Sparks add ex-Wings coach to Lynne Roberts' staff
The Los Angeles Sparks have brought back former assistant coach Latricia Trammell, naming her special assistant to head coach Lynne Roberts, the team announced Tuesday.
Trammell rejoins the franchise after serving as head coach of the Dallas Wings from 2023 to 2024. She was dismissed by Dallas following the 2024 season and now returns to a Sparks organization where she previously held an assistant coaching role from 2019 through 2022.
'I'm incredibly honored and grateful to return to the Los Angeles Sparks — an organization that holds a special place in my heart,' Trammell stated in a press release, via the Associated Press 'This franchise has a rich legacy, a passionate fanbase and a commitment to excellence that aligns with everything I believe in as a coach.'
During her first stint with the Sparks, Trammell was instrumental in developing one of the WNBA's top defensive units. Under her guidance, Candace Parker earned the league's 2020 Defensive Player of the Year award. Nneka Ogwumike and Brittney Sykes were each named to All-Defensive teams during that period, with Sykes earning two Second Team selections.
Trammell also brings familiarity with several current Sparks players. She began her WNBA career as an assistant with the San Antonio Stars, where she worked with Dearica Hamby and Kelsey Plum, both now part of the Sparks roster. Her overall coaching résumé spans over two decades, including stops at the high school and collegiate levels from 1994 to 2017.
Her addition comes as the Sparks continue to navigate a rebuilding season under first-year head coach Lynne Roberts, who joined the team after a successful tenure at the University of Utah. Los Angeles were on a two-game winning streak heading into the WNBA's All-Star Break, with the latest win being a 99-80 victory over Washington on July 13. That win improved to 8-14 on the year. They face Washington again on Tuesday before traveling to Connecticut on Thursday.
Related: Dearica Hamby's NSFW response to what fueled Sparks' comeback vs. Mystics
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New York Times
24 minutes ago
- New York Times
For the WNBA, this is about more than just green sex toys
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USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Athletics' Nick Kurtz 'shocked' to be MLB rookie sensation a year after college
WASHINGTON — Nick Kurtz's dominance has been so startlingly sudden, so consistent and enduring that it's challenging to pinpoint exactly when the Athletics realized just what they had on their hands. It'd be understandable if that moment came in spring training, when the 6-5, 240-pound Kurtz showed up just seven months after he was drafted fourth overall out of Wake Forest and immediately displayed a mindset beyond his years, and a plate approach more suited to a player a decade into his major league career. It'd be obvious if that ah-ha sequence came July 25, when Kurtz became the first rookie in major league history to hit four home runs in a game, a 6-for-6 night in which he also tied the major league record with 19 total bases. Or perhaps by month's end, when Kurtz had tallied 25 extra-base hits, one shy of Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx's franchise record set in 1932, earning him American League rookie and player of the month honors. For Brent Rooker, though, the jaw dropped for good over two nights in June, when his young teammate's greatest attributes – the gorgeous swing, the inner calm, the prodigious power – came together in a manner that turns bad ballclubs good. The Athletics – housed in Sacramento for the moment – might have been swept in four games by the Houston Astros if not for Kurtz. He hit a pair of walk-off home runs in that four-game series, coming off Astros relief aces Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader, moonshots that sent thousands of fans gleefully into the Yolo County night. 'He was good before that,' Rooker, the A's two-time All-Star outfielder, tells USA TODAY Sports, 'but everybody realized how good he could be. Those were two of the better relievers in the entire league. He had great at-bats against them in crucial situations and hit two home runs to win two games. 'As impressive as he was prior to that, those two nights kind of shined a light on how special he is.' How special? Special enough to debut April 23 yet still post 23 homers by early August, to go along with a .307 average, 1.035 ERA and 61 RBIs, leading all rookies. Special enough to mark that epic four-homer night in Houston (the kid doesn't like the Astros, it seems) not as an apex but rather the midpoint of a 20-game heater in which he batted .480 with nine homers and a 1.575 OPS. And special enough to earn the esteem of a young yet salty clubhouse with his quiet yet significant presence. 'The joy of all of it,' says A's manager Mark Kotsay, 'is the humility that he shows day in and day out.' 'They fly through the minor leagues' It would be easy for Kurtz to carry the traits of an entitled young baseball bro. In short, he's always been elite, even after he left the snowy climes of Lancaster, Pennsylvania in search of greater competition. Kurtz made enough of a splash to earn a spot on Team USA's 12-and-under team in 2015, a squad that won eight of nine games to claim a WBSC World Cup title in Taiwan. Kurtz was a slugger and also the top pitcher on that team, but it was as much networking opportunity as it was youth baseball nirvana. A handful of teammates went on to attend Baylor School, a college prep boarding school and hothouse for baseball development in Tennessee. As Kurtz schlepped through the uncertain weather patterns of Central Pennsylvania in spring, his pals' recruiting efforts finally paid off. 