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As both a player and a coach, Mandy Pearson has had much success throughout her basketball career. On the court or on the sidelines, Pearson is a talent. As a head coaching candidate, she is up and coming with extensive knowledge and experience beyond her years. With that in mind, it would appear that the former Piper women’s assistant basketball coach is a natural choice to take over the reins of the lowly women’s program at Saint Mary’s University, despite the fact that Pearson has yet to reach the age of 25 years. In accepting the position, Pearson is charged with the daunting task of revitalizing a program stuck in its losing ways. It’s no understatement to say that in recent years, the first-time head coach is quite the reciprocal compared to the Cardinals in terms of success attained.

As an assistant to head coach Melissa Young-Kruse, Pearson was a part of the best Piper team in school history. Hamline reached the MIAC conference playoffs for the first time ever two years ago. Although the success of the Pipers was not repeated this past season, the Pipers finished the year with the third-most-winning record in school history. Before serving two seasons as an assistant with the Pipers, Pearson was an All-American point guard during her senior year at Concordia-Moorhead in 2004-2005. Also that year, she was named Minnesota’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference player of the year for the second time. She received the honor her junior season as well. Pearson was a three-time All-MIAC first teamer. As a player, the point guard was a rare talent that not only scored but distributed the ball too. She capped off her career with 1,346 points and 640 assists; the first Cobber ever to surpass the 1,000-point and 500-assist benchmarks. Pearson was consistent as a conference leader in both categories throughout her four year-career.

In addition to having the credentials of a great player and the recognition of being an assistant for a program on the cusp of changing its culture of winning for the better, Pearson brings more to the job. The new coach should be able to relate to her new players in a way her predecessor could not. Pearson has had the first-hand experience of being a player and having to endure the transition of having a new coach on a seasonal basis. At Concordia-Moorhead, Pearson had three different coaches in four years. With every changing of the guard comes not only a new coach with a new personality, but also new play books with new plays, new practice routines, new training programs, new assistants, new energy, and new philosophies of game management. Coaches may even see fit to shift the positions of players. It goes without saying, all can be and are stresses on college athletes but Pearson’s players should be able to benefit from their coach’s ability to empathize and make adjustments.

Whether it is just coincidence or something that Pearson brings to the table, she is successful at whatever task she accepts. Her time spent at Hamline is invaluable and her presence surely will be missed in practice and on the sidelines in 2008 and beyond. Although the head coach for the Cardinals may not be the most desirable job in college athletics, some of the best coaches in history have started from humbler beginnings. In any event, if former Cardinals’ coach Shawn Stimmel can parlay one season and a losing 7-18 record into a head coaching position at Mount Mercy, then one would assume that Pearson’s impressive pedigree should translate into many future hirings.