Candice Wiggins

In her former career she was a four time All-American at Stanford University (’04-’08), where she led the Cardinal to a Final Four appearance her senior season and was awarded the 2008 Wade Trophy. Before her senior season began, she was named the 2007 USA Basketball Player of the Year. Upon being selected to the Minnesota Lynx with the third pick in 2008 WNBA Draft, she was named the WNBA 6th Woman of the Year. In 2011, she led Minnesota to its first WNBA championship.

In addition to Minnesota, she played on several other WNBA teams, concluding with the New York Liberty in 2015. In addition to her domestic career as a professional athlete, she also played and won Championships internationally in Spain, Greece and Israel.

In 2017 she was the first women’s basketball player inducted into the San Diego Hall of Fame, and in 2018 she was inducted into the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame.

Post retirement she discovered a new passion and gift of encouraging and teaching the skills that led her to find success on the court and the classroom directed towards the next generation of athletes. She enjoyed coaching stints at her alma mater La Jolla Country Day as well as Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy.

All of her experiences, fueled by determination and a deep love for a game that has given her so much, makes SPIRE the perfect platform for her to serve this community. She is most excited and humbled to be a bridge of wisdom and knowledge for a new generation of girls who have sincere goals of not only being world class athletes, but also becoming multidimensional women.

“SPIRE is the ultimate destination. It is a place to highlight your unique identity through the classroom and the basketball court. This happens independently, where excellence meets all of your capabilities. It is a true path of peace through knowledge that you must simply experience in order to discover. The goal is for every player to maximize their full potential in life.” – Coach Wiggins