Unrivaled Announces Head Coaches for the League's Second Season

Noelle Quinn, Rena Wakama, Roneeka Hodges and Zach O’Brien to join Unrivaled club head coaching ranks

MIAMI (October 30, 2025) – Today, Unrivaled presented by Samsung Galaxy announced the head coaching staff across the league’s eight clubs, with four of the inaugural six head coaches returning to their clubs for a second season and four new head coaches joining the league. The coaches and respective clubs are as follows:

• Breeze BC: Noelle Quinn
• Hive BC: Rena Wakama
• Laces BC: Andrew Wade
• Lunar Owls BC: DJ Sackmann
• Mist BC: Zach O’Brien
• Phantom BC: Roneeka Hodges
• Rose BC: Nola Henry
• Vinyl BC: Teresa Weatherspoon

“We’re thrilled to add such exceptional talent to our head coaching roster in our second season, elevating the strong foundation established by our inaugural coaching staffs across Unrivaled,” Unrivaled GM Clare Duwelius said. “We thank Phil [Handy] and Adam [Harrington] for their leadership last season and look forward to building on the momentum for the league this year.”

Noelle Quinn joins Unrivaled as the first-ever head coach of Breeze BC. Quinn most recently served as head coach of the Seattle Storm after having previously served as an assistant coach and associate head coach for the team, helping guide the franchise to its 2020 WNBA Championship. The Storm were crowned the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup Champions in 2021 and reached the playoffs in four out of five seasons under her direction. Quinn transitioned into coaching after a 12-year WNBA playing career that culminated in a championship with Seattle in 2018. Drafted fourth overall in 2007 by Minnesota, she appeared in 400 games and played for Los Angeles, Washington and Phoenix, in addition to the Lynx and Storm. Her overseas career spanned ten seasons and included representing Bulgaria in both FIBA competition and the EuroBasket Women’s Qualifiers in 2017.

Rena Wakama will lead Hive BC in the team’s Unrivaled debut, following her first season as an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky. Wakama also serves as head coach of the Nigerian Women’s National Team and made history in 2024 when the D’Tigress became the first African team, men’s or women’s, to reach the quarterfinals of the Olympics. After joining as head coach in June 2023, she became the first female coach to ever win a Women’s AfroBasket title in August 2023 and subsequently led the team to another AfroBasket title in 2025. Wakama previously served in assistant coaching roles for Tulane and Stony Brook. Wakama began her coaching career after spending two years at Manhattan College as the director of basketball operations, then advancing to an assistant coach role. Wakama played collegiately at Western Carolina University.

Andrew Wade returns to Laces BC after having led the club to the playoffs and the third-best overall record last season. Wade spent the Unrivaled offseason with the New York Liberty as the team’s director of player development, building on his previous experience in a similar role with the Washington Mystics in addition to his assistant coaching role with the team. With the Mystics, Wade helped lead the team to their 2019 WNBA Championship. Wade also served as a coaching associate and player development staffer with the Washington Wizards’ G League Team, the Capital City Go-Go, and a youth academy coach and instructor for the Orlando Magic. Wade played collegiately for Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

DJ Sackmann returns to Lunar Owls BC after leading the club to the Semifinals and the best overall record across Unrivaled (13-1 during the regular season) in his first-ever head coaching position. Under Sackmann, the Lunar Owls produced the highest scoring offense in Unrivaled (80.7 ppg), best field goal shooting percentage, and (52.6%), highest free throw shooting percentage (81.4%), on top of recording the most assists (15.6), steals (5.3) and blocks per contest (2.8). Sackmann joined Unrivaled following more than 15 years of experience as a globally recognized NBA and WNBA skills coach, working with more than 15,000 players across multiple countries through camps, clinics and workshops to help both players and coaches refine their skills. As a collegiate player, Sackmann was a four-year starter at the University of New Haven.

Zach O’Brien will serve as head coach of Mist BC and joins Unrivaled from the New York Liberty, where he serves as an assistant coach. O’Brien was a member of New York’s 2024 WNBA Championship coaching staff, having joined the team in 2022. Prior to the Liberty, O’Brien served as the director of player development for the Phoenix Mercury following his stint as a video coordinator for the team, as well as for the Northern Arizona Suns from 2019-20. O’Brien played collegiately at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, where he scored more than 1,500 career points and earned Great Northeast Athletic Conference All-First Team honors his senior year. He went on to play for Oxford Brookes University in England for two years.

Roneeka Hodges joins Unrivaled as head coach of Phantom BC following her first season with the Connecticut Sun as an associate head coach. Having previously served as an assistant coach for the New York Liberty from 2022-24, she is credited with helping guide the Liberty to their first WNBA Championship in 2024. Prior to the Liberty, Hodges coached collegiately as an assistant with Colgate University (2021-22) and Old Dominion University (2020-21), and served as a special advisor to LSU’s women’s basketball program during the 2019-20 season. Hodges’ 11-year WNBA career included being selected 15th overall in the 2005 WNBA Draft by the Houston Comets and appearing in 327 career games.

Nola Henry returns to the reigning Unrivaled Champion Rose BC for a highly-anticipated second season. Henry led the Rose to a 10-6 overall record, the league’s second-best, and guided the club from a 1-4 record to start the season to being the second club to clinch a playoff berth along their journey to the first-ever Unrivaled Championship title. Henry most recently served as assistant coach for the Dallas Wings during the 2025 WNBA season, building on her six plus years of experience on the WNBA sidelines. She previously served as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Sparks after being a player development coach for the team, and was an assistant basketball operations manager for the Connecticut Sun. Prior to embarking on her coaching career, Henry played collegiate basketball at both the University of Massachusetts and College of Charleston.

Teresa Weatherspoon returns to Unrivaled to lead Vinyl BC following a successful inaugural season and playoff run, where the club upset the top-seeded Lunar Owls to secure their spot in the Championship before falling to the Rose. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame member, two-time Olympic medalist, and WNBA legend previously served as head coach of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. After a distinguished playing career, Weatherspoon began coaching in 2007 as head coach of the Westchester Phantoms in the American Basketball Association. She then joined the coaching staff at Louisiana Tech in 2008 and was promoted to head coach in 2009, leading the Lady Techsters to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances (2010-11), a Western Athletic Conference Tournament title (2010) and two WAC regular-season championships (2009, 2011). Weatherspoon also spent time with the New Orleans Pelicans as a player development coach and assistant coach.

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