his South Florida Bulls have gone on to careers in professional basketball.
He has led 10 different USF teams to the NCAA tournament, winning the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title twice and winning the conference tournament twice more during his tenure there.
“Make no mistake — if you’ve seen us play at USF and you’ve seen the system, it’s a pro-style system. It has a lot of Euro-influence in the amount of things that we do offensively with player movement and with ball movement,” Fernandez said. “Our best players are going to get the basketball. We’re going to play with great spacing and we know the importance of putting the entire five on the floor where they’re comfortable.”
The identity he hopes to forge in the iteration of the Wings under his tutelage?
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“The identity of this team has got to be collaborative between the staff and the players,” Fernandez said. “We’re going to play harder than anybody in this league. We’re going to rim-run harder, our wings are going to sprint harder, we’re going to attack the rim, we’re going to create second shot opportunities, we’re going to cut hard, we’re going to screen hard, we’re going to stop the point of attack early and we’re going to be tough to play against. That’s going to be the identity.”
