By Dylan Butler
In her first major move since being named women’s basketball coach at St. John’s University in May, Kim Barnes-Arico announced her staff Monday.
Joe Pellicane, Daynia LaForce-Mann and Shannon Farley will serve as assistant coaches, while Jackie Smith has been named director of basketball operations.
Pellicane will serve as Barnes-Arico’s top assistant and comes to St. John’s from Dowling College where he coached for 15 years, including the last two as the women’s head basketball coach.
At Dowling, where Pellicane was a New York Collegiate Athletic Conference coaching rival of Barnes-Arico, who was at Adelphi, he led the Golden Lions to a school record 21 wins and was 38-20 in two years at the helm. Before that, Pellicane was the men’s basketball head coach for 13 years, twice being named NYCAC coach of the year.
“Joe brings 30 years of basketball knowledge, having coached both men and women on various levels, to our staff. His experience will help tremendously with both recruiting and x’s and o’s of basketball,” Barnes-Arico said. “With his daughter Lauren having played at Villanova, Joe understands the Big East conference and the level of play we will face this year.”
LaForce-Mann, a Brooklyn native and former standout at Georgetown, comes to St. John’s from Long Island University after six seasons as the Blackbirds’ assistant coach.
Farley is no stranger to Barnes-Arico, having played for and coached with her at Adelphi.
Smith also makes the jump to the Big East from the NYCAC after serving as an assistant coach under Barnes-Arico at Adelphi for two years.
Prior to that, Smith was an assistant coach at Nassau Community College in 1999-2000.
