Why They Coach: Robin Pingeton

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PM: What was your involvement in sports growing up?

RP: "I kind of grew up a tomboy, I'd say. I loved all sports. Football with the guys, baseball, softball, basketball, track. Just involved in a little bit of everything. Played basketball and softball in college. Never really thought about coaching. My college coach encouraged me a lot, thought that it would be a great profession to get into, but I just dismissed it. I got my degree in business and I always felt like I'd be the CEO of a company or something in a leadership position, but never really thought much about the coaching profession. Honestly, the moment I knew I wanted to be a coach was when the final horn sounded at the end of my senior season of basketball. I ended up sleeping in my jersey that night. I couldn't even take it off, which I know is kind of disgusting, but basketball had been such a big part of my life, not only for the sport, but just for so many reasons, I couldn't imagine not continuing to have that be a part of me. It was in my DNA.

I think at that time I reflected back on just the different coaches in my life and the impact that they had. So it was an opportunity to, obviously, give back; it's a sport that I was obviously very passionate about and was given a really cool opportunity at the young age of 21 to be a Division One assistant coach. Those first couple years as an assistant were hard, though, because you're so used to being in the limelight. It didn't take long to understand that it's not like playing. There's nothing better than playing, but it's the next best thing."

PM: Had you not thought about coaching because you were focused on other things or because you didn't want to do it?

RP: "No, it was never 'I don't want to do that.' It was just, I don't know, I think when you're that age, you just think you're going to be playing forever. You don't want to look at the end of your college career and I just never let my mind go there. I was getting my business degree and was in all different types of leadership positions within my college experience, but I don't think I just ever allowed my mind to go there."

PM: So when you graduated there weren't the opportunities to keep playing that there are now. Was that ever something you thought about or you just knew college was going to be the end?

RP: "I actually was planning on going overseas and playing after my senior year. Then at the end of my senior academic year, my mom had had a severe stroke that left her paralyzed on her left side. And so the timing of leaving the country was not good and so that's when I decided to take the route if my playing days are done, I have an opportunity to get into coaching."

PM: Most coaches start in high school or at a lower level. Have you thought about the good fortune of the timing working out that you could jump in at that level?

RP: "I think coach (Lisa) Bluder felt that we had built something pretty special at St. Ambrose, which was an NAIA school. Back then, though, we still played Notre Dame. It wasn't the same NAIA level and maybe the distinct difference in some of the divisions, but I think she felt like having someone come with her and help build that somewhere else was going to be beneficial for her and obviously a great opportunity for me. So I was with her for about two-and-a-half years before my alma mater called and asked me to come back to be the head coach. So I actually ended up coaching some of my previous teammates because I was only gone for (two years)."

PM: So you're, what, 24 at this point?

RP: "23. So I was a head coach at the age of 23. And forever thankful for those days. I did the equipment, I drove the vans to the games, I strength and conditioning coached those poor kids. I had no idea what I was doing, but we were in really, really good shape. It's just like you wore so many different hats. I had a graduate assistant and that was it. It was me. I think it aligned with the way I grew up with my work ethic. You just dig in and you start going to work and so I was there for I don't know if it was seven or eight years, but absolutely loved it. Loved it. The worst part about that is I had to drive the vans after we lost and you can ask coach (Jenny) Putnam about that because I'm not a good loser. I wasn't then, I'm still not. I just don't think it was good to be driving those vans. But we'd play in a game, like I remember going to Hastings, Nebraska and having to drive nine hours after a game. What we used to do is insane. But I love that level. I think it was grassroot. You recruit kids that really love the game, not full-rides typically, but it allowed me to work on my MBA and my mom moved in with me, I was taking care of my mom. Really the only pressure I had was the pressure I put on myself. We were an NAIA program. But again, if you know me at all, I'm pretty competitive, so that's a lot that I put on myself. But that was awesome.

Then an opportunity opened up at Iowa State. Had a good friend, 'Hey, Bill (Fennelly), you've got to take a look at Robin. Young, passionate about the game. Robin, you've got to take a look at Bill. He's got a great program at Iowa State.' He was familiar with me because his parents lived in the Quad Cities. I still remember driving up there, agreed to go visit him, and I called my friend and said, 'How am I going to turn this job down?' And they said, 'You know what? You might want to get offered the job before you turn it down.' Then I got offered the job and I just knew career-wise it was too great of an opportunity. Was with him for three years as an associate head coach and then a lot of jobs opened up. Not because of me, but because (I was) somebody that was under his umbrella, young, female and worked for a great coach in Bill Fennelly and so then I went to Illinois State and had a lot of opportunities when I was there. UCLA, Northwestern, Cincinnati, NC State, just a lot of schools. But it's never been--I hate to say this--it's never been about the money, it's never been about the conference. It's always been about really being where I felt the Lord wanted me to be and I had a chance to impact lives and make a difference. So I went to Illinois State and then obviously Missouri, but I've never been that person that's got that dream school. It's never been like, 'Man, someday.' I've always been a big believer in you plant your feet, you roll up your sleeves, you go to work and you don't look to the right or left. I'm so blessed. I've never sent out a resume in my life. That just doesn't happen. But I really think the value in that for others is just understanding plant your feet and work really, really hard and opportunities will come along."

