Women's Head Basketball Coach-Jay Ritchie
Women's Basketball Coach Jay Ritchie is entering his first season as head coach of the Monarchs. Ritchie is a former two-sport athlete, participating in men’s basketball and tennis. Ritchie earned his Bachelors of Business Administration at University of Detroit Mercy in 1986 and earned his Masters of Education from Saginaw Valley State University in 2005. Ritchie is currently the social studies and history teacher a De La Salle Collegiate.
Ritchie has an extensive twenty-two year coaching background. He coached Boy’s and Girl’s Basketball at South Lake & Lakeview, Boy’s Basketball at Grosse Pointe South & Centerline, and he was the Head Men’s Basketball coach at St. Mary’s College. As a coach Ritchie, has 12 District and 8 League Championship. He has accumulated 578 high school coaching wins.
Ritchie was a standout player at Lakeview High School and continued his career at Macomb Community College. At Macomb, Ritchie earned Team MVP, All-League and Eastern Conference All-Star honors. He also was part of a League Championship team.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to establish a top notch program. With the facilities, commitment to women’s basketball and the wealth of high school basketball talent in the area, I am confident in immediate results.”-Head Coach Jay Ritchie
Assistant Coach-Sheronda Powell
Sheronda Powell joins Macomb Community College's Women's basketball coaching staff as an assistant women’s basketball coach. She is a former assistant coach and junior varsity head coach for Concordia University in Ann Arbor. She also served a short stint as head coach for Trinity College in Washington, D.C. and has played professional women’s basketball in Russia, China, and Spain.
She is a native of Detroit, Mich., and a graduate of Detroit Cass Technical High School. Powell also was an assistant coach and head junior varsity coach at Detroit Country Day School where the Lady Jackets were three time Class “B” State Champions during her tenure. Prior to this transition, she was the assistant coach at Southwestern High School where they were District Champions the highest honor for the school in thirteen years.
Sheronda Powell was also a graduate assistant coach at Wayne State University. Her team had its best season in fifteen years. With the most impressive showing in the GLIAC Women’s Basketball Conference, her team earned the honors of conference runners-up.
Powell's college years including being a four-year letter winner and starter in women’s basketball at Michigan State University. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication in 1993. Entering the 1992-93 season, Powell was for the second time in her career, the Spartans’ All-America candidate selection, but she missed the completion of her senior season due to a knee injury. She finished with 968 career points and over 600 career rebounds in only ten games as a senior, and led MSU all three seasons in field goals with a career 54 conversion percentage. Powell served as the Spartans’ co-captain her junior and senior seasons.
Her three previous seasons were filled with honors. In 1991-92, her junior campaign, Powell earned All-Big Ten First Team honors, and was rated the 11th- best female college athlete in her position in the nation. In her sophomore season, Powell earned All Big Ten Second Team honors, and she was named Michigan State’s Most Valuable Player. The Spartans finished 1990-91 with a 21-8 overall record, tied for second in the Big Ten as 13-5, and lost in the second round of the NCAA Division I play-offs 96-94. In three overtime periods to Oklahoma State despite Mayo’s team-leading 11 rebounds. In Powell’s freshman season, 1989-90, she was named MSU Freshman Athlete-Of-The-Year, and was voted by her teammates as the squad’s Most Improved Player. Between her freshman and sophomore seasons, Powell was also named as an alternate to the 1990 U.S. Olympic Sports Festival North team.
Powell was born on August 1, 1971. She and her husband, Aaron, reside in Utica, MI.