Mt. Pleasant hoops coach Malkowiak brings passion to new gig

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Thursday, June 29, 2023 | 5:54 PM

When she started coaching, Annie Malkowiak was young and brash.

Admittedly, she shouted and pushed back, thinking the game was more about her than the team.

“I was an idiot,” she said. “I was very passionate, but I was an idiot. I was 21. I didn’t use my energy for the right things. I heckled and got offended and mad easily. I wasn’t a jerk, but I yelled too much.”

Now less rough around the edges, Malkowiak is proof an “idiot” can become a trailblazer.

On Wednesday night, when Mt. Pleasant approved her to become the boys basketball coach, Malkowiak made history.

No woman has led a coaching staff for a boys varsity basketball team in Westmoreland County.

“I don’t think it’s ever happened in Fayette County, Butler County, Beaver County or some other counties, either,” Malkowiak said. “Kudos to the Mt. Pleasant school board. People don’t bat an eye when a man is coaching women. It should not be such a surprise any more for a woman to coach men.”

Malkowiak, 50, is believed to be the fourth woman to coach a WPIAL boys basketball team.

Tanya Garner coaches the boys team at Nazareth Prep. She was hired before last season.

Carol Gelet led the 1997 Clairton boys to a WPIAL title. “Mama Bear,” as she became known, went on to coach the Pitt-Greensburg women’s team.

“It’s not common,” Malkowiak said of women coaching boys. “But it should be common. I hesitated at first because I knew this was different, not normal. But in 2023, it should be normal. I’ve thought about (the gender issue), but it’s not about me. It’s about the kids. These kids need positive role models in their lives. Positive influences. They need five solid people in life that can really have an impact. It doesn’t matter if they are male or female.”

Enthusiastic and rambunctious, Malkowiak is a tell-it-like-it-is person and coach.

“I have changed, and my style is completely different,” she said. “But what you see with me is what you get. I am the same no matter what.”

Malkowiak did not set out to become the varsity coach. It just sort of happened organically — and in a roundabout way.

While she is from Lawrence County and had hall of fame careers at Ellwood City and Cal (Pa.), where she coached for 21 years, she has friends in Westmoreland County.

Her college roommate was Patti Wilson, the daughter of longtime Hempfield track and field coach LaRoyal Wilson, and she stayed at the Wilson’s home for a couple of summers.

“I also student taught at Southmoreland and subbed at Southmoreland and Mt. Pleasant in the late 1990s,” she said. “I know this area.”

Malkowiak was the coach of the California and Uniontown girls in the late 1990s before she became an assistant with the Cal (Pa.) women in 2000.

The former Vulcans standout guard still had aspirations to lead a program, but she didn’t care where or at what level.

She started coaching boys in a recreational church league in Mt. Pleasant and Connellsville a few years ago and took over the sixth and seventh grade boys team at Mt. Pleasant in January.

“We were at Greensburg Central Catholic for a sixth grade game, and I knew the referee,” she said. “We were talking, and there were some dads volunteering as coaches. They basically told me they didn’t know what they were doing, and since they heard I was a coach, they asked for my help.

“Fast forward, and one or two practices turned into six months.”

When more parents and supporters urged her to coach the varsity after TJ Kravits resigned after three seasons, Malkowiak bristled at first: “Absolutely not,” she said. “I’m good, thanks. They were like, ‘Come on.’ One thing led to another. It all happened wicked fast.”

Mt. Pleasant co-athletic director Allan Bilinsky said Malkowiak was hired for her resume, not for her gender.

“She really impressed me,” said Bilinsky, who used to coach the Mt. Pleasant boys team. “We had two other candidates, but she was the right person for the job. She said a lot of the same things I would say.”

The idea of carrying a flag for female coaches was not exactly Malkowiak’s impetus. She saw an opportunity to build a program.

“I love coaching the sixth and seventh grade boys,” she said. “We have so much fun. I am going to continue to coach them on a volunteer basis. I want to carry over what I have done with the varsity team. I want to impact their lives and help them become better people. There’s not better way to do that than through sports.

“We’ll have a lot of team-bonding activities. We’re going to the drive-in on Friday night. One of the boosters asked me what I needed help with. I said I wanted to know of any volunteer work we could do in the community. We’re all in this together.”

The new coach said Mt. Pleasant reminds her of Ellwood City.

“It’s a small, quaint community,” she said. “The people support each other. It’s a community effort.”

Malkowiak’s 85-year-old mother, Patricia, came to visit her Thursday and was taken aback by the attention her daughter has been getting.

“She couldn’t believe how much my phone was blowing up,” Annie said.

She said her late father, William, would be proud.

“I am more like my dad,” Annie said. “I have his personality, I think. He’s probably losing his mind up in heaven.”

Malkowiak, who lives in Uniontown, does not have any children — “Just me and my dog (a mini Labradoodle named Toby),” she said — but she now has a larger family.

“I just inherited 25 new sons,” she said. “I can’t wait to get started.”

Malkowiak, who works as a family mentor for an online charter school, plans to bring on Kenny Johnson, a former Beaver Falls and Cal (Pa.) standout, as her main assistant.

Mt. Pleasant will host a meet-the-coach event at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday in the junior high gymnasium.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Mt. Pleasant