Blake Fernandez is the Chief of Staff for Washington State Men’s Basketball. Fernandez joined the Cougs in 2024, where he was an assistant coach, before being promoted to his current role with the program. Fernandez does most of his work behind the scenes, strategic planning and supporting the day-to-day operation of WSU MBB.
Before coming to Pullman, Fernandez was a member of David Riley’s staff at Eastern Washington University. He started there in 2020 as a graduate assistant before being promoted to Director of Basketball Operations in 2022, and then promoted again to Assistant Coach in 2023. Preceding his time at EWU, Fernandez coached at his hometown Mountlake Terrace High School under renowned coach Nalin Sood, who has been there for over 30 years.
Prior to transitioning to coaching, Fernandez was the starting point guard for a Western Washington University team that won the GNAC Championship in 2016-17. He finished his WWU career with 71 games played with 15 starts. He transferred to WWU from Edmonds community college after the 2014-15 season. At Edmonds, Fernandez helped lead the Tritons to a 27-6 record as a freshman, averaging 11.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.6 steals per game.
Fernandez received his bachelor’s degree in biology from WWU in 2018 and his master’s in educational leadership from EWU in 2022.