Sonia Raman went from college walk-on to coach of the Seattle Storm

Sonia Raman's life would likely have turned out drastically different if she stayed in Tulsa, Okla.

"Early on, I played soccer," the first-year Storm coach said. "That was my sport. I played a lot of organized soccer. So, I didn't play organized basketball until the eighth grade, but I did play in the neighborhood, just messed around a little bit.

"Once we moved to a new town, and I was able to find a team to play with that's when I started playing basketball and just never looked back. I just loved it."

Her family settled in Framingham, Mass., in the 1980s about the same time Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics began a dynastic run of three NBA championships, which planted basketball roots and put her on an unconventional path that's led to Seattle.

Fast-forward four decades.

Dressed in black, the 52-year-old Raman stood in front of a podium during an introductory news conference Nov. 5, 2025, and took control of the Storm, and in the process became the first head coach of Indian descent in the WNBA.

"This is a very exciting day for me and my family," she said. "I'm here with a lot of gratitude and joy and some nerves."

Raman, who reportedly received a multiyear deal that could potentially eclipse $1 million annually if bonuses are reached, thanked general manager Talisa Rhea, CEO and president Alisha Valavanis and the Storm ownership group along with family members and a litany of supporters.

"Relationships are a foundation of who I am as a coach and person," she said. "To all the players that I have coached and the coaches that I've been in the trenches with along the way, thank you for making me better."

Raman's ascension to the top of the coaching ranks is one of the unlikeliest stories in the WNBA, which begins its 30th season Friday with three games including the Storm's 7 p.m. opener against the Golden State Valkyries at Climate Pledge Arena.

While she loved basketball, Raman was a backup guard at Framingham High and joined the Division III Tufts University women's basketball team as a walk-on in 1992.

"I was more of a glue player," Raman said. "I understood who our scorers were, trying to get our scorers the ball, trying to make plays on defense and just being that scrappy sort of player on both ends."

In many ways, being a walk-on is still a part of her personality.

"That was so long ago, but I think when you know you're a little bit of an underdog, you have to make sure that you're prepared, that you're doing all the little things," she said. "And so I try to do that in my day to day, and I try to instill that in the teams that I'm with as well."

Raman's life changed midway during her junior year when she was hit by a car while crossing the street. She broke the tibia and fibula in her left leg, which forced her to miss half of her senior season.

"When you're forced to be on the sideline, you start to see the game from a different perspective," said Raman, a senior co-captain. "That's really where the coaching element began to form. … I spent a lot of time with (Tufts coach Janice Savitz) and the assistants just learning the game, watching videotapes and really diving into the game."

After graduating with an international relations degree in 1996, Raman began her coaching career at her alma mater and spent two years as an assistant under Savitz.

Raman took a short hiatus from coaching and received a law degree from Boston College Law School in 2001. She landed a coveted job with the Employment Benefits Security Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor, but returned to basketball as a part-time assistant at Wellesley College for six seasons (2002-08) on coach Kathy Hagerstrom's staff.

"I guess if you want to pinpoint some sort of crossroads where your life could have gone this way or that way, then that was it," Raman said. "Certainly, I wasn't done with basketball and really wanted to explore those opportunities."

Raman's first big break arrived in 2008 when she took over a maligned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) women's basketball team. The Engineers compiled a 61-110 record during her first seven seasons and had a 91-45 mark in her final five seasons, including the program's first two NEWMAC conference championships in 2018 and 2019.

During her 12-year tenure, Raman built MIT into a Division III powerhouse while comprising a 152-155 record and winning the most games in program history.

Raman's second big break was in 2020 when Memphis Grizzlies Vice President for Basketball Strategy Rich Cho offered her spot on the coaching staff under Taylor Jenks. She became the first Indian American woman and the 14th woman to become an assistant in the NBA.

"What players want is somebody who cares about them and has extensive knowledge," said Toronto Raptors coach Darko Rajaković, who served as an assistant alongside Raman with the Grizzlies, in an interview with The Associated Press. "And Sonia checks all of those boxes. From Day 1, never had an issue with players. Players loved her."

After a four-year stint (2020-24) with Memphis, Raman spent the 2025 WNBA season on Sandy Brondello's staff with the New York Liberty and was released when the team fired Brondello last September.

Following a first-round playoff exit and disappointing 23-21 record last season, the Storm parted ways with coach Noelle Quinn after 4½ years and tapped Raman as the eighth coach in franchise history.

"With Sonia there was an immediate alignment with how she approaches - first and foremost - relationships, which is where we always start," Rhea said. "Her background and experiences just bring a different perspective that we haven't had here.

"The game is evolving so much and to be able to have someone who's so forward thinking with how we integrate analytics and how we develop players was what we were looking for."

Raman is no stranger to the Pacific Northwest - her wife, Milena Flores, is from Snohomish - but the move from New York City to Seattle has raised her profile as a budding sports celebrity in ways she didn't expect.

"It is changing," she said when asked about being recognized in public. "It's starting to happen more where people will come over and say hello, and it's been really nice. They've all been really great interactions.

"This is a really great community of people that support the Storm and are really great fans. I love Seattle. I've been to farmers markets and restaurants and grocery stores, and all the interactions have been really nice, including sporting events for my niece and nephews. At their basketball and soccer games people come over and we chat. … Did that happen in New York? No. Certainly not to the degree that it happens here."

Raman, who is one of two WNBA female coaches of color along with Golden State Valkyries' Natalie Nakase, is also getting adjusted to being a trailblazer in the Indian American community.

"I'm comfortable with it, but it's not the first thing I think about on a day-to-day basis," she said. "Certainly, I've gotten a lot of questions on it as I've been new to Seattle and to this role. I enjoy being able to highlight that there's so many people that we can have that are in these different positions.

"It's a tremendous responsibility to be in that position and I take that really seriously. So, just being able to show up every day. I've said this so many times now, I may be the first, but I don't want to be the last."

Raman, whose mother is from Nagpur and father is from Chennai in India, draws support from a group chat of NBA and WNBA coaches of Asian and Indian descent that's more than doubled in size since she joined in 2020.

"I'm a basketball coach and I know how to be a basketball coach," she said. "That's my job and that's my role. So, if I do that the way I'm supposed to do it, and the way I'm capable of doing it, then being the first will be a good thing and it will lead to more good things for more people."

This story was updated to correct the time of the Storm's season opener.

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