By BRIAN TORTELLA
Correspondent
On X @tortreports
BLACKWOOD — Mike Ricci has been on a roller coaster ride of emotions during the past nine months.
After a highly successful 16-year run at Haddon Heights came to a turbulent end in March after the district’s Board of Education cited him as an “Irresponsible parent,” the longtime South Jersey boys basketball coach found himself in an unprecedented situation.
At the time, he was firm on stepping away from coaching.
“No, I’m done,” he told the Courier-Post in March. “Even though it’s been a couple of days since this happened, it’s changed me. I’ve done this for more than half my life. It’s certainly not the way I wanted this to end.”
But for someone as respected and accomplished as Ricci, there was no plausible way that could be the ending to his 27-year South Jersey coaching career.
He was approved by the Black Horse Pike Regional School District Board of Education in June as Highland Regional’s new head coach.
“I’m a fighter,” Ricci said following the Tartans’ 54-50 loss to Gloucester Tech on Wednesday night. “I coach that way, I’m fiery when I coach. I’m not somebody that just lays back. When that situation happened at Haddon Heights, your first reaction is to just kind of walk away, but then the competitor in me comes out, and I knew I wanted to get back at it again.
“I love being around the kids, I love coaching the kids. It keeps me young,” he continued. “I love watching teams progress from when we start to when we finish, and we have some good opportunity here to do some things with some of the talent here, and when the job opened up I was excited about it and wanted to come here and try to build something again.”
A nail-biter of an opening night in Gloucester Township marked Ricci’s comeback in what was the start of a new chapter in his potential hall-of-fame career. GCIT (2-0, 0-0 Tri-County Royal) got 19 points and seven rebounds from Michael Stanwood and 16 points from Ian Malgapo, and the Cheetahs outscored Highland 18-10 in the fourth quarter to secure the Tri-County Conference non-divisional victory. It was GCIT’s second straight win to start the season, while the Tartans (0-1, 0-0 Tri-County Liberty) got 17 points and six rebounds from Jerome Cuff in their season opener.
And just like that — year No. 28 is underway for coach Ricci.
A 1989 Camden Catholic High graduate, Ricci started his career at Paulsboro in 1996 when he became the youngest coach in state history to win a NJSIAA state championship with a 53-51 victory over Newark Science at 23 years old.
He led the Red Raiders for eight seasons, capturing two South Jersey Group 1 titles and making another state finals appearance in his final campaign in 2003. He stopped at Gateway for three seasons before landing at Haddon Heights.
Wednesday’s game against GCIT marked the first time Ricci, who has a career record of 428-290, has coached outside of the Colonial Conference. Highland is a member of the larger Tri-County Conference.
He takes over a Highland squad that hasn’t had a winning season since the shortened COVID year in 2020. You’d have to flip the calendar back to 2018 to find the Tartans’ last playoff victory.
“He’s been a phenomenal addition to our coaching staff and our community,” said Highland Athletic Director Lisa Steele, who was previously the girls basketball coach at Paul VI. “Even though he doesn’t work in the building every day, he’s always in the building checking on our kids and checking on their academics. We just have a great working relationship. I’ve already been to a couple of practices and stole a drill from him already that I have diagramed for when I return to coaching at some point. It’s just really fun watching him work and seeing the impact he’s already made in our first preseason. I actually had a chance to coach his daughter (Emily) at Paul VI, and through knowing her and knowing the family, I’ve followed and seen his success. Once he interviewed, it was the perfect fit.”
Nine months ago, Mike Ricci was hard on himself.
Sad. Hopeless. Part of him thought he may never coach basketball again.
Everything happens for a reason though, right?
“When I was standing out there in the line with the kids during the national anthem, it kind of hit me,” he said. “It kind of hit me that I was back coaching. I was just in a new place, even though I’ve been here for a while.”
“We have some good pieces here, and it’s going to take some time to build it up and get them together. We’ll make it happen. It’ll take some time, but we’ll get it going.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Highland travels to Delsea Regional on Friday at 7 p.m. Gloucester Tech travels to Clearview Regional on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
Contact Brian Tortella: btortreportssj@gmail.com.
