Montclair Welcomes Back Alum
To Coach Girls Basketball Team

MONTCLAIR- Alisa Wiggins was quite the all-around athlete at Montclair during her stellar playing days, including in the fall as a key member of the Mounties’ successful girls soccer team and in the winter as a top guard and 1,000-point career scorer for the school’s girls hoops squad which helped catapult her to a Division I women’s college basketball career.

And, when she could find the time, she also spent time in another athletic-oriented activity at her mom’s long-standing dance studio in town.

Now, the accomplished athlete and young coach-on-the-rise, is the new Montclair High School girls basketball coach, moving her in-season work the past two years guiding the Group 1 program at BelovED Charter in Jersey City to now directing the Mounties girls hoops program that she was such a huge part of as a successful player less than a decade ago.

The 26-year-old Wiggins, who played collegiately at both Kansas State (for three seasons) and then the University of Northern Colorado, takes the reins of a Montclair program which has had three straight winning season while playing in the Super Essex Conference’s third division, the Colonial, and has had its share of solid seasons through the years, highlighted by three Essex County Tournament runner-up finishers in 2012 and also in 2014 and 2015 when she was a big part of the program then headed by Coach Bianca Brown and then Paul Palek during her senior year.

Ed Connell resigned from the poste this past spring after guiding the Mountie girls’ hoops squad for the past five seasons.

“I’m super excited to be back in the town and at the school where it all started for me,” said Wiggins. “I will work toward restoring the tradition of girls basketball at Montclair High School, while always looking to build connections with our players,” said Wiggins. “My goals heading into the fall include urging the girls to get into the gym as much as they are able in order to get ready for the start of official team practice in November as we then get very busy in preparing for the season ahead.

A 2017 Montclair graduate, Wiggins averaged 18 points per game during her senior high school season. As a freshman she was a member of the varsity squad that finished 20-7 overall, reaching the ECT championship game vs. Shabazz and also a berth in the North 1, Group 4 state sectional final where the Mounties were edged by Paterson Eastside, 44-43.

She was also a member of the Mounties’ first and still only overall Group 4 state championship girls soccer team in 2014 directed by present head coach Rob McOmish who returned to guide the program this fall after a few seasons working at the college level.

She helped raise the level of play during her two seasons coaching the BelovEd Charter Owls as the team went from a 8-15 record her first season at the helm to finishing a solid 16-8 overall this past season, including a perfect 8-0 mark in the Patriot Division of the Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic League (HCIAL).

For her efforts, Wiggins was named the 2024-2025 HCIAL Coach of the Year. BelovEd Charter won a first-round game in the NJSIAA North 2, Group 1 state tournament, defeating Bard, 42-29, before seeing its season end with a setback to perennial state sectional title contender University in the N2G1 quarterfinals.

Wiggins has also spent time as an AAU coach, including most recently with United while directing the successful travel program’s 17-U national team.
She had also coached previously with the Peak Academy AAU program.

Her winter season will be fully devoted to raising the stature and success of the Montclair program and the school where she made a name for herself as a scholastic athlete is thrilled to have her return to the Essex County school.

“I’m excited to welcome back Coach Alisa Wiggins to Montclair High School where she was a state champion as a soccer star and a great basketball player,” said Montclair Athletic Director Matt Belford. “She is a record holder in various categories for the Mounties basketball program and is ready to lead our program to new heights.

“What I’m most excited about is her vision about building the program and developing a connection between the community youth programs and the high school in order to build for the future and help us to one day be a perennial championship program.”

NOTES- Among Wiggins’ mentors are her former Montclair coach Bianca Brown and former, fellow Peak Academy coach Tamika Dixon, who is the ex-University of Kansas star and former WNBA women’s professional basketball player, who is now the head girls hoops coach at her alma mater, Linden High School…She spent three years at Kansas State and then finished up her collegiate career at Northern Colorado located in the town of Greeley…Wiggins’ mom, Shirlese McKinley, has directed the Premier Dance Theater at 180 Bloomfield Ave. in Montclair for the past 34 years…Her older brothers Jordan (Cheyney State University) and James Wiggins (Centenary College) both played basketball for Montclair High before also playing at the college level....the 1994-95 Mounties girls basketball team coached by Jerry Citro advanced to the program's first and still only overall Group 4 final before losing to Absegami in the championship game played at Toms River North High School. That terrific Mounties team included standout players including Bianca Brown's younger sister Rayna and current West Orange head girls basketball coach Caniece Montague Williams in the Mounties' backcourt.