By BRIAN TORTELLA
Correspondent
On X @tortreports
Ponce Tinkham is back where it all started.
After spending the first 10 years of his teaching and coaching career at Clayton High, the 1993 Sterling graduate returned in 2023 as a history teacher and assistant football coach, and is now in his first season leading the Silver Knights’ girls basketball program.
Tinkham succeeds 1994 Sterling alum Kate McDonald, who earned more than 300 wins in 15 years at the helm across two separate stints, highlighted by a South Jersey Group 2 sectional title in 2016. As a player, McDonald scored more than 2,000 points in her career.
“I’m a Sterling grad, and I went to high school with Kate, so I know her very well. There’s no doubt, numbers speak for themselves. She accomplished a lot, not only as a player but as a coach as well,” Tinkham said. “The history of Sterling girls basketball is a storied one, but it’s not as if the teams here were known as not being gritty. They were hard-nosed basketball players.
“I coach football in the fall, so coaching girls in the wintertime, I appreciate it greatly.”
Tinkham, 50, didn’t pursue a degree until he was 35 years old. He worked in the print advertising and marketing fields for several years out of high school, but decided it was time to go back to school to pursue his love of history.
“Even when I wasn’t teaching, I was helping my other friends coach youth,” said Tinkham, who earned a B.A. in History from Rutgers-Camden in 2014 and M.A. in Science Education from Western Governors University in 2021. “I love history. I’ve had a love for history since I was a student here. In life, you take certain journeys, and finally, the road back came a little late in life for me, but I decided to go back and get my degree. I decided to get into history. I knew I wanted to teach history.”
Tinkham will have some work to do if he wants his program to make any history in the near future. Sterling graduated five seniors last spring and is in rebuild mode for the time being.
However, the Silver Knights’ record (4-17, 1-8 in the Colonial Coference’s Liberty Division) doesn’t tell the full story of their gritty play throughout the season. Two of their starters — Montgomery Draham and Madison Sims — are Division I soccer commits who still play basketball despite it not being their top sport.
“Tinkham is honestly a great fit for our program. He obviously has experience from his other schools, but having Coach Kate last year and Tinkham this year, the difference is great,” said Sims, a goalie who recorded 796 saves and will be taking her talents to Temple University in the fall. “You get a different point of view and a different coaching style. It’s like you’re starting fresh. Our team is coming together and playing well. I definitely see improvement, and I hope when the playoffs start, we’re stronger and our best team so far.”
Both Sims and Draham often have to go straight from basketball to soccer practice on most weekdays, sometimes not getting home until 10 p.m. It’s an exhausting process, but the two agree that it’s been well worth it.
“I’ve always played basketball growing up, and it’s something that I could never leave, especially going to college and this being my last year,” Sims said. “I couldn’t leave my friends. I knew I had one more good year left. We go from school to basketball, straight to soccer. We get home at 10 p.m. and start our routine again at 7 a.m.”
Draham, who scored 71 career goals, believes the routine prepares her for the hefty workload she’ll be balancing when she gets to Purdue University in Indiana this summer.
“It kind of helps my defense in soccer. Also, it’s not soccer, so it’s just fun for me to play with Madi and all my friends,” Draham said of her reasoning to play basketball. “Sometimes my practices for basketball are at 4 p.m., and my practices for soccer are at 5 p.m., so it’s definitely a lot, and I have to go to the gym, too, after school. It’s definitely a workload, but I have to get ready for that in college, too.”
Tinkham said he couldn’t be more pleased that Sims and Draham are playing basketball, and recognizes the heart and grit they bring to the program.
“I’m extremely appreciative of these girls. Their number one sport is soccer. I knew that coming in. I am so thankful that they decided to come out and play basketball for me,” Tinkham said. “It means a lot to me, and I think they know that. The program that (soccer) coach (Jimmy) Kay has out there with these girls, they’re gritty. The fact that some of them decided to join me, I knew I was going to get that grit on the basketball court, and that was important to me.”
Sterling currently owns the No. 11 seed in the South Jersey Group 2 power points playoff standings, with the cutoff approaching on Saturday. If the season ended today, the Silver Knights would travel to No. 6 West Deptford in the opening round of the tournament. As Colonial-Liberty divisional rivals, the two already played twice this winter, with Sterling winning a 42-35 matchup on Dec. 18 and the Eagles earning a 40-30 triumph on Jan. 20.
Tinkham said he’s is ready to rebuild the program into the consistent playoff power it once was — but don’t count the Silver Knights out for the time being.
“I have seen improvement. I haven’t seen it on the scale where it’s drastic. I’ve seen these incremental improvements, and I don’t necessarily know if we’ve played our best yet,” Tinkham said. “We’re senior-heavy, and we’re building for the future. This isn’t going to be a quick turnaround, but I’m here to build this thing back up again.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Sterling has two more regular-season games remaining, on Tuesday at Haddon Township at 5:30 p.m. and Friday at home vs. Moorestown Friends at 4 p.m.
