Danella excited to be the new Glen Ridge HS girls head basketball coach

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The Glen Ridge High School girls basketball team has been simply sensational for the past two seasons.

The Ridgers finished as state sectional tournament runner-up in each of those campaigns and return a strong nucleus for the upcoming season this winter.

Indeed, Kristina Danella is thrilled to become the new Ridgers head coach.

“I am extremely excited, especially with the group that we have coming back,” said Danella, who was appointed to the helm last week by the Glen Ridge Board of Education, after spending last season as the head coach at Sparta High School. “I really have high expectations for the group. I think it’s going to be a great year.”

Danella has an impressive playing and coaching background. She currently is the all-time leading scorer at Red Bank Catholic High School, with 1,773 points, graduating in 2008. She began her collegiate career at Division I University of Massachusetts, where she was named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team as a freshman. As a sophomore, Danella made the Atlantic 10 Second Team. She then transferred to Division I Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and helped the team to two Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championships and two NCAA Tournament berths. She was named MAAC Sixth Player of the Year as a senior and was a 1,000-point scorer.

After graduating in 2013, Danella began her collegiate coaching career. She served as the head coach at Urbana University (Ohio), Caldwell University and San Francisco State, all on the Division II level, and at Division III Keystone State College in Pennsylvania. She posted a stellar 125-75 record, including winning two conference coach of the year awards, one conference title and one conference title, as well as coached one All-American.

Danella previously was the head coach at Mount Olive High School, before moving on to Sparta. She also is a lead clinician and camp advisor for Breakthrough Basketball and has a USA Basketball Gold coach license.

Danella replaces Mike DelloRusso, who was the Ridgers’ head coach since the 2020-21 season.

In the 2022-23 season, the Ridgers went 24-5, including going 15-0 to win the Super Essex Conference–Colonial Division title. They reached the championship game of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 state championship, but lost to a powerful University High School squad.

Last season, they returned all but one player and returned to the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 state tournament championship game, again falling to University, to finish with a 20-7 overall record, including an 11-1 divisional mark, to become co-champions with Newark Central High School in the SEC–Liberty Division, which is the “B” Division of the conference.

Despite losing five graduated seniors, this year’s team will boast another solid returning group, led by rising seniors Katie Powers, Marjorie Boyle and Riley O’Sullivan and rising juniors Allison Snyder and Anabel Mira-McKenzie, as the Ridgers move up to SEC’s top division, the American Division. Moreover, rising junior Annabel Koss-DeFrank has returned after missing last year due to a knee injury. Koss-DeFrank had a strong freshman year two years ago.

Powers and O’Sullivan each made the First Team and Snyder and Boyle each made the Second Team on the All–SEC–Liberty Division last season, as voted by the divisional coaches.

Danella has been quite impressed by the GRHS program, noting how the administration has been very supportive. The GRHS program “has a really nice history and that really drew me to the job,” she said.

Make no mistake, Danella has lofty goals for the program. “We have a really strong group returning,” she said. “A state championship is definitely on our radar. (We want to) continue what we did last year, and build upon it. We have one of our players back that didn’t play last year, so that’s going to be huge for us, and a lot of key returners coming back.” Danella’s long-term goals are to develop the entire program, starting with the young children and making sure they are “ready to go once they get to the high school,” she said.

The Ridgers’ summer activities are already in full swing. They had their first team workout during the week when Danella was named the new head coach. They will continue the workouts, two or three times a week, for the rest of the summer. The Ridgers also have been invited to a tournament at The Fort in Oceanport, beginning Aug. 1, where they will play two games against high-level Shore Conference teams. In the fall, the Ridgers will play in a competitive league in North Jersey.

Photo Courtesy of Kristina Danella

  Glen Ridge High School girls basketball