PM: So when you're 23 years old, did you think at that time you were ready to be a head coach? And then looking back, were you ready to be a head coach?

RP: "That's a good question. I would say at the time, I think I probably thought I was. Yeah. Challenges, obstacles, hard, that's never made me shy away from anything. And me being the naive 23-year-old, probably thought, 'Yeah, I'm ready.' I'm sure there were some nerves involved too, especially going back and coaching some of your previous teammates, but I've always been in a leadership role, so it really wasn't as hard as one might think. But I was given great advice: Come in hard and you can always ease up, but if you come in trying to be everybody's friend, there's no way you're going to have everybody's respect. So we kind of laid down the parameters right out of the gates. Then, was I ready? Ummm, I think for that level, yeah. I think a lot of that's just because I played under some great coaches in high school and college and I think I've got a great work ethic. So, yeah. Was I ready to go be an SEC head coach? Absolutely not. I've just been blessed along the way. A really important part of my coaching career happened at Iowa State and being under Bill Fennelly and having the opportunity to learn and just the way he went about his job every day and the attention to detail and all that was really big. Lisa Bluder had a big impact on me. My high school coach. So I've been really blessed.

I've always, even in high school, watched Pat Summitt. I just loved her programs. I loved the toughness that she had, but also the compassion and love that you could tell and the relationships she had with her players. I've read every book of hers. I've read a lot of books on John Wooden. But Pat Summitt probably had more of a big impact on my life than she would have ever known. I just kind of pieced it together along the way."

PM: I don't remember the timeline. When you got here, did you coach against Coach Summitt or was she already finished?

RP: "I remember the first time we played there. I'm really big into eye contact and we're at shootaround and all my players, I just kind of look at them and they're like (looking around). I'm like, 'Hey, we've got to get dialed in' and I look over my shoulder and Pat Summitt's walking in the gym. She actually did a home visit with my sister Lisa (Becker at the time, now Lisa Porter) so she was at our home, but I remember being in the driveway trying to get shots up, trying to get a look. I heard her speak a handful of times and we had met on the road. Had a relationship, but I wouldn't say a tight relationship. She's got hundreds of thousands of people that admire her and respect her and so it wasn't a situation like that, but we had met on a couple of occasions."

PM: You go to Iowa State and I understand it's a job you've got to take to further your career, but was there anything hard about going from being the head coach back to being an assistant?

RP: "It's so funny if you talk to some of the assistants who were there at Iowa State when I came in, I didn't know what I didn't know. So all I knew is we go in, we work, we coach them up. One of the first practices, I blew my whistle to stop practice because that's what I did, right? I'm a coach. And the other two assistants just looked at me like they'd seen a ghost. I don't think coach Fennelly missed a beat. He was fine, but I think for them, they just thought, 'Okay, we don't blow our whistles and stop practice. Coach Fennelly does.' But I didn't know what I didn't know and I was just coaching. Honestly, I think Coach Fennelly, as a head coach, and I feel the same way, I love it when my assistants are assertive. That doesn't offend me and I think Coach Fennelly felt that way. But I think it was just the difference coming from being an assistant to an assistant job to probably my scenario where as a head coach and then coming in as an assistant where you just keep plugging away and fill the gaps and do what you need to do."

PM: You mention the other jobs that you turned down along the way. How much a part of it, whether it was conscious or not, was geography? Your jobs have all been pretty close to where you grew up.

RP: "I think it was definitely, that had a lot to do with it. My mom's health wasn't good ever since my senior year in college. I love the Midwest and not to say we wouldn't move out of it, but we did have strong ties here and I think from a recruiting standpoint you understood the landscape and as a young coach, I think you've got to put yourself in a position to be successful and that's what I knew. But I do think family dynamics absolutely. I mean my dad was a huge part of our basketball careers and loved being involved, so I definitely think that played a part of it."

PM: So your dad was very involved in athletics, your sister plays big-time college basketball, you played for a really successful coach. Especially early in your coaching career when you had to talk to somebody after a game or about something that happened, who would have been your first call?

