Scores may fade, but relationships endure.

Bob Coolen doesn’t recall much about his first victory as a collegiate softball coach other than it was “probably cold, snowy, 32 degrees.”

But when a member of his mid-1980s Bentley (Mass.) College teams greeted the veteran University of Hawaii coach at the Women’s College World Series in 2010, the memories were laser sharp.

“She’s standing in the line for autographs and she looked right at me and goes, ‘Do you remember who I am?’ and I go, “Yes, you were my first catcher, Bev Smith,’” Coolen said of the encounter in Oklahoma City.

“She was a competitor, she was a person who wanted to play at the highest level. … So that was special that she was celebrating with her daughter at something that is a pinnacle of our sport.”

The reunion came at a peak in Coolen’s career and returned in a moment of reflection as he approaches a coaching milestone.

Now in his 26th season as UH head coach and 31st overall, Coolen takes his first shot at becoming the 31st member of the NCAA’s 1,000-win club today when UH (6-6) faces Seattle (3-11) at 6 p.m. at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium in the Coca-Cola Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament.

The Wahine also take on Charleston Southern and Toledo in the three-day tournament and preparing a young team for a run of 19 games over the next 16 days kept Coolen (999-647-1) from looking ahead to No. 1,000.

But he did allow a moment to look back on the journey from his debut at Bentley in 1985 to his current standing as the second-longest tenured coach in the UH athletic department, trailing only 27th-year sailing coach Andy Johnson.

“I’ve been to places I would never have gone in my lifetime without coming here,” said Coolen, who entered the season 12th in victories among active coaches.

After going 72-93 in five years at Bentley, Coolen moved to Hawaii in 1990 as an assistant coach under Rayla Allison. He was promoted by athletic director Stan Sheriff in 1992 following Allison’s departure, becoming the program’s third head coach in its eighth year of existence.

Within three seasons, UH had its first conference championship and made the first of 11 NCAA tournament appearances to date. He led the program to the Super Regionals in 2007 and again in 2010 in a magical run to the WCWS highlighted by an upset of top-seeded Alabama (win No. 788).

He’s coached 175 letterwinners, including current associate head coach Dee Wisneski and assistant coach Kaulana Gould, while amassing 927 wins at UH. With 10 more newcomers on this year’s roster, the cycle of connecting through coaching continues.

“Being a baby boomer and with millennials, I learn … a lot about the differences between us and how to bridge that gap,” Coolen said. “That’s something you constantly have to do as a coach.”