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Mooney names Wilson girls basketball coach
By Tom Williams
YOUNGSTOWN
When Erica Wilson was a student at Mount Union College, basketball almost escaped her future.
A Niles High School graduate, Wilson suffered a few injuries and pretty much gave up her dream of playing for the Purple Raiders.
Then in her junior year, Raiders head coach Jennifer Hedley saw her playing inter-mural basketball and asked why she wasn’t trying for more.
That question inspired Wilson to make the Mount Union women’s team for her senior year. When that season ended, Hedley encouraged Wilson to help her with various basketball camps. The result: a coach was born.
“I knew I wanted to teach, from the moment I arrived at Mount Union,” Wilson said. “The thought of coaching clicked when she saw that [potential] in me.”
Now with 12 years experience, Wilson, a physical education teacher at St. Christine’s School on the city’s West Side, is the new Cardinal Mooney High School girls varsity basketball head coach.
“I am by no means the perfect coach or teacher, there’s so much I still to learn,” Wilson said Thursday. “[But] I pride myself in being passionate about the game and teaching.”
She replaces Bill Ritter, who resigned in April after his third season at Mooney.
Wilson was head coach for two seasons at Niles High School from 2011-13 then joined Ritter’s staff as an assistant. “Erica brings not only experience to our staff but also familiarity with our expectations and goals,” Mooney principal John Young said. “She has taught physical education for four years at St. Christine’s School and demonstrated her regard for the values represented by our school system.”
Wilson attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Niles. She remembers how exciting it was to travel to Youngstown to play games at Mooney and Ursuline.
“It was a big deal,” Wilson said. “Everyone knows that Ursuline floor is forever long.”
As a Red Dragon, her favorite teacher was Larry Kempe, now the Ursuline High School head football coach.
“I know, Ursuline is Mooney’s biggest rival,” Wilson said. “He taught government and history — I was lucky enough to have him twice as a teacher.”
Kempe’s wife, Traci, was one of her coaches at Niles and stressed a philosophy of “don’t have any regrets.”
“I give that speech all the time and always give her credit,” Wilson said.
She said another Niles coach, Angela Simoni, “pushed me to get better. She gave me extra attention on my shot.”
Wilson’s journey to Mooney started in 2002 when she taught at St. Christine’s after graduating from Mount Union.
Eventually, she relocated to western New York where she taught and was an assistant coach for five seasons. Then after one year in Conway, S.C., she returned home.
Some of her students from 2002 are Mooney athletes. She still has their kindergarten photograph on her wall.
“I can tell the difference when some call me Coach Wilson and others say Miss Wilson,” she said.
Wilson said she’s learned from her first head coaching position to be more flexible.
One of her favorite moments from last season was when parents would ask her how she found a way to motivate their daughters.
“I pride myself on being able to reach students and athletes,” Wilson said.