RP: "Hmmm. That's a good question. I don't want to just make something up. I think probably early in my career at St. Ambrose it would have been Lisa Bluder. I think after being at Iowa State it would have been more Bill. But I don't think I've ever been maybe that type of person. And there's probably times I should have been. But if I had a graduate assistant, I just rolled up my sleeves and worked and figured it out. Because I think the dynamics are different. My players are different than your players. Coach Randy Norton and I became very good friends when I was in the Quad Cities and so he was on my staff at Illinois State. Coach (Jenny) Putnam played for me, obviously coach (Willie) Cox and I go way back. So in my later years, definitely my staff because I had a great supporting cast. But I think in those early years it was more just figure it out. Study it, communicate, figure it out and keep going."

PM: When Missouri called, why was that an opportunity that you thought 'Yeah, I'm ready to make another jump?'

RP: "I definitely wasn't ready. I think it's different when you send out your resume and you feel like, 'Okay, I want this' versus when someone calls you and you hadn't been planning or preparing for that. Probably one of the toughest things I've done as a coach is leave Illinois State. We worked so hard to build that and we were beating Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, UCLA, Purdue, teams that we weren't supposed to be beating. And we had a really great culture there so leaving those kids was really hard.

When Missouri called, they called before the season was done, Mike (Alden) was very respectful of understanding I didn't think it was fair to my players or the University to have a conversation before the season was done. He was very respectful of that. Honestly, it's a long season and I still remember, so we got done playing in, I don't know if it was the semifinals of the WNIT postseason, and you know, it's a long night, there was a lot of emotion in the locker room and it's like 7:45 the next morning, it's Mike Alden on the phone. So persistence was good. Agreed to come down and take a look and absolutely fell in love with Columbia, I loved the college town, I love the hills and the trees. Obviously more bells and whistles than we had at Illinois State. But for me as a coach, it's so much bigger than that. I needed to understand what was the challenges of why they hadn't had sustained success here? What was holding them back? There had been some really good years and some really tough years. What was the commitment? And what was the vision? What did we really think could happen here? So really it was just being willing to come down and look at it. My aunt and uncle live here, so there was a piece to that. Still in the Midwest. I always felt like from the outside looking in this was a place you could do something and build something pretty special. Then was offered the job and said 'I got to go home and talk to my husband.' He called me about 45 minutes into the drive and said 'We'd really like you to turn around and come back.' I said, 'Thanks, but I've got to go home and talk to my husband.' I don't make quick decisions like that and it's a big decision. It's not just about me. It's about my husband, our family, my assistants, their family; it impacts a lot of people. Then he called back that night and just said, 'I talked to Rocky, she said I need to give you some space and so maybe you can call me tomorrow morning by nine.'"

PM: So you had about 12 hours.

RP: "Yeah. But he was great. Just what he had to share about the University and athletic department. I thought it was a great opportunity even though it was really, really hard."

PM: So what were those challenges that you considered when you got here and what have you learned about them over the years that are challenges unique to Missouri?

RP: "I think changing the perception is really hard. When you're recruiting and you've got kids going to different programs and they're showing them Final Four trophies and national championship trophies and we don't have that here. You know, our trophy case looks a little bit different. But being able to sell the vision and change the perception of what Mizzou women's basketball looks like. And being able to find those players that would come in and lay a foundation even though they might not reap the rewards, being able to come in and help us set the standards and the culture of our program that would help recruit that next tier kid. That process is hard because we live in a world of we all want instant gratification so really trying to stay true to tunnel vision and not looking to the right or left or listening to outside voices, but trust in our process of brick by brick and doing it the right way. And the great thing about that is we had a blueprint of how we did it at Illinois State and it was proven that it can work, but it does take a little bit more time.

I think some of the challenges here that we still face is when you look at the financial support. You look at our numbers in TSF compared to the monies that other Universities are able to bring in, it's a little bit tougher. You know, I always tell recruits though, I think the bells and whistles are important and I understand that and I want our student-athletes to have really nice things and that is important in recruiting and we've got to continue to up the ante. We have to. We've all got to work hard to continue to build this up. But at the end of the day I want people to come because of the substance because that's what truly lasts. I think that's worked out pretty good for what we've done in our program."

PM: Listening to you say we've done this at Illinois State, it worked, we know it's going to work and you stuck with it even if maybe outside people didn't think it was working sounds exactly like what Gary Pinkel used to say about his program. Did you ever have any talks with him about that kind of thing?