'I was playing in the snow and bad weather in Pennsylvania,' says Kurtz, 'so I decided maybe going south was the best thing for me as a player. It just kind of worked out that way.' And what a squad. Christian Moore went on to star at Tennessee and was chosen four slots behind Kurtz in the 2024 draft; he also made his major league debut this season, for the Los Angeles Angels. Infielder Henry Godbout went on to Virginia, was drafted in the second round in July and signed with the Boston Red Sox. In his junior year, Kurtz said, almost the entire lineup was committed to Atlantic Coast or Southeastern conference schools. Kurtz went to Wake Forest, a school better known for its 'pitching lab,' yet whose rep for churning out sluggers is about to grow significantly. It was there that Kurtz, under associate head coach Bill Cilento and assistant Matthew Wessinger, took both his mechanics and approach to a higher level. 'That's stayed true from my freshman year in college,' says Kurtz, 'to where I am today.' By his junior year, Kurtz's statistics were predictably video game variety – a .531 on-base percentage and 22 homers in 54 games, and the A's snagged Kurtz fourth overall, two picks after teammate Chase Burns, a right-handed pitcher, was selected by Cincinnati. Yet consider this: Barely a year later, Kurtz has already hit one more home run in the big leagues (in just 75 games) than he did his senior season at Wake Forest. How has Kurtz made the game's highest level seem as simple as a weekend series at Duke? He points to the A's most recent draft pick – left-hander Jamie Arnold, chosen 11th overall out of Florida State – as an example of how the college game is, perhaps more than ever, an express lane to prepare young players for the big leagues. 'You see more and more guys getting called up earlier than you've ever seen before,' says Kurtz. 'More kids, very talented guys are going to college, especially with NIL – more guys are getting to school. 'We picked Jamie Arnold this year. I faced him many times and that's as pro-ready an arm I've seen. I think he's one of the best. Every school in the SEC, ACC, they might have a guy or two like that. 'The advancements we've made internally at the school have prepared all of us.' 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Kurtz is enjoying a big week in the Mid-Atlantic – he had roughly 40 family and friends roll down from Lancaster to Nationals Park; and no, despite Kurtz's 'Big Amish' nickname teammates bestowed upon him, they did not travel by horse and buggy. A larger throng is expected this weekend at Baltimore's Camden Yards, where Kurtz attended countless games as a kid. Success came quickly then and, somehow, it's coming even faster now. 'I would say I'm a little shocked, surprised,' says Kurtz. 'I knew I was a good hitter, but having a really good rookie year is pretty cool to see.' And there's still two more months for Kurtz to expand what seems to be a limitless horizon.


USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Is Caitlin Clark playing tonight? Fever star's injury status vs Mercury
The Indiana Fever (17-13) return to play on Thursday at the Phoenix Mercury (18-11) in the final contest of a four-game road swing. Once again, the Fever will do so without star guard Caitlin Clark. Per WISH-TV's Angela Moryan, the second-year pro has officially been ruled out of her ninth straight regular season contest with her right groin injury. That now means Clark has missed 18 regular season games in 2025 with various injury ailments and 19 contests overall, including the WNBA Commissioner's Cup final. Clark's injury woes date to the preseason when she missed the Fever's opening preseason contest with a left leg injury. A subsequent left quadriceps injury cost Clark five games from May 28-June 10. Then a left groin injury sidelined Clark for four regular-season games and the WNBA Commissioner's Cup final. Limited to just 13 games thus far in 2025, Clark is averaging 16.5 points, 8.8 assists, 5 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game on 36.7% field goal shooting and 27.9% 3-point accuracy. While fans won't see Clark return just yet on Thursday night, it does sound like Clark is making positive progress. On Sunday, ESPN reporter Holly Rowe said that Clark has begun to ramp up her conditioning work with the team. "Well, Stephanie White did give us a small update on Caitlin that she has started some full-court running, full-speed running the last four or five days. Still not doing full basketball activities, but there has been some progress made recently," Rowe reported. In a recent "NBA Today" appearance, Fever head coach Stephanie White commented on Clark's status and indicated the franchise will continue to practice precaution. "Yeah, I mean, it's day-to-day right now. We're really just putting no timetable on it, going through the rehab process and then we want to reintegrate her from a strength and conditioning standpoint and then get her back to basketball activities. "So, we're taking it one day at a time, really slow-rolling it, slow playing it this time. She tried to come back a couple of times and just had setbacks along the way, so the most important thing for us is Caitlin's long-term health, getting her back to 100 percent before we put her back on the floor," White said. Indiana is trying to rediscover the win column after the Los Angeles Sparks snapped a five-game winning streak on Tuesday night in a 100-91 Fever loss. The Sparks moved their season series tally against the Fever to 3-0, all in games where Clark was absent with injury. Tipoff between the Fever and Mercury is set for 9 p.m. CT with the game set to stream on Amazon Prime. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Josh on X: @JoshOnREF