VALERIE RITCHIE - Seattle, WA

Basketball - 1973-1977

Volleyball - 1973, 1977

Track and Field - 1973-1977

Valerie entered CSU, Chico as a freshman from Santa Clara High School in Oxnard, CA in the Fall of 1973. She was a physical education major and competed in basketball, volleyball, and track and field all four years at Chico.

As a basketball player, Val was highly skilled and very competitive. In her freshman season she set a Chico State record for rebounds in a single game with 17 against UN, Reno. The following season she broke that record with a game high of 22 rebounds on the road against Humboldt State. This single game rebound record still stands today. During her collegiate career, she also set records in season high rebounds, single game/season high points, season high field goals, and game/season high field goal percentage. Chico won the conference championship each of the four years that Valerie played. Unfortunately, there were no conference awards at that time, but she would surely have received recognition had they been available.

Valerie has been teaching and coaching at Seattle Preparatory School for the last 19 years. For 12 years she coached varsity volleyball and for 14 years she coached varsity basketball and the last year her team won the city championship and Val was named coach -of-the-year. In 1990 she did a teacher exchange to Australia.

Val continued her basketball playing in Seattle where she was a member of an AAU team. They won the AAU National Championship in 1981 and Val was named an AAU All American.

Currently, Val competes in triathlons and has earned 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishes in here age group this year. She plans to play basketball next year at this time at the World Masters Games in Melbourne, Australia. She also hopes to compete in a triathlon there.