Head coaching success rarely happens without quality assistants. Those individuals that are willing to labor in the background in order to help build a team’s success.
Current Shady Spring assistant volleyball coach Sharon Pinardo is one such laborer.
Pinardo’s commitment and hard work over the years have been very instrumental to the success of volleyball programs all across southern West Virginia.
“Volleyball has been my passion. I was probably better at softball and basketball than volleyball, but volleyball was always my passion,” Pinardo said.
An all-state volleyball player in high school at Woodrow Wilson, Pinardo went on to play at Fairmont State College. While in college, she worked as an assistant coach for Martha Gunnoe at East Fairmont High School
“Martha was an All-American and I knew I could learn from her,” Pinardo said. “We led East Fairmont to their first state tournament appearance in school history.”
However, it was her time at Fairmont State that had a profound effect on Pinardo. It would spark a desire in her to help players be better prepared for competition beyond the high school level.
“When I walked into Fairmont, I had two All-Americans on our team as a freshman,” Pinardo recalled. “I was an all-state player and I walked in thinking I was all this and that, but it was a struggle that first year. Just the amount of learning and the quickness it took was surprising.”
“Even back in the 1990’s, the difference between high school and college was quite significant. I remember thinking when I graduated that I didn’t want another girl to come out of high school and have such a struggle fitting in,” Pinardo continued. “I didn’t want them to struggle getting to play or struggling to get a scholarship. I wanted the girls to have the opportunity to increase their level of play and be competitive coming out of high school. Not having it thrown at them that first day they walked in.”
Returning to Woodrow Wilson in 1994, Pinardo took a position as an assistant coach under legendary Flying Eagles head coach, Shirley Brown before a short stint as head coach at The College of West Virginia.
Also during that period, Pinardo started an off-season team called West Virginia Attack that lasted two years. It would become the precursor to the highly successful Club Attack program roughly 10 years later.
Travel volleyball was much different in the 1990’s.
“We didn’t have uniforms and Shirley let us use the Woodrow uniforms,” Pinardo recalled. “There were no computers and everything was written by hand. Communication was mainly by (land-line) phone. Our region was the Ohio Valley region. There was a lot of travel and no facilities at that point. Girls’ sports were just not as important at that time.”
Pinardo stepped away from coaching from 1997-2003, working mainly with individuals on a one-on-one basis. In 2003, the spark was re-ignited by her cousin, Kim Cantley.
“Kim’s daughter went to Liberty and wanted to play volleyball. Kim asked me to start Club back up,” Pinardo said. “The kids just struggled to compete, especially with out of state volleyball players. What hurt us was that states like Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia were allowed to coach their players year round. West Virginia has never been like that and that is the reason I started Club Attack.”
Club Attack would become the key to success for numerous local high school players.
“I am a big stickler for technique and I have an eye for that. I am very attentive to detail,” Pinardo said. “I am very detailed about the players knowing the game.”
Along with heading up Club Attack, Pinardo returned to Woodrow Wilson as an assistant in 2004. She would stay there until 2014 when some health issues forced her to step away.
During that highly successful 10 year span for Woodrow Wilson, Pinardo also formed a developmental league for younger players.
“The league was made up of 10 or 12 elementary teams that played every Sunday, January through March” Pinardo said. “We had kids from 3rd grade to 5th grade. Those are the girls that you are seeing graduate now. It was very beneficial to the teams because they were being taught high school level play at that age and you normally don’t see that.”
One of her developmental league coaches at that time was current Shady Spring head volleyball coach, Kelly Williams.
When Williams took over the Shady Spring program, she was adamant about returning the Lady Tigers to prominence around the state.
One of the key steps in that success, according to Williams, was bringing Pinardo in as an assistant.
“When Sharon and I started this adventure, my goal was to help the girls reach their highest potential. It didn’t matter how I got them there,” Williams said. “I knew Sharon had had success at Woodrow Wilson. She has taught me a lot about offense and defense, as well as the reasons why you do certain things on the floor. She has been a great support system and experience matters. In order to reach our goals, I was willing to have Sharon come in and teach me, so I could learn.”
After helping guide Woodrow Wilson to the state tournament each year of her tenure in Beckley, Pinardo has also helped lead Shady Spring to four straight state tournament appearances which includes a state championship and a state championship runner-up finish.
With such a solid coaching background, one might wonder what has kept Pinardo from taking a vacant head coaching position.
“My real job,” Pinardo said, laughing. “I would love to be a head coach, but I work for the IRS and I don’t have the time administratively to put into it. Shirley and I had a great relationship. She took care of all of that and I just helped coach and it’s the same with Kelly. Kelly puts in all of the time.”
With her youngest son graduating high school this year and likely heading to college where he will play football, Pinardo says this stint with Williams is likely her final run.
However, one never knows though when that spark may again get re-ignited.
“When I left Woodrow in 2014, I was done. Kelly hooked me in. She said she had never coached at this level before and she asked for help. I am not a teacher, but I love to teach the sport of volleyball.” Pinardo said. “I came here to help her and we make a really good pair, but she really doesn’t need me now. She knows what to do and how to do it.”
