Phoenix Mercury to hire Las Vegas Aces assistant Vanessa Nygaard as new head coach

4:23 PM

The Mercury have hired a former Las Vegas assistant coach as their next head coach, according to a league source.

An announcement is expected Monday.

Sandy Brondello was hired as the New York Liberty's head coach in January and his contract expired after the 2021 season.

At the professional, college, prep and international levels, the coach has experience.

The Las Vegas team that lost in the semifinals of the NBA playoffs to the Phoenix Suns was an assistant to Bill Laimbeer. She is the head coach at Windward School in Los Angeles, where she has won three California state titles. Jordin Canada, who plays for the Seattle Storm, starred collegiately at UCLA.

A native of Arizona, he played collegiately for the Cardinal and went to the Final Four three times. She was an assistant coach at Long Beach State and then at Pepperdine.

When the San Antonio Stars went to the WNBA Finals in 2008, they had an assistant named Nygaard. She went to the high school ranks as a head coach after spending the next season as an assistant with the Washington Mystics.

The Athletic reported the news of the hire.

Mechelle Voepel contributed to the report.