Nate Tibbetts’s coaching journey has now brought him to the doorstep of a WNBA title with the Phoenix Mercury. After beginning his career 24 years ago, he has steadily built a reputation, and as head coach, he has quickly left a strong imprint on his team, shaping it with his own distinctive style.
His arrival in Phoenix was accompanied by one of the most lucrative coaching contracts in the WNBA, an annual salary of $1 million. With those resources and trust, Tibbetts has unleashed his ability to build competitive teams. Yet by his side throughout the entire journey has been his wife, Lyndsey.
Getting to know Lyndsey Tibbetts
Lyndsey Tibbetts has long demonstrated a passion for both education and sports. That interest led her to enroll at the University of Sioux Falls, where she worked as a senior intern in the school’s athletic department. There, she gained firsthand experience of the inner workings of athletics, always from behind the scenes.
Unlike her husband, Nate, who thrives under the spotlight and embraces visibility, Lyndsey prefers a quieter role, balancing family life with her professional interests.
The couple first met while she was an intern and Nate was an assistant coach under Shane Murphy at USF. Lyndsey once shared a humorous memory about that stage of their relationship:
We’d been dating seven or eight months and everyone knew we were a couple, other than Willie…it was after the last game of the season and Nate, Shane and Willie went out and had a few beers. I called Nate and he hands the phone to Willie. So I’m thinking I’m going to talk to Nate and Willie answers. I almost killed Nate after that one.
Their shared passion for sports helped them navigate the ups and downs of the profession, eventually building a family together. Today, they are parents to two daughters.
As Lyndsey has often emphasized, she remains content in a more discreet role, allowing her husband to receive the public attention that comes with his job. The family is currently based in Portland, but they also own a summer home in South Dakota, where they spend time with relatives and friends. For both, nurturing their bond has always been a priority.
The couple’s daughters, Londyn and Jordyn, were born in 2018. Nate has admitted that coaching women feels especially meaningful to him because of his twins, who inspire him daily.
The public opinion when I got the job is part of what drives me.
Is he a girls coach? Deep down probably I am, that’s how I came up. I want to live up to my dad’s legacy and take pride in that because I saw him take a lot of pride in coaching girls and not coaching them any different than if he was coaching our (boys) team.
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