The Wheelock College Department of Athletics has recently announced that Rita Atkinson has been named Head Women’s Basketball Coach.

Atkinson takes over the women’s basketball program after spending the 2015-16 season as an assistant coach under Coach Missy Traversi. Under their guidance, the Wildcats set a program record with 18 wins and a second place, regular season finish in the New England Collegiate Conference.

Prior to her arrival at Wheelock, the Hopkinton native most recently served as the Head Varsity Girls Basketball Coach at Hopkinton High School from 2007-2015. There, she was both a Boston Globe and MetroWest Coach of the Year.  Atkinson’s Hopkinton teams made consistent appearances in the MIAA semi and quarterfinals, eventually earning a MIAA South Sectional championship title.

Atkinson garnered more success as a head coach at Marian High School from 2000-2007. In this time frame, Rita was named Coach of the Year by the Boston Globe (2004) and the MetroWest newspaper (2006), on top of being named the Mass. Basketball Coaches Association Div. 4 South Coach of the Year (2006). Atkinson’s team was a South Sectional finalist during the 2003-2004 season, and two years later, her Marian squad earned the MIAA Division 4 state title for the 2005-2006 season.

Additionally, Rita adds eighteen years of high school and collegiate basketball experience leading programs at Holliston High School, the College of the Holy Cross, Boston University, Worcester State University and Clark University.

Coach Atkinson graduated from Providence College in 1982, where she was a four-year member of the women’s basketball and field hockey programs.  She currently resides with her family in Hopkinton, Mass.

http://www.wheelockwildcats.com/sports/wbkb/2016-17/releases/20160920oydrfp

Photo Courtesy Wheelock Athletics

Tagged with: DIII NECC