Sun allowing Rizzotti to keep Olympic dream
Jen Rizzotti is taking her career from one part of the basketball landscape to another as the newlynamed president of the Connecticut Sun — from college to the WNBA, from the bench to the front office — but she isn’t quite done coaching.
Before Rizzotti devotes 100 percent of her professional time to the Sun, she will continue working in various roles with USA Basketball through her term as an assistant coach for the senior national team at the Tokyo Olympics July 23-Aug. 8.
“That was a big deal for me, that they were willing to work around my USA
Basketball schedule and my family’s school schedule,” said Rizzotti, 46, who has been a college head coach for the past 22 years. “I have (Team USA) U-19 committee responsibilities in mid-May. My kids finish (school) in mid-June. The AmeriCup team, I’m coaching in June. Olympics in July. I said (to the Sun), ‘This is going to be hard for me to make a decision if I’m expected to start April 15. Is there flexibility for me to be there, all-in emotionally and physically, when I get back from the Olympics?’ ”
There was.
First through a consulting firm that reached out in March, then directly with leadership at Mohegan Sun, Rizzotti had conversations over several weeks about a role that will broaden in scope over time — and about the possibility of seeing a major goal from the previous chapter of her career come to fruition even while she begins another chapter away from the court.
Rizzotti, who has worked with USA Basketball in several capacities since 2006, will be an Olympic bench coach for the first time, working under South Carolina’s Dawn Staley as Team USA competes for a seventh consecutive gold medal.
The Sun open the WNBA season May 14 at Atlanta, with the home opener May 16 against Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury. Rizzotti will spend her first few months working from afar and expects to be in Connecticut full-time by midAugust. The regular season concludes Sept. 19.
“I don’t know that I’m never going to go back to coaching,” Rizzotti said. “I don’t want to say that. But if I don’t … coaching in the Olympics would be a pretty good last thing to do in coaching.”
Rizzotti, who grew up in New Fairfield, was the point guard on UConn’s first national championship team in 1995 and the national player of the year in 1996. She coached Hartford to five America East championships and six NCAA Tournament appearances in 1999-2016 before leaving for George Washington, where she was fired in March after five seasons.
She was a WNBA player in 1999-2003. Now she’ll return for the league’s 25th season to run the Sun’s marketing and business operations. Curt Miller is in place as coach/general manager and will continue to run the basketball operation.
“Had it been a different WNBA team, I don’t know if it would have been as attractive,” Rizzotti said. “Had it been a different coaching job in Connecticut, I don’t know that I would have done it. The fact that it was this wonderful opportunity to experience something on the other side of basketball, and to be able to do it in my home state with my family and with a fan base that is familiar with me and seems to be excited to have me back, it feels like a win-win.”
A married mother of two sons, ages 16 and 12, Rizzotti and her family will relocate from Vienna, Va., to Connecticut in the coming months. She will be at Mohegan Sun for an introductory press conference next week, then start globetrotting and juggling toward the next phase of her career.
When the Sun announced her hiring Tuesday morning, Rizzotti was on a practice court in Columbia, S.C., coaching during a tryout for the AmeriCup roster. Rizzotti and Arizona coach Adia Barnes will assist Staley in that tournament, to be held in Puerto Rico June 20-27.
“That was part of the deal, not giving up these two teams,” said Rizzotti, who accepted the Sun job last week.
As team president, Rizzotti takes over a role previously occupied by Amber Cox, the former vice president for Mohegan Sun Sports. Cox left in February to become chief operating officer of Kansas City NWSL.
“With my name recognition and brand in Connecticut, we can create a different role,” Rizzotti said. “It just seemed to fit with what my skill set is, and maybe you think that’s as a coach. But if you ask college coaches how much of their job is coaching they’d probably tell you 10 percent. So much of what we do is managing and directing business behind the scenes, managing a budget, interviewing new employees, managing staff and talking to parents and making sure the (players) are OK. There’s so much I’ve had to do that has prepared me for this role, and I think whatever I’m not prepared for I’m not going to be afraid to ask for help.”
The WNBA has become a highly visible and influential platform. The actions of players for the Atlanta Dream, for instance, essentially ousted U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia) from public office and team ownership with their support of her opponent in November run-off elections. Loeffler had objected to players’ support for the Black Lives Matter movement after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Former UConn point guard Renee Montgomery has since taken an ownership stake with the Dream.
“I want to make sure we capitalize on that opportunities to utilize this platform, to put our Connecticut Sun athletes on the forefront of social reform and eradicating racism and being role models for the women and basketball players in Connecticut,” Rizzotti said. “We want to be the best on the court and the best in the community and we want people to invest in the women of the Connecticut Sun because of what we stand for and because it’s time to. It’s been proven that when you invest in these women, you’re going to get a return for that. Whatever I don’t know about business, I will learn soon. But I know enough to know it’s time to invest in women.”