With Karen Pinkos at the helm, SNHU women have come a long way
Jan. 21—MANCHESTER — The Saint Anselm College women's basketball team had a 9-0 lead Wednesday night when Southern New Hampshire University coach Karen Pinkos decided to use one of her timeouts with 7:13 remaining in the opening quarter.
The Penmen exited the timeout with some newfound energy, battled back and had a three-point lead with 2:36 remaining in the quarter. SNHU went on to win the game, 71-63. That raised the team's record to 13-3 overall and 9-2 in the NE10.
If only Pinkos could have fixed the SNHU program that quickly when she took over as head coach.
That was in 2005. Back then, SNHU hadn't had a winning season since going 18-13 in 1990-91. The Penmen didn't win more than eight games in a season from 1992-93 to 2004-05. They were 0-27 in 1998-99.
Pinkos had to build, not rebuild, and she had to do it without a full-time assistant coach.
"It was definitely challenging changing the culture and getting them to create winning habits, whether that was at practice, conditioning, the weight room," Pinkos explained. "They were working hard, but working hard and working your tail off are two different things. We had to change some habits.
"When you win, everybody's high-fiving you. When you lose, you go home and take everything to heart. You replay everything in your mind and you have sleepless nights. It's a great profession, but it can be a horrible profession in that sense when you're so hard on yourself."
SNHU hired Pinkos after she spent nine years as an assistant at Northeastern. Before that she worked as an assistant coach at the University of New Hampshire — her alma mater — Boston College and Providence. She was a finalist for the head coaching position with the Saint Anselm and Saint Michael's women's basketball programs, but said she always felt SNHU was the perfect job for her because it felt like home.
At first, wins didn't come easy. The Penmen didn't finish above .500 under Pinkos until her fourth season, when they went 18-11 and beat Le Moyne for the program's first NE10 tournament victory. Things leveled off after that, however. Pinkos had three winning seasons in her first 12 as SNHU's head coach.
"I don't think I was ever going to give up, but I was getting frustrated," Pinkos said. "What am I doing wrong?
"As the university grew, it was a lot easier. We didn't get great players right away. We got good players who turned into great players from their work ethic. We've had some great players in the program — players who wanted to work and wanted to win. We just tried to sell that.
"Each year you win, you create a culture. Kids want to come here now. I think in the beginning we had one or two great players. Now we're starting to get three, four or five great players."
That talent has translated to more victories. SNHU has finished with at least 16 wins in each of the last four seasons (COVID canceled the 2020-21 season). Things peaked last season when SNHU went 21-7.
"When you talk about those middle years, I felt like we just kept banging on the door," said Pinkos. "We were respected and people were aware of us. Now we have the target on our back and people are coming after us. It's a different kind of stress, but the turnaround has just been awesome."
Pinkos, a Goffstown resident, played high school basketball at Pembroke Academy. She scored 912 points in her high school career and graduated as the school's all-time assist leader (374). Pinkos still maintains a close relationship with Rose Galligan, her coach at Pembroke.
Pinkos was a walk-on at UNH, earned a scholarship and served as a team captain during his junior and senior seasons. The growth of the SNHU program has mirrored her college career.
"I feel like I've evolved over the many years that I've been here," she said. "Times have changed with kids and it's all about relationships. Maybe in the beginning I was a little bit too tough on kids.
"You just try to develop better relationships with every player one through 12, because that's what coaching is all about. Every kid has value. They gotta believe, and I have to believe in every single kid. I think at first I tried to coach them as a group instead of individually. I think I'm better at that now.
"Every player who has come through this program — even the ones who didn't think they reached their potential — has contributed. If you were ever to come to our alumni game ... there's days I look up and I'm just so grateful."