RP: "I tried to, any time we had a caravan or we had a trip where we might be on a donor plane, I always tried to pick his brain. I don't think it was like year one; it was early though. I wasn't around him a lot, a lot. The longer I was here, the more our paths would cross, but absolutely. Just what he was doing with the football program here and the blue-collar mentality, I admired and respected that. So I think anytime you're around coaches that have success at that level, you'd be crazy not to try and pick their brain. And he's always been great. He's become a very, very good friend."

PM: Not specific to this job, but what for you is the best or most rewarding part of being a coach?

RP: "Outside of just being a competitor and loving the game, that should be a no-brainer for everybody that's coaching, right? So you take that part of it out; the strategizing, the X's and O's, all that is why you're in it, or a big part of why you do it. But I think one of the things for me that's most rewarding is every year is so unique and different and when you bring in every year, you come into that locker room as a team and to see the growth. They leave as sisters. Just the maturity and the growth and what that looks like every year. And it's not easy. It's hard. Just constantly that culture piece of being able to make sure we're on point. I always tell recruits, 'Yeah, we're a family, but my family's not perfect. And I don't know too many families that are. So we're going to go through some hard times and tough times and some people are going to last and some aren't, but that core's got to be strong.' So I love that. I love the opportunity to hopefully have a positive impact on my players' lives, teach life lessons, bring people from all different backgrounds, all different walks of life and bring them to a place where they can learn and grow from each other. Because I think so many times we want to be in comfort zones, but really we grow the most when we're in places that are outside of our comfort zone. And so when you come to college, everyone's a little bit different, everyone's got a little different story. I think that's where we grow the most. And helping them understand that, learn that, learn grace, learn life lessons, that's what's really fulfilling. I've always said my goals are to compete for championships. That's a given. But my passion is to have a positive impact on my players lives and prepare them to be successful in the real world."

PM: The opposite direction, what is the most difficult part of being a coach?

RP: "The (transfer) portal. It's just the unknown. It just, it's just changed. It's like a free market now. To me, commitment's commitment and then you get through the ups and downs and, now if it's not a good, healthy environment, that feels different to me, but it's hard to predict what is going to flip the switch on what day for different kids."

PM: And that's not something you've had to deal with, I mean, kids always transferred, but it's changed a lot.

RP: "The deal is, it's for everybody across the country. When you're here you think it's just your program. No, it's across the country...It happens everywhere. And I just think trying to make sure, I think as a staff, that you're able to communicate. It's not through cell phones. It's building true, authentic, genuine, real relationships with your players. And sometimes you hit it and sometimes you miss. And that's hard. So that recruiting piece, I think is tough.

Another piece of that would be, for me personally, just with all the different recruiting events and home visits and we're starting at an earlier age and just, I don't know if it's harder, I've just got to stay mindful of the balance of being a mom, being a wife and being a head coach."

PM: And that's true for any coach, but they're so often men and their wives are home doing all those things. The gender stereotypes have changed a lot, I think, but it's generally accepted that a male coach is gone from the home. What's unique about being a woman who has a family, has the kids at home and trying to balance it?

RP: "I've never been somebody that wants a nanny to raise my kids. And I'm not saying that's right or wrong, that's just me personally. I've got great support at home with Rich. He was very successful in his career and we knew at this point, if we wanted to have any family time when we moved to Missouri, something had to give. And so we decided at that point, you know, he's going to help with all the odds and ends. He's incredible. He's like dad of the year. He coaches both boys' little league teams and basketball teams and he's an incredible cook and he just gets it. And so it does free me up. But at the same time, I think it's that motherly instinct and that nurturing in us for me personally that, still, I want to be the one to clean my house, I want to be the one to take care of my kids--not take care of them by myself, but to be there. So I've really tried and sometimes it probably has hurt me, but when I'm at home between 5, 5:30 and 9 o'clock when they go to bed, I really try to be intentional about being present. And not being present with my cell phone and making calls. Sometimes it can't be avoided, but I really try to be intentional about being present with them. We've got Zach, who has special needs, and it's made life full and busy but incredibly special and rewarding at the same time. You know, when you love what you do and who you're with, you just make it work. And I'm absolutely very blessed with my husband and our kids. That's very important and this is very important. And you can do both."

PM: Whether it's five years down the road or 25 years, whenever you walk away, what would you want people to say about you as a coach?

RP: "I think that she had a positive impact on not only her players' lives, but the communities that she was involved in. That we did it the right way. Certainly, I want to compete for conference championships, national championships. And I'm going to do everything we can. And I think we can. I really do, I think we can. But if that doesn't happen, that will not define, hopefully, my career that I've had as a coach. I certainly hope that they can say that I was there for them, that we did it the right way and that I had a really positive impact on their lives."