Eight new WNBA coaches now in place. In 2025, 7 women and 6 men will be in charge on the bench

The WNBA now has all of its head coaching spots filled after there were eight open positions this offseason.

Dallas named Chris Koclanes as its head coach on Monday and then an hour later Washington hired Sydney Johnson as its new head, rounding out the seven hirings.

There's no common thread among the seven hires; three are former college head coaches (Karl Smesko, Lynne Roberts and Johnson), three were WNBA assistants (Koclanes, Johnson and Tyler Marsh) and one is an international coach (Rachid Meziane).

Stephanie White is the only former WNBA head coach to get one of the positions as she moved from Connecticut and returns to Indiana.

With the addition of Golden State next season, which hired Natalie Nakase as it's coach, the 13 teams will have seven women in charge and six men.

At the end of the 2022 season, half of the 12 head coaches in the league were Black. Three years later that number is down to three with Seattle's Noelle Quinn the only Black female after Teresa Weatherspoon (Chicago) and Tanisha Wright (Atlanta) were fired. Nakase is the first Asian American to lead a WNBA franchise.

Two of the openings did go to Black men in Johnson and Marsh.

The WNBA currently does have three Black general managers, including Morgan Tuck in Connecticut, Ohemaa Nyanin in Golden State and Jamila Wideman in Washington.

Here's a look at the eight new coaches in the WNBA:

Experience: Smesko comes to the WNBA after spending 23 years at Florida Gulf Coast. He had the third highest winning percentage (.829) among active coaches, trailing only UConn's Geno Auriemma and LSU's Kim Mulkey.

Outlook: His teams have constantly been near the top in the country in 3-point shooting and the Dream have talented players in Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray.

Experience: Marsh heads to the Sky after a successful stint as an assistant coach in Las Vegas, helping the Aces win consecutive championships in 2022 and 2023.

Outlook: Marsh inherits a squad led by talented post players Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso. The Sky also have the No. 3 pick in next year’s WNBA draft.

Resume: Meziane comes to the WNBA after coaching professionally in France for many years as well as leading Belgium's national team. Belgium came in fourth at the Paris Olympics this past summer.

Outlook: He inherits a team in flux with many of its top players unrestricted free agents.

Experience: Koclanes worked with new GM Curt Miller in Connecticut on his staff from 2016-22 and helped the Sun reach the WNBA Finals in 2019 and 2022. Miller was hired as the Wings’ general manager last month.

Outlook: The Wings have the No. 1 pick in the draft next April as well as a strong nucleus headlined by Arike Ogunbowale.

Experience: Nakase is the first coach in the expansion franchise's history. She had a lot of success as an assistant in Las Vegas and the franchise got its initial set of players through the expansion draft earlier this month.

Outlook: The Valkyries, who have the No. 5 pick in the draft, also are expected to be active in free agency which begins next month.

Experience: White has the most WNBA experience of of the offseason hires. She returns to the Fever after leading the Connecticut Sun to the playoffs the last two seasons.

Outlook: She has a stellar young core to work with led by the last two WNBA Rookie of the Year winners, record-setting guard Caitlin Clark and center Aliyah Boston.

Experience: Roberts is returning to her native California after spending nine seasons in charge of Utah where she went 165-116. She was the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2023.

Outlook: She inherits a team that finished last in the standings but has a strong young nucleus of Rickea Jackson, Cameron Brink and Dearica Hamby. The Sparks have the No. 2 pick in next year’s WNBA draft.

Experience: Johnson has worked with USA Basketball over the past five years as well as being an assistant coach with the Chicago Sky last season. Before that the 50-year-old Princeton grad spent eight years as head coach of Fairfield University men’s team (2011-2019), leading the Stags to four postseason appearances.

Outlook: He inherits a team that missed the playoffs by one game is led by Shakira Austin, Brittney Sykes and Ariel Atkins.

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

FILE - Golden State Valkyries WNBA head coach Natalie Nakase waves before an NBA preseason basketball game between the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings in San Francisco, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FILE - Florida Gulf Coast head coach Karl Smesko, left, watches play on the court during a first-round college basketball game against Oklahoma in the NCAA Tournament, March 23, 2024, in Bloomington, Ind. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler, File)

FILE - Belgium head coach Rachid Meziane, center right, hugs Antonia Delaere (6) during a women's quarterfinal game against Spain at Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Aug. 7, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

FILE - Connecticut Sun head coach Stephanie White shouts instructions to her players during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Phoenix Mercury, July 1, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

FILE - Las Vegas Aces interim head coach Tyler Marsh, center, looks on during a timeout in the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Seattle Storm, May 20, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

FILE - Connecticut Sun assistant coach Chris Koclanes, center, talks with players during a timeout at a WNBA basketball game against the Washington Mystics, May 28, 2021, in Uncasville, Conn. (Sean D. Elliot/The Day via AP, File) )

FILE - Fairfield head coach Sydney Johnson during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Louisville in the semifinal round of the Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off tournament at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., Nov. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

FILE - New Los Angeles Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts fields questions during a news conference for the WNBA basketball team Nov. 21, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

PARIS (AP) — France’s president and prime minister managed to form a new government just in time for the holidays. Now comes the hard part.

