How a Car Accident in the '90s Led Sonia Raman to the Seattle Storm

Sonia Raman's path to becoming the Seattle Storm's new head coach started with a moment she'll never forget: getting hit by a car while crossing the street as a junior at Division III Tufts in the mid-90s. The injury broke the tibia and fibula in her left leg, an injury that still flares up 30 years later when the weather gets rainy or humid. But that accident? It's what set her entire coaching career in motion.

"My first reaction was, 'Scary,' and, 'Am I okay?'" Raman said as she prepared for her first season with the Storm. "And, it was painful. And, I remember my second reaction being, 'Oh no, I'm not going to be able to play basketball.'"

From Sideline Watcher to Coaching Obsessive

Raman missed the second half of her junior season and the first half of her senior season. While rehabbing, something shifted. Instead of sitting idle, she started hanging around her coaches, watching the game from a completely different angle. She'd corner head coach Janice Savitz and the rest of the staff, begging them for videotapes so she could study more games in her free time.

"I really think that was where the coaching element started to take shape," Raman said. "It made me see the game from a different perspective, from the sideline, because I would stand right next to my assistant coach, or right behind my head coach."

She never planned to become a coach. Raman left Tufts with an international relations degree in 1996, then earned a law degree from Boston College Law School in 2001. But when she graduated, she asked Savitz if she could stay on as an assistant anyway. For two years before law school, she juggled coaching at her alma mater with work for AmeriCorps and as a paralegal, burning the candle at both ends.

From Law to Leadership

After law school, Raman took a job with the Employment Benefit Security Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor. But she also picked up a one-season gig helping at Wellesley College while head coach Kathy Hagerstrom was on parental leave. She ended up staying six seasons. Hagerstrom kept pushing her toward a head coaching role, which led to Raman accepting a job at MIT in 2008.

At MIT, Raman built a powerhouse from scratch. Over her final five seasons, the Engineers went 91-45, and she became the winningest coach in school history at a program that had historically struggled. After 11 seasons at MIT, the professional leagues came calling.

In 2020, after Rich Cho from the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies reached out asking for her services, Raman took the leap. It was a massive risk, she said, but she trusted her gut and became the first person of Indian descent to coach in the NBA.

Now she's running the Storm. This is her moment.

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.