This occasional series will highlight Black coaches at all levels of sport.
This week: Washington Mystics HC Sydney Johnson and veteran assistant Shelley Patterson.
One of the WNBA’s youngest teams this season is the Washington Mystics, whose average age is 24.72. They will be in town this weekend (August 8) to play Minnesota, the league’s fourth-youngest club (25.75).
“We are the youngest team,” first-year Head Coach Sydney Johnson said in correcting us when asked the last time his Mystics were in town July 3 for a 92-75 loss to the Lynx. “We’re trying to win games, but we’re looking also for those small wins every day.”
Although this is his first year as a WNBA head coach, Johnson is a seasoned coaching veteran with 25 years of basketball experience. He and Mystics GM Jamila Wideman were hired last December. She joined Washington after six years at the NBA League office, most recently as senior VP of player development.
Johnson is in his second overall season in the W — he was a Chicago Sky assistant coach last season, his first in the league. After nearly a dozen years of playing in college (Princeton, 1993-97) and in the pros (overseas with four clubs, 1997-2004), Johnson transitioned into coaching, first as an MBB assistant at Georgetown (2004-07) before head coaching stints at Princeton (2007-11) and Fairfield (2011-19), and associate HC at Air Force (2020-21).
After almost three years away from the game, Johnson pointed out that it was time to return to the bench in some capacity and accepted the offer to join then-Chicago head coach Teresa Weatherspoon’s staff last summer.
“I was fortunate to get an opportunity in Chicago as an assistant coach,” continued Johnson. “I did want to get back into coaching. I’d been out for a couple of years doing some analytics for college basketball teams.
“I really wanted to get back on the bench, and that experience [last season] was wonderful,” he admitted.
Johnson is one of three Black HCs in the league this season, and the Johnson-Wideman head coach-GM tandem currently is the only such Black duo in the W.
“I feel blessed to have a partner in that regard. I would say Jamila’s perspective and frame of reference [she is a former W player, 1997-2000] on how we need to support women — Black folks, all folks, young folks — is something that I truly appreciate, and it shows up in how we show up for our players.”
On the importance of Blacks in coaching and key front office roles, “This is a women’s league dominated by Black and brown women who have been playing at a high level for quite some time now,” stressed Johnson. “Yeah, I would say there’s still room to grow those [positions] — it’s 2025.
“So, whether it’s in coaching roles and general manager roles, agent roles, in media, there’s a need for representation,” he said. “I’ll just say in my role I am completely cognizant of I’m here to serve and support and illuminate. So, I’m very aware of where I’m positioned and humbly but enthusiastic about being here.”
From coach to scout
Shelley Patterson has been coaching in the WNBA virtually the entire league’s existence. She was an assistant in Houston (1999) two years after the league started; then Indiana (2000-03), Phoenix (2004), Los Angeles (2005), Seattle (2006-09), Minnesota (2010-19), New York (2020-21), and Washington (2022-24).
Patterson earned championship rings in Houston (1), Seattle (1) and Minnesota (4), as well as a reputation for being a ‘shot doctor,’ helping players in their shooting mechanics.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Patterson, who also was a head coach of the Chicago Blaze of the National Women’s Basketball League in 2005. This season she was named the Mystics’ head of domestic scouting.
“I love what I do,” she said. “So whenever you’re working with great people and great young kids, you gotta keep going.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.