Christie Sides is leading the Indiana Fever as best she can.

Christie Sides, the head coach of the Indiana Fever, is a first-year coach, but you wouldn’t know it from watching her in action or from spending more than a few minutes speaking with her.

Rather, she already has a distinct personality and style that are part of the Fever. She takes the lead with enthusiasm. She paces the sidelines and moves almost as much as the athletes do during games. She tosses her glasses onto the hardwood floor in frustration. She brought her enthusiasm to games and the locker room even as an assistant. It gets through to her players.

“It’s not over the top. We have a young team, so we need the energy. Actually, it gets us old heads going,” Indiana wing Victoria Vivians said of Sides before laughing at calling herself an old head. Vivians played for Sides when she was an assistant with the Fever before. “Her coming in and just bringing that energy every day, it’s really what we need.”

In addition to her energy, Sides has feelings. She already demonstrated this devotion in the locker room, and now that she is in control, it is even more evident. She is stern and lets the team know when they are practicing poorly. She is the happiest person alive when things are going well or there is good news. In any case, the fact that she has the biggest voice in the room benefits the inexperienced Fever squad.

Throughout the season, Sides has frequently lost her voice due to such noise. She recently made the remark, “Those cough drops just aren’t working,” following a news conference following a game. On her days off during training camp, she had to sip tea to soothe her voice.

Apart from the intangibles, Sides is figuring out what it means to be the head coach throughout a game. While emotion and energy are vital, she also needs to oversee a rotation, make modifications, and put fresh, well-practiced techniques into action. Her in-game modifications have been effective thus far. According to the WNBA, Indiana has a substantially higher net rating in the second half of games (+4.9) than in the first half (-13.5). The Fever’s staff has shown that they are adept at reading games, making adjustments, and matching players’ energy to promote progress throughout the game. They still need to improve how they start games, though.

Even though the Indiana Fever hasn’t won yet, all of that still matters. In a manner that was not the case previously, it is clear what they wish to accomplish on both sides of the court. They aspire to play inside-out offence, be quick decision makers, and be disruptive and aggressive on defence. Details are important to Sides.

Indiana ranges from 6 to 18. That record doesn’t seem to indicate that the squad has developed and found its identity. However, they have meaningfully grown.

They’re a new, younger team. And Sides is a new, by experience, head coach. That makes for a good pairing. “It hasn’t reached that (routine) yet. It’s all really still really exciting and new. Still trying to learn every day,” Sides said earlier this season of being a head coach. “I have some people in my life that I talk to after every game. They watch the games and they tell me what their thoughts are,” she added, noting that she gets advice about substitutions and adjustments. Sometimes, she shrugs off those tips. But after watching the film later, she almost always ends up agreeing. Even as a coach, she is coachable.

“If I stop trying to learn, I’m going to get left behind,” she said. In that way, she is like a rookie player.

“I will fall behind if I give up on learning new things,” she declared. That is how she is similar to a new player.

As her first season goes on, Sides will continue to experience everything for the first time. NaLyssa Smith has been out of the Indiana Fever’s lineup for the last five games and is expected to be out for some time, thus she is currently learning how to manage a serious injury. The Fever have not played more than two home games in a row this season, and Sides has never managed a team through a season’s trade deadline. The red and blue have a long way to go, and Sides will continue to grow.