Ashley Cornwall never lost her love for the game of basketball.
Now, she’s ready to pass that passion along to a new generation of players.
After starring across town at Sacred Heart High School over a decade ago (she was Ashley Durham then), Ashley Cornwall was named the new head girls’ basketball coach at Vineland High School last week, when the school board approved her for the position.
“I’m very excited for this opportunity, I can’t wait to get started,” Cornwall said. “It’s a lot about basketball, but it’s also about helping these young ladies in life, helping them get through the difficult times, installing discipline and providing skills that can help them in the future.”
One of the top basketball players to hail from Cumberland County, Cornwall replaces Will Breese, who led the program to 100 wins over his 12 seasons at the helm. The Fighting Clan went 3-18 last winter.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Coach Cornwall become part of the Vineland family,” Vineland’s first-year athletic director Sylvester Cifaloglio said. “She’s such a positive role model for these student-athletes.”
A Millville native and Vineland resident, Cornwall works as a detective in the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office.
She’s made a big impression on another court, too.
She was Sacred Heart’s all-time leading scorer with 2,201 points when she graduated in 2009. She later was a 1,000-point scorer at Canisius University in Buffalo.
In February, Cornwell was inducted into the Albert Carino South Jersey Basketball Hall of Fame.
Cornwall has head coaching experience, leading the Cumberland County College women’s basketball team during the 2017-18 season. Last winter, she was an assistant coach at Wildwood Catholic under Steve DiPatri.
“I’m really excited for her and look forward to seeing what she does with the Vineland program,” said DiPatri, who coached Cornwall when she played at Sacred Heart. “As a coach, you want to see your teams do well, but you’re also working with kids and preparing them for their futures. You watch these kids grow into adults and when they give back, in whatever way that may be, it’s really a special reward for a coach.”
Cornwall fondly remembers her playing days at Sacred Heart, when the Jim Mogan Auditorium inside the school on North East Avenue in Vineland was the place to be during the winter months.
“That place was so special,” she said. “You always knew there was a big game inside because the windows would be fogged out and there were no seats available.”
Cornwall hopes to build the same type of spirit for the Vineland program. That begins with growing the number of athletes in the program with the goal of having a freshman team to go along with junior varsity and varsity squads.
She’s running a free basketball clinic at VHS for girls’ hoopers on July 22-24. Sixth-to-eighth graders will run from 8:30-10:30 a.m. with high schoolers in the second session from 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Registration can be found here and for more information email athletics@vineland.org.
Tom McGurk is a regional sports reporter for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and Burlington County Times, covering South Jersey sports for over 30 years. If you have a sports story that needs to be told, contact him at (856) 486-2420 or email tmcgurk@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @McGurkSports. Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.