Royal Palm Beach High School has made a coaching change in its girls basketball program. According to RPBHS Athletic Director Eric Patterson, Willie Richardson will be replacing Ivana Soberal as the head coach of the girls varsity basketball team.
“We look forward to coach Richardson growing our girls basketball program and building on the progress and success the girls team has achieved this past season,” Patterson said.
Richardson has been an assistant coach with the team for the past three years, and he has previously coached as an assistant coach for varsity girls basketball at John I. Leonard High School in Greenacres.
“Coach Richardson has built a great relationship with our players on the team, and we look forward to him continuing to build those relationships as he builds the Wildcats into a competitive program in Palm Beach County,” Patterson added.
This past season’s girls basketball team at RPBHS did the best they could with limited numbers.
“This past season, we definitely exceeded our own expectations, playing all season with only seven girls,” Patterson said. “This upcoming season, we will have four girls returning.”
Patterson is curious to find out how many incoming freshmen will walk-on the team for the 2022-23 season.
“I’ve already reached out to our local middle schools to see what we have coming in next season,” Richardson said. “There is a lot of groundwork needing to be done, and it may take some time, but with our two seniors — Mariya Mathieu and Briana Civil — they will take us as far as we will go this [next] season.”
Richardson is already thinking about what roles each returning player will assume next year.
“All of our girls know which role they play for our team already,” he said. “Each one will come in working on their craft — whether it’s rebounding, shooting or communicating with their teammates. They know where they fit on the team.”
Richardson will take advantage of the summer break to get his team in physical shape to play a full varsity schedule.
“I will, of course, have summer workouts — both team and individual skill development workouts,” Richardson said. “I also plan to have the girls play in a few summer tournaments to prepare us for the season.”
