PASSING FANCY: Princeton High girls’ basketball player Anna Winters whips a pass in a game last season. Senior star Winters is looking to produce a memorable final campaign for the Tigers. PHS was slated to tip off its season hosting Nottingham on December 16 before playing at Hopewell Valley in December 18, at Rutgers Prep on December 22, and then hosting North Brunswick on December 23. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)
By Bill Alden
Mary Pat Lelinski was exposed to some special coaching influences during her athletic career.
“My dad was my high school basketball coach so I don’t know if it is in my blood or not,” said Lelinski, a three-sport athlete who played field hockey, basketball and softball at Truman High and was later inducted in 2019 to the Bristol Township School District Athletic Hall of Fame. “I played at Lehigh for a year and my head coach was Muffet McGraw, who went on to Notre Dame (and guided the Fighting Irish women’s hoops program to two NCAA titles.)”
Lelinski got into coaching at Conwell Egan (Pa.) while employed working as a social worker. Deciding to switch careers, Lelinski got her masters and teaching degree.
Starting her career in education, Lelinski headed to Franklin High where she worked as a special ed teacher for 19 years and coached softball and basketball. She then went on to WW/P-North where she didn’t coach but focused on officiating field hockey and softball.
In 2024, Lelinski came to Princeton High where she became an assistant coach for the field hockey and girls’ basketball teams in addition to working as a special education teacher.
This winter, Lelinski is taking the helm of the girls’ hoops program, succeeding Joe Smiegocki who guided the Tigers to a 19-10 record last winter as they advanced to the Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) tournament semis and the quarterfinal round of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Central Jersey Group 4 tournament.
In her first meeting with the squad, Lelinski let her players know that things will be different this winter as the squad looks to build on last year’s success.
“I said that there was going to be some changes, that there was going to be clearer expectations and consequences for not meeting those in terms of rules and stuff,” said Lelinski, whose team was slated to tip off its season hosting Nottingham on December 16 before playing at Hopewell Valley in December 18, at Rutgers Prep on December 22, and then hosting North Brunswick on December 23. “Also at the same token with the group that we are returning, the expectation is that we want to win a championship. I didn’t have to tell them that, they already had that in mind.”
In pursuing the goal of a championship, Lelinski is revamping the Tiger offense and putting a greater emphasis in defensive play.
“We do have different plays and right now and they are learning them and that will take care of itself,” said Lelinski, whose staff includes assistant coaches Steffanie Shoop and Kaitlyn Birnbohm-Kaminski. “We are trying to do more instruction on defense. There is a lot more stress on that because through playing good defense, we get the ball back more often. It is also rebounding. We rely on our shooting percentage and we didn’t necessarily crash the boards last year. That has been big emphasis since the beginning of the year. Right now we are working on our matchup zone and our man-to-man. The kids seem to know the basic man-to-man principles but we are trying to expand upon it so that the man-to-man defense is even tighter.”
As the Tigers have gone through their preseason practices, Lelinski likes the way her players have responded to the changes.
“I think it has been pretty positive, it is a big change for them,” said Lelinski. “This is their third head coach in three years but I think that they welcome it. They have really given us a chance and that is what we asked them to do. We said give us a chance and if it goes bottom up at some point then we will have to talk about it but right now it is good.”
Lelinski is expecting a very good season from senior star Anna Winters, who piled up 522 points, 229 rebounds and 157 assists last winter.
“Anna brings a lot of diversity,” said Lelinski of Winters, who now has 1,150 points, 474 rebounds, and 282 assists in her PHS career. “She is a good shooter, there is no doubt, but I think she is a better passer than she is a shooter. She is an incredible passer. When she gets into it, you hopefully will see more of that this year. Her teammates will tell you also that she is a really good passer.”
Another senior standout, Katie Sharkey (383 points, 138 rebounds in 2024-25), should be on the receiving end of a lot of the passes from Winters.
“I thought Katie was just an outside shooter,” said Lelinski. “I saw her play over the summer and she really has the ability to cut and go to the basket. Her reverse layup is the best in the county.”
A third battle-tested senior Leah Bornstein (184 points, 110 rebounds) will bring energy and skill to the Tiger backcourt.
“Running point guard most of the time will be Leah,” said Lelinski of Bornstein, who also plays lacrosse and soccer for PHS. “She just has an incredible motor. She is a kid that everybody would want to coach.”
After being sidelined for much of last season due to injury, senior Sephora Romain (114 points, 107 rebounds) is primed for a stellar final campaign.
“Sephora is back and she is better than ever, we are looking for a big senior season from her,” said Lelinski. “She really gives us an edge in terms of the intangibles with her jumping ability and her speed both on offense and defense. She is every bit of a shooter also.”
The versatility of junior Chloe Hunt (139 points, 154 rebounds) should give the Tigers an edge this winter.
“Chloe can play guard and forward,” said Lelinski. “She plays as one of our big players because she has jumping ability in addition to a little more height than the rest. She started a good number of games last year. She is a good player and has just gotten better since last year.”
PHS features some good depth in sophomore Angela Cao (42 points, 27 rebounds), junior Greta Knierim (10 points, 16 rebounds), and junior Sedona Arminio.
“Angela is back, as far as our guard substitute, she will be the first one off the bench at this point,” said Lelinski. “Greta is up from JV and she will come in at forward to give us a boost both defensively and rebounding. Sedona is probably our only center, she is a member of the three-peat state champion girls’ volleyball team. She is very raw but she has a great touch. She played for me on JV last year and has really come along. She is very coachable and picks up things pretty quickly.”
While there may some bumps in the road as the PHS players adjust to Lelinski’s approach, she believes the squad has pieces in place to excel.
“There is nothing on the girls’ basketball banner in the gym, that is our focus so let’s start with the division winner and work on how we are going to play in the CVC tournament,” said Lelinski. “We are hoping that we jell under the new system quickly. We have talent, we have heart and I hope that carries us until everything else comes together.”
In order to steel the squad for the pursuit of titles, Lelinski has bolstered the schedule.
“I did some things with the schedule to make our out-of-conference schedule a lot more difficult in preparation for hopefully the postseason this year,” said Lelinski. “We have Rutgers Prep coming up next week, we do play Hillsborough in the regular season. We picked up Hun, we picked up Thrive Charter with the idea that is now necessarily about accumulating more wins than last year, it is about going after championships.”
Looking to get the squad in the championship mindset, Lelinski brought in PHS girls’ volleyball head coach Patty Manhart to address the team and impart some of the insight she has gained from her program’s historic title run.
“We had Patty and some of our key volleyball players talk to the girls during the first week of practice about what it takes to be a state champion, not only once but three times,” said Lelinski. “That is not just talent and that is what they were saying. They said we really like each other and we worked hard. It was good because that is a concept I have been pushing.”