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

The girls basketball team of the Glen Ridge High School have been nothing short of sensational for the last two seasons. 
 
The Ridgers were runners-up in state sectional tournament in all those seasons and they are returning a large core of players for the new season in this winter. 
 
Yes, Kristina Danella is much happier to be the new Ridgers head coach. 
 
“I am extremely excited especially with the group that we have coming back” she said, within the same week, Danella was appointed head coach for the Glen Ridge team after joining the team last season as the head coach for Sparta High School. “Yes ma’am I really have high expectations for the group I think it is going to be a great year. ” 
 
Danella has played and has coached when it comes toball games. She is in present the all-time leading scorer at Red Bank Catholic High School where she completed her high school studies in 2008. She started off her college playing in Division I University of Massachusetts and was acknowledged in the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team when she was a freshman. Sophomore and Danella was earned the Atlantic 10 Second Team. She later joined Division I Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N. Y. where she assisted the team snatch two Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championships and two NCAA tournament appearances. As a senior she was recognized as a MAAC Sixth Player of the Year, and was 1,000 point scorer. 
 
But for Danella, he began coaching in collegiate level after he had graduated in 2013. She has been the head coach at Urbana University, Ohio Division II Caldwell University, San Francisco State – Division II again, and Keystone State College, Pennsylvania – Division III. With Hiett upholding the coaching responsibilities, she achieved a very impressive record of 125-75, and managed to bag two conference coach of the year titles, one conference title and one conference title as well as nurture one All-American player. 
 
Danella earlier was serving as head of the coaching team at Mount Olive High School before joining Sparta. She also is a lead clinician and camp advisor, for ‘’Breakthrough Basketball”, and she also has a USA Basketball Gold coach license. 
 
Danella takes over from Mike DelloRusso, the Ridgers’ head coach especially for the 2020/2021 season. 
 
The Ridgers during the following season of 2022-23 also had a good run at 24-5, being unbeaten in the regular season of the Super Essex Conference–Colonial Division at 15-0 to clinch the title. They advanced to the title match that was the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 title but lost to University High School. 
 
They came back for last season with all but one player and got back to the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1, state tournament final but again lost to University finishing the season at an overall record of 20-7, divisional record of 11-1 thus sharing the SEC–Liberty Division “B” Division title with Newark Central High School. 
 
Although graduating five ‘seniors’, this year’s team shall consist of another strong returning group, inclusive of rising ‘seniors’, Katie Powers, Marjorie Boyle and Riley O’Sullivan, ‘juniors’ Allison Snyder and Anabel Mira-McKenzie; as Ridgers are promoted to SEC’s superior division, the American Division. In addition to this, returning junior Annabel Koss- DeFrank is experienced having missed the previous year due to a knee injury. Koss-DeFrank was more competitive two years ago they enjoyed a good freshman year. 
 
Powers and O’Sullivan both were named to the First Team All – SEC – Liberty Division as Snyder and Boyle both were named to the Second Team the previous season as decided by the Liberty Division coaches. 
 
From the case, it can be seen that Danella has been quite admiring of the GRHS program, especially the level of support from the administration. Nevertheless, the main reason for choosing the job was the impressive history of the GRHS programme, she stated. 
 
Do not get it wrong, Danella has big dreams for the program. “We have a really strong group returning,” she said about the prospects and the players. “Definitely a state championship is part of our goals.
(We want to) just keep what we did last year and add more to it. So obviously having one of our players back that didn’t play last year is going to huge for us and a lot of our key players coming back next year. ” For the long term, Danella’s vision is to cultivate the entire program beginning with the youths that she wants “ready to go when they 
 
The Ridgers’ summer timetable is well and truly under way. This was during the week when they had their first group practice once they appointed Danella as the new head coach. They will keep it up with the workouts, twice or thrice a week until the end of the summer. The Ridgers also have been invited to participate in a tournament at The Fort, Oceanport starting from Aug 1 and the Ridgers will be playing two matches against top Shore conference teams. During the coming autumn the Ridgers are going to participate in a more serious league in the area of North Jersey.