Mana Wahine: Hawaii softball head coach Panita Thanatharn

HONOLULU – What’s the butterfly effect of a star sophomore breaking her leg in the first half of her college career?

New University of Hawai’i softball head coach Panita Thanatharn can tell you her own firsthand account.

“I think not being able to play for a couple years, sitting back on the sidelines, watching my teammates play, I think that’s what kind of got me into coaching,” Thanatharn said while reflecting on her career-altering injury from her playing days with Long Beach State.

After starting the 2003 season scorching hot with a .526 batting average across seven games, then-sophomore outfielder Panita Thanatharn saw her playing career dramatically altered on a February evening during a home tournament for the Beach.

Thanatharn rounded third to score in the second inning of a 4-2 win for LBSU but collided with LMU catcher Trisha Gomes as she reached home plate. It would be the final run that the right fielder would score for a long time, suffering a compound fracture in her lower left leg that cost her two years of work to rehab back from.

“I’ve had at least eight surgeries on it already,” Thanatharn revealed. “I had two surgeries right away and I was in the hospital for 10 days and nine nights.”

Despite working tirelessly to return in time to play during her junior year, Thanatharn was told that she wasn’t going to be cleared and ready and took a rare second medical redshirt. While she spent two years out of the lineup, Thanatharn was anything but absent from everything softball related.

Despite her fibula never healing, tibia getting major work and suffering nerve damage to go along with a few paralyzed muscles, Thanatharn made a return to the field in 2005 and improved to a respectable batting average again by 2006. After her coaches pushed for a return for a sixth year, Thanatharn obliged and finished her college career with an all-Big West honorable mention selection in 2007.

The injury also provided perspective on one of Thanatharn’s key messages as a coach – playing every game as though it could be your last.

“You never know,” the first-year head coach said. “Tomorrow could be your last game. We never know when our end date is, ever.”

Photo Credit: UH Athletics

As soon as her playing career’s expiration date hit, Thanatharn took up the clipboard and coaching cap with her alma mater. After a quick two-year detour at UNLV with veteran head coach Pete Manarino, she returned to LBSU under Kim Sowder and spent the next 15 seasons with the Beach.

Across 18 total years in various assistant coaching roles, Thanatharn finally took the leap to the head chair last June. The patience to take a lead job was purposeful as Thanatharn leaned on the advice of her mentors (who won a combined 1,422 games for Long Beach State) and other people in her circle.

“The goal was to be a head coach,” Thanatharn said. “But it had to be the right fit for me as well.”

She took multiple interviews for head coaching jobs when she was younger but consistently found herself asking if she was willing to leave a good place and role at LBSU for the positions looking to hire her. After some reflection, Thanatharn slowed her push to lead her own program and waited for a job too good to refuse to pop up.

Fast forward to the end of the 2025 season with former UH head coach Bob Coolen’s retirement after 34 years leading the Rainbow Wahine program and there was suddenly a program with the things Thanatharn desired in her new home.

“Again, the goal was to be a head coach but not just anywhere,” Thanatharn emphasized. “It had to be the right fit for me, for my family and at the same time, again I’m competitive. I didn’t want to go, selfishly, set myself up for failure. I wanted a place that is supported, where I know I can win, I can have support … it just had to be a good fit.”

Thanatharn acknowledged the daunting task that is replacing the program’s all-time winningest coach that spent over 30 years leading the Rainbow Wahine program. She also pointed to the longevity of Coolen’s tenure as a plus in her mind about the Hawai’i job.

“When people don’t leave, that’s a good thing,” Thanatharn said after becoming just the fourth head coach in UH program history. “People don’t want to leave [Hawai’i], and there’s something special going on at a place when you have a coaching staff that’s been there for quite a while.”

The first-year head coach certainly won’t have her team playing many cupcake tune-ups in her debut season at the helm. The Rainbow Wahine’s non-conference schedule features matchups against No. 9 Nebraska, No. 19 Duke, and a BYU squad that received votes in the preseason ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 poll and multiple other tournaments that will test the 24-player roster made up of seven new faces and 17 returning letterwinners.

Hawai’i will start the 2026 season on Thursday, February 5 against Seattle University at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium on the first day of the Bank of Hawaii Paradise Classic. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. HT and attendance is free and open to the public.

“Come out and support us, our girls are working hard,” Thanatharn said ahead of Thursday’s season opener. “Come support, it’s going to be a fun, special season … we’re super excited and we’re going to make this community proud.”