Noelle Quinn hails from Southern California and has spent most of her life in and around basketball – both as a player and coach. Noelle attended Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, California, where she was named a WBCA All-American. She participated in the 2003 WBCA High School All-America Game where she scored eleven points. She led the Lady Knights to four California state championships, three regional championships, and three division championships.
Quinn attended college at UCLA and graduated in 2007. Following her collegiate career, Quinn was drafted by the Minnesota Lynx in the first round of the 2007 WNBA draft. As a rookie, she got off to a slow start before stepping into the point guard role when Lindsey Harding was injured in July, 2007. Quinn finished strong, setting a franchise record with 14 assists on August 19, the season finale. She finished the season averaging 2.8 points and 4.4 assists per game. Her 148 assists for the 2007 season, tied a club record that was held by Teresa Edwards. Quinn also became a naturalized Bulgarian citizen in 2007 and played with the Bulgaria women’s national basketball team.
During a 12-year WNBA career, Quinn played for the Minnesota Lynx, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Phoenix Mercury, and Seattle Storm. She was a 6’0″ combo guard who averaged 4.8 points per game and 2.3 assists per game for her career. In 2018, she won a WNBA championship with the Seattle Storm.
Beginning in 2016, Quinn coached the girls basketball team at her high school alma mater, Bishop Montgomery High School, for four seasons. In her first season, the Lady Knights won a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section championship.
In February 2019, after retiring from the WNBA, Quinn was hired as an assistant coach by her last team, the Seattle Storm.
For the 2020 season, Storm head coach Dan Hughes was forced to sit out the season for medical reasons. Gary Kloppenburg became head coach for the season, and Quinn was promoted to associate head coach, where she concentrated on the offense, while Kloppenburg focused on the defense. Seattle won the 2020 WNBA championship.
On May 30, 2021, Quinn was named Storm head coach upon Hughes’ retirement from the WNBA. In January 2022 Quinn joined Canada Basketball as the lead assist coach for the Canadian women’s national basketball team. This last December, Coach Quinn traveled to Senegal to teach in the NBA Academy Women’s Camp Africa – a highly selective program for 25 of the top female high-school-aged prospects from 11 African countries.