UNCASVILLE — When Rachid Méziane Arriving in Connecticut for the first time on Saturday, he was immediately struck by how big everything was. Compared to its hometown of Chereng in northern France, the glittering towers and bright lights of Mohegan Sun I felt like I was in a different universe.
“It’s as if, to learn to swim, you have to go to the swimming pool, so I go there as much as possible,” Meziane joked during his introductory press conference on Thursday.
Meziane was hired as head coach of Connecticut Sun on December 4, becoming the first international coach in the franchise’s 27-year history. Meziane spent 19 years coaching in the French Women’s League, the last five with Villeneuve d’Ascq, leading the club to a league title in 2024. He has also coached the Belgium women’s national team since 2022, and the team had its best record ever. Olympic finish in fourth position at the Paris Games this summer.
Even though Meziane’s English is still shaky and he had never set foot in the state before this week, the chance to join the WNBA was one he couldn’t pass up.
“The WNBA is the best league in the world, and the W has the best players, so I don’t understand who wouldn’t be interested in joining,” Meziane said. “I knew it could be a big challenge. It’s going to take a lot of work, but I’m ready for it… For me, the WNBA was something I had to do. I have to be here to face the best teams, the best players, the best coaches in the world.
The Sun went through a lengthy interview process to find the right replacement for Stephanie Whitewho left the team after two seasons to become head coach of the Indiana Fever. Managing Director Morgan Tuckwho was officially promoted the day before Meziane’s hiring was announced, helped lead the search alongside president Jennifer Rizzotti and former CEO Darius Taylor — who remains in the Sun front office under a new title. Rizzotti said the trio worked in equal partnership to identify and select candidates, and Meziane ultimately checked all the boxes the team was looking for.
“Me, her and Darius pretty much did everything together. We all reached out to our networks, we identified a list and we met very regularly, every other day, about that list,” Rizzotti said. “I’ve held a lot of initial interviews with vet candidates, and then if I felt they were the right fit, we’d immediately set up an interview for all three of us, and then they would usually follow up with an interview. just the two of us, so all three of us had a chance to talk to each candidate multiple times in different settings… It was a combined team effort, like literally 33.3% each of us put into this process , because we I felt like it was really important that we had the perspective of all three of us, and we chose the right person that we thought would all be a good fit.
Meziane plans to officially move to Connecticut in February, and his wife and children will join him after they finish their school year in July. Meziane has a 9-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter, who he says have attended almost all of his matches in France, and he hopes they will become the Sun’s biggest fans once they arrive.
One of the Sun’s biggest requirements in its hiring process was finding someone willing to move to Connecticut full time. The team hasn’t had a year-round in-state head coach since Mike Thibault was fired in 2012, and Rizzotti felt the team needed a full-time presence as the WNBA is growing with fewer players going to compete overseas in the offseason.
“Honestly, that was one of my first questions for everyone. That’s why I talked to everyone first, because I didn’t want us to interview anyone who didn’t want to be from Connecticut,” Rizzotti said. “I thought it was important – as we’re going to continue to invest in the team, we’re going to have facilities that match what (the players) want, we’re going to have players here in the offseason – that their Coaches had to be there and they had to be fully engaged… We had to make our entire staff feel invested in this future of Connecticut.
Meziane is also an elite basketball mind, aiming to marry the more team-oriented European game with the aggressive style of the WNBA. He first played soccer growing up, but quickly switched to basketball after developing a fascination with the Xs and Os of the game, and his knowledge immediately endeared him to Rizzotti and Tuck as former players.
“The WNBA has more physicality and some of the rules are a little different, but basketball is universal,” Meziane said. “I switched to basketball because I think in basketball we have more tactics, so it’s something that interests me a lot, and of course my experience (will help). I coached a lot of players, and a lot of them are very smart, so I learned from them… Morgan is easy to talk to because she’s a former player. She played basketball at the highest level,. so I think she is able to really assess my skills. felt our passion, and that’s why I’m here.
The Sun did not retain any of the assistant coaches on White’s staff and are looking to fill two additional positions after hiring former New York Liberty assistant Roneeka Hodges on Jan. 10. Hodges played for 10 years in the WNBA on six different teams, and she also played several seasons overseas in France before retiring in 2019. Hodges spent the last three years working under the management of the Australian national team coach Sandy Brondello and helped the Liberty win their first WNBA championship in franchise history. in 2024.
Rizzotti said Meziane’s contribution will be important in rounding out her coaching staff, but she is also prioritizing women and former players in the recruitment process to complement her international experience.
“Obviously he wants people he’s comfortable with, so he had his list of people he wanted us to interview, and for us, having former players on staff was important to us.” , Rizzotti said. “I wanted to make sure that not only did we have former players on our staff, but that we were also training the next generation of WNBA head coaches in our league…I always felt like hiring the best person for the job – I played for the best coach in the United States (Geno Auriemma of UConn) who happens to be a man – but it is not lost on me that the ability of women to place successful women in management positions must be a priority.
