Pina Gentile is in her seventh season as assistant coach for the Illinois women's golf team in 2024-25. Gentile spent 2015-18 as the head women's golf coach at Eastern Michigan.
In Gentile's first season at Illinois, the Fighting Illini reached the NCAA Championships for the first time ever and recorded the second-lowest single-season stroke average in program history. Four players were named All-Big Ten, and four were named to the WGCA All-Scholar team.
Gentile's second season was off to a promising start before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season, but the Illini bounced back with an NCAA Regional appearance during the shortened 2021 season. Tristyn Nowlin and Crystal Wang both earned All-Big Ten Second-Team honors and Nowlin finished her career as the Illini's all-time stroke average leader (73.40).
The success continued into 2021-22 with another NCAA Regional appearance - the fifth-straight for the program - and All-Big Ten First-Team honors for Wang and Kornkamol Sukaree, as well as Wang earning the program's first-ever CoSIDA Academic All-District accolade.
Gentile was instrumental to the Illini's success in the 2022-23 season as Illinois captured its first-ever Big Ten championship in program history. Wang took home individual medalist honors at the Big Ten Championships, was named the conference's player of the year and began the program's second-ever golfer to earn All-America honors. The team's victory at the conference tournament helped clinch a sixth-straight NCAA Regional appearance. Three golfers also earned CSC (formerly CoSIDA) Academic All-District and five were named to the WGCA All-Scholar team.
In 2023-24, Gentile helped Isabel Sy earn back-to-back co-champion honors during the season, as part of a run of six-straight top four finishes. Sy would go on to earn an individual berth at the NCAA East Lansing Regional and garner WGCA Honorable Mention All-American. Three golfers were named CSC Academic All-District.
With nearly 18 years of NCAA Division I intercollegiate coaching experience, Gentile spent three years working at EMU where she led her teams to 20 top-10 tournament showings, including her first career tournament win at the 2016 Kalamazoo Classic and another victory at the 15th Annual Rio Verde Invitational. During her first year, Gentile led the Eagles to a historical season by posting the lowest 18-hole average in program history. Gentile coached 12 WGCA All-American Scholars and 11 Academic All-MAC team honorees.
Prior to her time at EMU, Gentile spent eight seasons as an assistant coach at Iowa State University before being promoted to associate head coach in June 2015. She aided the Cyclones to six-straight NCAA Regional appearances, while recording their best finishes in the Big 12 Championships during her reign. In 2014, the Cyclones advanced to their first-ever NCAA Championship appearance. Gentile coached 10 Cyclones to All-Big 12 recognition 15 times during her tenure. Academically, she also coached 12 golfers who earned Academic All Big 12 accolades 21 times.
Before arriving in Ames, Gentile began her coaching career at Illinois State where she spent three years as a volunteer assistant coach before being promoted to an assistant coach in 2005 with both the men's and women's golf teams. Gentile helped guide the Redbirds to three Missouri Valley Conference Tournament titles with men's golf earning two (2005, 2007) and women's golf earning one (2005).
In 2000, the Redbirds graduate earned her Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Teaching and Club Professional Division card and is a Class A member. She also worked as an assistant golf professional at Crestwicke Country Club in Bloomington, Ill. and Edgewood Valley Country Club in LaGrange, Ill.
Gentile earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Illinois State University in 1999 before furthering her education with a master's degree in clinical-counseling psychology. As a student-athlete at Illinois State, she was a four year letterwinner on the golf team. Gentile helped lead the Redbirds to a Missouri Valley Conference Championship during the 1997 campaign. In the classroom, she was a member of the AFNI Honor Roll and the NGCA All-American Scholar Team.
Updated June 2024
