Rebuilding a program at the Div. III level for any sport is difficult. The lack of scholarships makes recruiting tough, and it can take years to take a program from the basement of a conference to the top. But, if any coach is capable of turning a program around, it is Oswego State women’s basketball head coach Sean Pinkerton. 

Pinkerton has already rebuilt two programs from the ground up. He started by taking over the Morrisville State women’s basketball team in 2009, improving the program to win more games than the last year each and every season until 2012. In 2012, Pinkerton made the move to Minnesota, taking over a St. Catherine’s University team that had won just one game the season prior. The Wildcats posted back-to-back winning seasons before Pinkerton eventually left for Oswego State 2017. 

“He just goes out and builds strong connections with solid players,” assistant coach Audra Clark said. “His number one thing is putting effort into recruiting, so the talent is there to execute the system.”

Clark is in her first season as an assistant coach and comes from the same St. Catherine’s University program that Pinkerton had just led. She was a part of his second recruiting class, playing valuable minutes her freshman year. By her junior year, Clark, Pinkerton and the Wildcats won 15 games in 2016-17, the most wins in program history. Clark led the team in scoring with 14.7 points per game. After graduating from St. Catherine’s University with a psychology and social welfare degree, Clark now sees Pinkerton in a new perspective as a colleague. 

“He is so resilient,” Clark said. “He will never put blame on anyone else. He will never let anyone outwork him when it comes to recruiting, game planning, stuff like that.”

One of the main attractions for Clark in coming to Oswego State was seeing what Pinkerton had done with St. Catherine’s University and wanting to help replicate it with the Lakers. However, one of the biggest adjustments she has had to make with Oswego State is sitting back and coaching as opposed to being able to enter a game and changing it with her play.

“I was sweating more on the bench than when I played,” Clark said. “You can make subs and tell them what plays to run, but you have to trust them to go out and execute.”

Although it is her first season with the Lakers, it is Pinkerton’s fourth. Pinkerton still has players from the previous regime, but his system is slowly being put in place. Clark described the Lakers’ head coach as “defensive-minded” and someone that thrives with “X’s” and “O’s.” This can be seen in the 61.1 points the Lakers allow per game, good enough for sixth in the conference. 

Oswego State has not had a winning season since 2012-13. After a tough 2-23 campaign last season, the Lakers have improved mightily in 2019-20, already posting six wins. The team got off to a hot 4-2 start before slipping a bit, currently sitting at 6-12. The struggles this year have come in SUNYAC play.

“Once you get into conference play and get deeper into the season, it’s harder for everyone,” Clark said. “Other teams have watched film on you, they scout you. We play SUNYAC opponents twice a year. They know your stuff.”

Sitting at 6-12 with six games to go, the Lakers cannot finish above .500 this season. They can, however, surpass Pinkerton’s previous high mark of seven wins with the program, as it went 7-18 in 2017-18. Oswego State has home games with SUNY Potsdam, Plattsburgh State and SUNY Oneonta remaining, three teams in the bottom half of the SUNYAC standings. But before that, the Lakers must go to SUNY Cortland this Saturday, the team that currently sits atop the conference. The Red Dragons are also the team Oswego State defeated just a season ago for its lone conference win.

“The girls get really fired up for those games,” Clark said. “They feel like they have nothing to lose and leave it all on the court. We’ve played well against high-level teams.”

As the saying goes, Rome was not built in a day. Building a program from the ground up takes time. And for Oswego State, Pinkerton and Clark give them a good chance to win moving forward. As for this season, games down the stretch are huge for grabbing momentum going into next season.

“They’ve improved a lot last year into this year,” Clark said. “Being able to compete in games gives confidence and gives the people that will be here next year some confidence.”

Photo by Nicole Hube | The Oswegonian