Colleen Mullen: A Wildcat Now Leads the Great Danes

DURHAM, N.H. – Colleen Mullen, a proud graduate of the University of New Hampshire and once a standout on the school's basketball team, showed up to be introduced for her new job last month and surrounding the license plate on her car was a "UNH Wildcats" border.

One important thing to note: Mullen was being introduced as the new head women's basketball coach at the University at Albany, one of UNH's rivals in the America East Conference.

"I bleed blue and loved my time at UNH," Mullen said a few days later. "Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat."

But now she's also a Great Dane.

Mullen was named to replace Joanne Bernabei-McNamee, who moved on to become the coach at Boston College.

Mullen played her high school basketball in Chelmsford, Mass. and is excited about being back in the America East Conference and also excited about renewing and strengthening acquaintances with UNH head coach Maureen Magarity and others in the league.

Mullen's roots run deep with the Wildcats.

She spent the last seven years as an assistant coach and then associate head coach at Army West Point where she worked under veteran head coach Dave Magarity, Maureen's father. Maureen Magarity was an assistant under her father before taking over at UNH.

While Maureen and Colleen's tenure's on the Army West Point staff did not overlap, they've come to know each other well over the years.

"I've had the Magarity connection over the last seven years and being able to work with Dave and us being the two biggest fans of UNH," Mullen said. "We'd both kill ourselves watching film for the opponent we were going to play, but we didn't want to miss a UNH game. We'd go into the office and talk about the game and were able to share that love for UNH. Dave would say, 'How about those 'Cats, Coll.' It was so fun."

Army West Point and UNH play a scrimmage prior to each season and that has helped strengthen the bond between Mullen and Maureen Magarity, too.

"I love that Maureen Magarity is the leader of the program," Mullen said. "She's done a tremendous job and really provided an unbelievable student athlete experience for the kids. As an alum, she's done a great job of reaching out to us to engage us. She's definitely the right leader for the program. I'm nervous to face her, but she's going to make me a better coach."

The respect is mutual.

"Colleen's always had a great reputation," Maureen Magarity said. "She's a tireless recruiter. Obviously, she did a great job in that same role at Army. She recruited arguably the best player in Patriot League history, never mind at Army, in Kelsey Minato."

Mullen started her collegiate playing career at the University of Rhode Island and played there two years before transferring to UNH where she had to sit out a season due to NCAA transfer rules.

She was an instant fit in Durham.

"She was super," said Gretchen Browne, then a UNH assistant coach to Sue Johnson and now an assistant professor and internship coordinator in kinesiology, sports studies at the school. "She really brought incredible talent and court sense and perspective when she came here. She played in the backcourt with Kiki Proctor and Emily Caschera and all of them were real strong leaders with very strong basketball IQs. Colleen grew up with the game. Off the court she had a tremendous sense of humor but between the lines she was very serious. There was never a doubt in anyone's mind she'd be coaching after college."

Her UNH experience rekindled Mullen's longtime interest in coaching.

"Playing for Sue Johnson had a huge impact on my desire to coach," Mullen said. "She had recruited me out of high school and provided me an unbelievable opportunity of a second chance. I had sort of lost my love for the game and was searching for it and it gave me another chance to fall in love with the game."

After UNH, Mullen worked as an assistant coach for a couple of years with another former Wildcat – Karen Pinkos at Southern New Hampshire University – and was on her way.

Pinkos, long a Mullen mentor and friend, and Caschera both attended the press conference introducing her as Albany's coach.

Mullen's said her UNH experience drew her to Albany, another state school.

Now she's back in America East – leading a program that has been a power in the league – and looking forward to at least one visit each season to her old stomping grounds at Lundholm Gymnasium.

Maureen Magarity will enjoy the visits, too.

"Colleen's the first one to reach out after a big win, she's like our No. 1 fan," Magarity said. "She's great like that. She's been a great assistant for my dad and I think this is a super opportunity for her. Not only are we proud of her as an alum of UNH, but it's just a special relationship in the sense that she's a great friend and I'm just really happy for her and her family."

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The UNH women's basketball coaching tree had another addition when Elizabeth Belanger, who starred with the Wildcats before graduating in 2016, was named an assistant coach at Boston University late last month.

Belanger was an assistant at Southern New Hampshire to Pinkos last season. She is the sixth on UNH's career scoring list and eighth in rebounding.

Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu

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