Syracuse Basketball: Katie Kolinski returns to her true passion, coaching

Former Syracuse basketball graduate assistant Katie Kolinski has returned to coaching. Here are the details from an exclusive interview.

Katie Kolinski made history during her time with the Syracuse basketball program as the program’s first-ever female graduate assistant.

After leaving the Orange last year, Kolinski got a huge promotion becoming the Director of Basketball Operations for the women’s team at Buffalo.

Largely this was a role that was more so behind the scenes, but now she’s going to return to her true passion coaching on the sideline.

Katie has been hired as an assistant coach at Lafayette College.

She sat down with us for an exclusive interview for a few minutes to discuss her new role and what’s ahead.

"“Yes the Buffalo job was in the office and I got to watch practices. I think that role was great for me because I learned so much from coach Jack and things behind the scenes. But I missed being able to grow players on the court and that is truly my love.”"

During Katie’s time with the Syracuse basketball program, she got a unique look at the Orange players behind the scenes in practice. One of the players she got to work with two years ago was Elijah Hughes. That was during his mandated transfer year hiatus prior to him making his debut in 2018-19.

She has a special eye for talent and she wanted to return to her roots to maximize that ability. But also in that same vein, she’s going to try and use those abilities for the first time in recruiting, a position she has never found herself in previously.

"“I’ve never recruited before so I’m excited about this new adventure. Most importantly I’m just going to be myself and just jump on board with Lafayette and work as hard as I can every day.”"

To be honest, a lot of coaches hate the recruiting process publicly. It’s a grind and it never ends, although Katie disagrees vehemently and is excited about the opportunity:

"“I mean I wouldn’t call it a grind. A grind is what people do who work in labor jobs. But it definitely is a lot of work. You need to be able to evaluate talent and then you need to be able to form relationships. This takes time and you need to be persistent. But I’ve learned if you’re just authentic then it takes care of itself. Which I’m lucky because the staff at Lafayette is truly a family so it’s going to be fun to be recruiting with the staff and showing recruits why this is such a special place and campus.”"

Speaking of recruiting, Katie had the pleasure to work with one of the most electrifying and engaging personalities in all of college basketball: Mike Hopkins. Here’s what she took away from her time with him then (and continues to through their friendship):

"“I’ve seen recruiting behind the scenes from people like Hop and my biggest takeaway is the authenticity and energy. A player knows when you’re being phony and no one likes phony people so being able to truly be yourself and genuine is big. I haven’t’ reached out to anyone but the Lafayette staff have already taken me under their wing to show me the ropes. Kia is a great coach and someone I’m excited to learn from and I’m going to just be energetic. She is ready to take it to a whole other level and I can’t wait to be a part of the process.”"

Katie says her ultimate goal right now is to be the best coach she can possibly be at Lafayette. She’s excited to be working with Coach Kia and helping to bring in some championship gold.

Kolinski hasn’t locked in any long term career goals, at least publicly, but she wants to be the best coach she can be and work hard towards that goal every day.