Dave Hyde: Dillard coach Marcia Pinder won so many titles, awards and games — but the ‘Pinder Girls’ are her legacy

Marcia Pinder’s players didn’t call her “Coach” in the manner customarily endowed on someone with her measurable numbers — 10 state titles, 996 wins and 44 seasons as Dillard High School girls basketball coach.

They instead called her Ms. Pinder, or sometimes Momma Pinder, for the immeasurable way she mattered beyond just a basketball court. Her players even had a name for themselves — Pinder Girls — to mark their mentor and pay her homage.

“It was a sorority of sorts you were part of as a Pinder Girl,’' said Mistoria Brown, Dillard High class of 2002. “It didn’t matter what year you played for her in 1980 or 2020. You were a Pinder Girl.

“Ms. Pinder did so much for us. She planted the seeds of greatness in so many young women that we make up a forest today and can be a family, protect a community or rally together when needed.”

The Pinder Girls mourned together Wednesday after the Dillard basketball legend died at 70. Phone calls. Texts. Tears. The 2019 team that won Pinder’s 10th state title shared their sorrow in their regular and familial chat group. The phrase, “Get the butter from the duck,’' was repeated.

“She used to say it before every practice, in every pregame speech — give it your all, lay it all out there, get the butter from the duck,’' said Raven White, who played on that title-winning 2019 team and is a junior at Southern University.

“She taught us to work hard. She mentored us on how to be young women. She was feisty, so we were, too.”

Every strong community has coaches like Pinder. But precious few have the hold on a community like she did. Forty-four years? Winning her first state title in 1980? Becoming the the winningest basketball coach, boys or girls, in Florida history?

She also gained national notice. In 2018, she won the Gatorade Coaching Excellence Award. In 2017, she won the Morgan Wootten Award for Lifetime Achievement in Coaching High School, and in 2014, she was named to the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

“It isn’t the number of wins, or all the awards that stick out — it’s the love, the manner she cared‚’’ said Brandon Adams, a Dillard assistant coach for Pinder the past 10 years. “She led in the best way possible. She was our everything.”

Pinder was 5-foot-1. So everyone’s first impression was that she’s smaller than expected. That quickly was replaced by the lasting impression of her strong personality. Brown, for instance, tells of being a seventh-grader the first time she went to a park where Pinder led a team in a practice.

“I walked up and saw this small woman yelling and these girls going through drills and exercises,’' said Brown, a digital technology instructor. “I’d never been part of organized sports. It was intimidating because I didn’t know what they were doing.

“She simply said, ‘Put your stuff down and get in line. It’s time to work.’ I did just what she said. I’d never worked that hard.”

At the end of the day, Pinder asked Brown, “Are you coming back tomorrow?”

Brown came back the next day. She started as a Dillard freshman and was captain all four high-school years. That led her to college basketball — and the next goal as Pinder defined it.

“She’d tell us not to go to college to win championships but to get that degree,’' Brown said. “‘Get me that degree,’ she’d say. She put in my head that it was possible for an African-American like myself to get a college degree. She made me in many ways who I am today.”

How many similar girls did Pinder reach through the decades? Brown often has thought of that. The number must reach deep into the hundreds. Maybe thousands. Pinder Girls were defining in that you could, “coach them hard — be real with them — because she coached them to be tough,’' said Octavia Blue, a former Nova star who played at the University of Miami and now coaches for Kennesaw University.

Each Mother’s Day dozens from generations of Dillard basketball called to thank her. Her birthday, too, was a time for Pinder Girls to remember.

Pinder celebrated her 70th birthday last week. Brown was there. At one point Pinder thanked her for being a friend, and the former player considered it a life reward — her mentor being her friend.

Momma Pinder had another expression for her teams. She used it as often as “Get butter from the duck.” It’s there in a video of her giving a halftime speech.

“What’re you going to do with your time?” she asked her team.

“Make your time count,’' the players said in unison.

“What?” she said.

“Make your time count,’' they said.

“Don’t count your time — make your time count,’' she told them.

For 44 years at Dillard, she made her time count. Look at the wins. Look at the trophies. But look even more at her impact on Pinder Girls.