Sharon Rissmiller enters her eighth season as head women’s basketball coach and continues the quest of building the Boxers into Northwest Conference contenders.
Over her first seven seasons, Rissmiller has succeeded in bringing in talented players to Forest Grove as the program continues to build. The Boxers finished the 2014-15 season 8-16, following two consecutive winning seasons including a the 2012-13 campaign where the Boxers finished with a 14-10 record.
The program had its high water mark with Rissmiller in 2008-2009 when the Boxers finished with 11 wins and third place finish in the Northwest Conference standings. In the process, the Boxers also earned their first appearance in the conference’s postseason tournament since 1996.
Since arriving at Pacific in 2007, Rissmiller has coached six All-Northwest Conference players, including a pair of two-time picks in Rochelle Reeves-Howe and Julianne Erbe.
Rissmiller came to Forest Grove after engineering a tremendous turnaround in her three years as head coach at Tacoma (Wash.) Community College. During her tenure, the Titans went from a 1-19 record in her first year to an 18-11 mark during the 2006-07 season, finishing third in the NWAACC’s West Region and earning a spot in the NWAACC Playoff Tournament. Rissmiller had two of her players this season selected to the NWAACC All-West Region Team.
In addition to her coaching duties at Tacoma Community College, Rissmiller served as an academic advisor to the college’s health professions programs.
Prior to her stint in Tacoma, Rissmiller spent one season as the head women’s basketball coach at Clark College in Vancouver, Wash., and one season as the head junior varsity coach at Beaverton’s Sunset High School. She also spent one season coaching Team Concept, a northwest AAU program, and coached a team of WNBA and overseas professionals on an east coast tour during the fall of 2001.
A talented Division I player, Rissmiller played four years for Jim Sollars at the University of Portland. She is one of 17 Pilots to have scored 1,000 points or more and averaged 9.4 points per game over the course of her career. Rissmiller was a First Team All-West Coast Conference selection in 2001 and was named the Pilots’ Most Valuable Player after averaging 13.6 points per game. She was an Honorable Mention All-WCC selection in 2000 after averaging 14.9 points per game.
A native of Tigard, Rissmiller was a four-year starter at Tigard High School, where she graduated with the school’s career scoring record and led the Tigers to a fourth place state tournament finish. She was named to the 4A All-State Team as a senior and was the Metro League Player of the Year her junior and senior seasons.
Rissmiller, 32, graduated from Portland in 2001 with a degree in organizational communication.
