With every milestone in her coaching career, Ryenn Micaletti would pick up her phone and dial the same number.
Then she couldn’t.
Micaletti was named Monday as head coach of the Slippery Rock University women’s basketball program.
The 2007 New Castle graduate, who played collegiately in the same Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference at Seton Hill as her new team, officially replaces former acting head coach Chenara Wilson as the 17th women’s head coach in Slippery Rock history.
Wilson stepped in before the 2022-23 season for former Slippery Rock coach Bobby McGraw, who died unexpectedly in July at the age of 50, and whom Micaletti said she first met during her college recruiting process as a teenager.
“His former brother-in-law was the assistant coach who recruited me to Seton Hill,” recalled Micaletti of her initial connection to McGraw. “When Tony Grenek, his brother-in-law, came to watch me play, he brought Bobby with him. Bobby, after the game, actually introduced me and Grenek. The rest is history from there.
“He was a part of my recruitment,” she added, “and then he was always around our games and practices at Seton Hill.”
The pair developed a bond that spanned Micaletti’s four years at Seton Hill, her first job as an assistant coach at NAIA Point Park in 2011, her time serving as an assistant at Slippery Rock under McGraw from 2014-16 and her latest job as associate head coach at Division I Saint Louis University.
“He watched me grow up and then encouraged me to pursue my dreams, which later on led to my coaching career,” Micaletti said of McGraw. “With every job that I’ve had thus far, he was the person that I called. When I was going to Saint Louis, I called him and said like, ‘Guess what’ and kind of told him, ‘My next stop is Saint Louis.’
“It was the same thing everywhere that I’ve been,” she added. “He was the call that I made. He would check on me throughout the seasons and just ‘Rye, what’s going on,’ and ‘When are you coming home’ and things like that. He also made his way to some of the games and the championships and NCAA tournaments that I had the pleasure of coaching in. He was there. He traveled.”
Now it’s Micaletti’s turn to take over the program McGraw led for eight seasons, beginning in 2014.
“It’s unbelievable, really,” she said. “I don’t even know if I can find the right words to describe how it feels now.”
Micaletti brings seven seasons of Division I coaching experience to Slippery Rock. Her first Division I job came as an assistant at the U.S. Naval Academy from 2016-20, before she served as associate head coach at Longwood University from 2020-22 and Saint Louis as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator for the past year.
“I am absolutely convinced we have hired the right person to bring a championship culture to Slippery Rock University women’s basketball,” said Roberta Page, the university’s athletic director, in a statement announcing Micaletti’s hire. “I am excited about the energy and experience Ryenn brings. Her passion and enthusiasm for helping young women develop on and off the court and her extensive coaching success made her an ideal candidate to lead our program into the future.”
Add Saint Louis head coach Rebecca Tillett as another believer in Micaletti.
Tillett, who coached with Micaletti at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for the 2013-14 season, brought her protege to each of their Division I positions.
The pair helped lead Navy to consecutive Patriot League championships and WNIT berths, an NCAA tournament victory and Big South Conference title at Longwood and Saint Louis’ first Atlantic 10 crown and NCAA tournament bid in program history this past winter.
“I think her greatest gifts are her ability to connect with young people and help them maintain positivity in the face of adversity, which, let’s be honest, college is filled with great times and also challenging times,” Tillett said.
“She’s really well prepared for this opportunity.”
Tillett said Micaletti’s experience with coaching and playing in the PSAC should pay dividends immediately.
“I think she’s really familiar with the league,” Tillett said. “Then I think the success she’s had both at Navy, at Longwood and here, I think all of those are really translatable skills.”
Slippery Rock finished the 2022-23 season with a 15-13 overall record and a 10-12 mark in PSAC play, which was good for a seventh-place finish in the conference.
Redshirt sophomore guard Isabellah Middleton led Slippery Rock with 17.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per game this season, while graduating redshirt seniors guard Deleah Gibson added 17 points per game and forward Kennedy Middleton scored 12.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per outing.
Micaletti said she isn’t sure yet how her roster will come together in her first campaign at Slippery Rock, but she’s excited to begin the process with her first group of players.
“My goal is to have a team that can play with pace, and I do like to share the ball, so assists mean a lot to me,” Micaletti said. “I want our team to play harder than any other team. I want people being able to walk away and they’re like, ‘Geez, those Rock women they really play hard.’
“I want each team, each opponent we play against, to know that The Rock was there. The Rock was in the building. Hopefully that results in some Ws in the win column.”
Like her roster, Micaletti is still building her coaching staff. She said several of her assistant coaching positions remain up in the air.
Wilson is scheduled to return next season, the university said in its statement.
Micaletti said in addition to restoring Slippery Rock’s on-court prowess, she is focusing on rebuilding the program’s relationship with its alumni base in conjunction with a strong female athletic director in Page.
“The amount of gratitude and just blessings that I feel right now, I’ve been trying to really stay present in this moment because this has been a dream for me for so long,” Micaletti said. “I’m really trying to sit here and enjoy it.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.