Central Community College Holds "Meet the Raiders" Night

COLUMBUS - Monday night gave the Columbus community the opportunity to meet this year's Central Community College men's and women's basketball teams.

The event was also a chance for new men's head coach John Ritzdorf to participate in his major event since staring with the Raiders. As Ritzdorf prepares to enter his first season as CCC's head coach, he says the job was a dream opportunity to be a head coach close to home.

"At a young age, the chance to be a head coach, especially close to home since I'm from York, it's not a thing that a lot of coaches get the chance to do," Ritzdorf said. "That drew me here, along with the support and the facilities, the structure is here to have a winning program."

The Raiders finished the 2018-19 season at 10-17, and fell to Southeast Community College in the 2019 Region IX Championship. Ritzdorf says this year's team is a mix of holdovers from last year and new recruits he has brought in, and that the team is still in the process of figuring each other out.

"I inherited some talented players, the best returning players from last year's team came back, so that's exciting," Ritzdorf said. "I was able to bring in a few guys of my own, and we're gelling right now, they're trying to get to know each other, trying to get to know me, and it's been a really fun process."

As Ritzdorf prepares to embark on his first full season with the Raiders, he says the goal is to play an up-tempo style, and to play in a way that makes fans want to come back and support Central all season long.

"We want to play an exciting style of basketball, we share the ball and preach playing hard," Ritzdorf said. "I hope that our fans see that, and I hope we can get some more of them throughout the year."

Monday's event also featured a celebrity all-star game, and plenty of giveaways for those in attendance. Donations were accepted as well, with the money collected going towards the Raider basketball programs.