Changing colors: Matt Ramponi switches sides in Quincy city basketball rivalry

QUINCY − First of all, Michelle Ramponi is doing much better. Everything follows from that.

"She's definitely surpassed all expectations," her husband, Matt, said. "You can't really ask for anything more right now. She still has a ways to go but she's doing unbelievable. Everything looks like it's going to be good, in due time."

Back in October, Michelle Ramponi, a teacher at Montclair Elementary School in Quincy, suffered a medical emergency.

"Out of nowhere at 33 years old she went into cardiac arrest," Matt recalled. "It was very touch-and-go for the first couple of days, but she was so healthy prior to that, which (helped). She recovered much quicker than they anticipated. Everything looks like it's going to be good."

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Michelle's condition forced Matt Ramponi to suspend his burgeoning head-coaching career on the eve of what was supposed to be his second season running the North Quincy High girls basketball program. His first campaign with the Raiders had been a stunning success. With star sophomore guard Orlagh Gormley bursting onto the scene, NQ went 24-1 in 2021-22, losing only to Norwood in a battle of unbeatens in the Division 2 Elite Eight.

Ramponi, who had been named interim coach on the eve of that season after Paul Bregoli was forced to step away, got the interim tag removed in the spring of '22. He never got to build on that first season, though, as he stepped away for the entire 2022-23 campaign, turning the reins over to assistant Stephanie Geehan. With Gormley transferring to prep school, the Raiders finished 5-16 last season and missed the playoffs.

Now, with his wife on the mend and their daughter, Ava, turning 3 in July, Ramponi is ready to prowl the sidelines again in 2023-24. Only now he'll do it as the head coach of the Quincy High boys team.

The switch, which was announced May 5, returns Ramponi to a program he knows well. A former captain for the Presidents, Ramponi comes from a long line of QHS grads, including his grandfather, Peter, who won a 1951 state title with the Presidents, and his dad, Pete.

Ramponi, 38, also served 10-plus years on the Presidents' staff as an assistant under coach Dave Parry, whom he is replacing now.

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"It's kind of a pretty neat story, to be honest," said Ramponi, who is a dean of students at QHS. "My grandparents on both sides graduated from Quincy High School, my parents graduated from Quincy High School, all my aunts and uncles. My older brothers (Steven and Michael) graduated from Quincy High School. One of my grandmothers (Ena Disalvio) was an aide there for over 20 years. My bloodline (there) runs very deep. That's been ingrained in me since I was a little kid.

"Everybody has dreams and aspirations in their life and (being the head coach at Quincy High) was certainly mine. When this opportunity came about, I had to jump all over it. This was the job I had always dreamed of and wanted. It's where my family is, it's where my heart is."

Ramponi joked that his relatives might be breathing a sigh of relief now that he's switched allegiances.

"My whole family wore the red and black (North Quincy colors) for the last two years, which wasn't easy for some of them," he said.

Still, severing the NQ ties wasn't easy.

"I went and talked to the junior girls and I left there in tears," he said of explaining to the Raiders that he wouldn't be coming back. "That group of girls, they're potentially going to be going on their fourth coach in four years. We had a magical run two years ago that came out of nowhere. They were with me when my wife was sick and they provided so much for me and my family. I'll never forget them and I'll do anything for them.

"Obviously, the emotion part of it is tough. It was really hard to make that decision because of them. They're just such a special group of kids and I know they're going to do amazing next season but also in life."

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Although Ramponi wasn't in the gym last winter, he did keep in close contact with the team − a therapeutic outlet for him that he said "provided me with an escape when I needed to get my brain elsewhere."

As for his new gig, Ramponi inherits a Quincy boys team that hit rock bottom last season. The Presidents finished 1-19, forfeiting their final two games after a locker-room fight left two students with injuries. One of the students was on the varsity basketball team at the time, the other had left the team a few months before. Citing "violations of the athletics code of conduct," Superintendent Kevin Mulvey pulled the plug early.

Ramponi called the situation "messy, for sure," but said he's been encouraged by the way the Presidents have responded to him so far.

"It was a rough year (for them)," he said, "but these kids have been great the one week since this has been announced. They're working out in the mornings, we have night workouts, we have the summer league starting in three weeks at Braintree High. We're hitting the ground running."

Ramponi has at least one building block in rising senior Danny Adams, a Patriot Ledger/Enterprise All-Scholastic who averaged 18.6 points a game last season.

"He's a phenomenal kid," Ramponi said. "He's the first kid who, after it was announced, came right to my office and we hit it off. He understands that I'm going to be tough on all of them, but especially him because he's a certain talent that you don't see too often. He's got the ability that's needed (here), for sure. But the biggest thing about him is that he's hungry. He's going to be there tomorrow at 6:45 in the morning before school starts, getting shots up and working out. Those types of kids are few and far between. He's a leader and I'm excited to have the opportunity to coach him."

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Ramponi's list of mentors is long and includes Parry; famed AAU coach/former NBA executive Leo Papile, a Quincy guy; legendary coach Bob Fisher (formerly of Quincy and Rockland, now at Marshfield); and ex-Quincy coach Joe Amorosino Sr.

Ramponi coached under all of them. He was an assistant in Papile's Boston Amateur Basketball Club program; he volunteered on Fisher's QHS staff while he was enrolled at Curry College; and he helped Amorosino at the Dave Cowens Celtics Academy youth camps over the summer.

As decorated as all of those icons are, though, No. 1 on Ramponi's list of mentors is his dad, who still lives in Quincy and is expected to be a regular in the Quincy High gym this season watching his son carry on the family tradition.

"It gives me chills to think about it," Ramponi said of coaching his old program in front of his father, who was his youth coach growing up. "That was a goal of mine as a kid. To have this opportunity for him to be able to see me on the sidelines coaching, it's a very heart-warming story.

"For 10 years I'm doing all the scouting and driving all over Eastern Mass. (as an assistant). A lot of coaches only do that for a year or two, but I never complained, I never stopped. To see it come to fruition, especially with the year I just had with my wife, it definitely proves that if you really want it and you keep working at it, good things will happen. You can't quit."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Ex-North Quincy girls basketball coach takes over Quincy boys program