Phil Pellegrino was named head coach for Houghton women’s basketball in May 2020. He is the 12^th coach in the 51-year history of the program.

Pellegrino, a 2017 Houghton graduate, returns to the Highlanders after three seasons as a men’s assistant, and most recently as interim head coach, for the women’s program at Elmira College.

At Elmira, Pellegrino was responsible for practice planning and player development, and led recruiting efforts for the Soaring Eagles. In his first season at EC in 2017-18, he assisted with the installation of a new offensive system that saw the team increase its scoring production by an average of 20 points per game. That year, Elmira logged 82.1 points per game, the fourth-highest average in team history, and they came close to that mark again in 2018-19 with 78.3 points per game.

A former Empire 8 All-Conference student-athlete, Pellegrino spent his freshman season at Alfred University before finishing the last three years of his collegiate career at Houghton. He paced the Highlanders in scoring as a junior and eclipsed the 1,000-career-point mark during his senior campaign.

The Rochester, New York, native was also a proficient 3-point shooter, as he finished his career with 162 3-point field goals. With Pellegrino on the court, Houghton experienced its most winningest seasons in over two decades, reaching double-digit wins for the first time since the 1995-96 season.