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Whiting is in her third year as the Cougars coach with a record of 41-26. Prior to this, she coached Idaho’s Burley High to the 2022 state championship.

Her squad consists of eight upperclassmen. The lone sophomore on the roster is Whiting’s daughter, Amari, a guard, who was highly recruited out of high school (even by ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥) but eventually selected BYU after her mom was hired. She was the top prospect coming out of Utah for the Class of 2023, ranked No. 33 by ESPN HoopGurlz.

The quintessential BYU player: “(We have) the same types of kids – blue collar kids, the kids who just want to work hard. … Defensively, we like to just get after it up and down. We are really, really unselfish type players that like to pressure the ball like crazy. That’s what we look like.�

Sisterhood: “(It’s) how much they love each other. I don’t have to coach that part and get us together in a room and have the hard conversations. I think they have that already with each other. If they have an issue, they talk to each other about it. They communicate together. They love each other off the court. They like to hang out. It helps on court stuff. They’re really good friends, really good teammates and I would say sisters. It’s fun to coach this group.�

Culture: “Joy, passion and purpose. That’s what we like to push a lot for our kids. They all have a reason why they play. (We) always make sure they lean into that and have joy in playing for each other and with each other.

“Then using that ‘Why?’ as far as, like, your passion of what gets you to the gym every single day and playing for those little girls, or whatever else your dream was way back when. Then always having a purpose. That’s showing who BYU is and what we are, what we stand for and also as a team. Having a purpose — just being intentional about everything we do.

“(BYU is) an LDS (Latter-day Saints) university. I teach my girls we’re not all from the same faith but we also do help each other and bring out the strengths in each other by what we believe in. Always look around to lift and bless others and serve others is the basis of what I want.

“My girls, like if they’re having a hard day, I always tell them to go look around and serve someone because that will help bring it out of you. I think that’s not just for the LDS faith. I think that’s humanity. Anytime you can serve other people and it makes you happy, it makes them happy.�

Giving back: “I think I’ve made it my own (in terms of traditions). The winning tradition, that’s the thing. Every coach tries to win. We always start out our season with hoop camp in the fall. That’s where we bring in kids with special needs and we just serve them for a whole day and play basketball with them. That’s one of our highlights every year. At Christmas time, we always get a family. We go to Christmas for a family.

“That’s something that’s big on my priority list – making sure we stay true to who we are (in our) faith. Christmas is a big time of year and putting Christ first, and then in our lives, too, and having that base but then looking around to serve others. That doesn’t have a lot to do with basketball but I feel like if we do things off the court together, that’s really selfless, then on court, we play selfless, as well. That’s what I try to instill in my women.

“Then, I try to make sure they all have a voice. They are all seen and heard. We all pull each other, treat each other with respect. I don’t believe in like, ‘Oh, the seniors do this.

“The freshmen do this.’ Everybody’s one. We all come in, even in this day and age with the transfer portal, I don’t want the transfers and the returners, I just want everybody as one.