Crushing debt, intensifying pressure from the nationalist far right, wars in Europe and the Mideast: Challenges abound for President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Francois Bayrou after an already tumultuous 2024.

The most urgent order of business is passing a 2025 budget. Financial markets, ratings agencies and the European Commission are pushing France to bring down its deficit, to comply with EU rules limiting debt and keep France’s borrowing costs from spiraling. That would threaten the stability and prosperity of all countries that share the euro currency.

France’s debt is currently estimated at a staggering 112% of gross domestic product. It grew further after the government gave aid payments to businesses and workers during COVID-19 lockdowns even as the pandemic depressed growth, and capped household energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. The bill is now coming due.

But France’s previous government collapsed this month because Marine Le Pen’s far-right party and left-wing lawmakers opposed 60 billion euros in spending cuts and tax hikes in the original 2025 budget plan. Bayrou and new Finance Minister Eric Lombard are expected to scale back some of those promises, but the calculations are tough.

“The political situation is difficult. The international situation is dangerous, and the economic context is fragile,” Lombard, a low-profile banker who advised a Socialist government in the 1990s, said upon taking office.

“The environmental emergency, the social emergency, developing our businesses — these innumerable challenges require us to treat our endemic illness: the deficit,” he said. “The more we are indebted, the more the debt costs, and the more it suffocates the country.”

This is France’s fourth government in the past year. No party has a parliamentary majority and the new Cabinet can only survive with the support of lawmakers on the center-right and center-left.

Le Pen — Macron’s fiercest rival — was instrumental in ousting the previous government by joining left-wing forces in a no-confidence vote. Bayrou consulted her when forming the new government and Le Pen remains a powerful force.

That angers left-wing groups, who had expected more influence in the new Cabinet, and who say promised spending cuts will hurt working-class families and small businesses hardest. Left-wing voters, meanwhile, feel betrayed ever since a coalition from the left won the most seats in the summer's snap legislative elections but failed to secure a government.

The possibility of a new no-confidence vote looms, though it's not clear how many parties would support it.

Macron has repeatedly said he will remain president until his term expires in 2027.

But France's constitution and current structure, dating from 1958 and called the Fifth Republic, were designed to ensure stability after a period of turmoil. If this new government collapses within months and the country remains in political paralysis, pressure will mount for Macron to step down and call early elections.

Le Pen's ascendant National Rally is intent on bringing Macron down. But Le Pen faces her own headaches: A March court ruling over alleged illegal party financing could see her barred from running for office.

The National Rally and hard-right Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau want tougher immigration rules. But Bayrou wants to focus on making existing rules work. “There are plenty of (immigration) laws that exist. None is being applied," he said Monday on broadcaster BFM-TV, to criticism from conservatives.

Military spending is a key issue amid fears about European security and pressure from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for Europe to spend more on its own defense. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who champions military aid for Ukraine and ramping up weapons production, kept his job and stressed in a statement Tuesday the need to face down ‘’accumulating threats'' against France.

More immediately, Macron wants an emergency law in early January to allow sped-up reconstruction of the cyclone-ravaged French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean off Africa. Thousands of people are in emergency shelters and authorities are still counting the dead more than a week after the devastation.

Meanwhile the government in the restive French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia collapsed Tuesday in a wave of resignations by pro-independence figures — another challenge for the new overseas affairs minister, Manuel Valls, and the incoming Cabinet.

Associated Press writer David McHugh in Frankfurt contributed.

Emmanuel Valls arrives for the hand over ceremony at the ministry for Overseas Affairs in Paris, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

FILE - Outgoing French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne looks up after the handover ceremony, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

FILE - French Interior minister Gerald Darmanin acknowledges members of foreign police forces that help with the security of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)

French Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, left, welcomes French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou to attend a meeting at the Interior Ministry in Paris, Monday Dec. 23, 2024, following the cyclone Chido's passage over the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte. Hard-right Bruno Retailleau stays on as interior minister, with responsibility for France's security and migration policy. (Julien de Rosa, Pool via AP)

Newly named finance minister Eric Lombard leaves after the handover ceremony Monday, Dec. 23, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

Newly named finance minister Eric Lombard gestures after the handover ceremony Monday, Dec. 23, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

FILE - French centrist presidential election candidate Emmanuel Macron, left, waves supporters as French centrist politician Francois Bayrou looks on during a meeting in Pau, southwestern France, Wednesday, April 12, 2017. (AP Photo/Bob Edme, File)