Loyola women’s basketball sophomore Kelly Ratigan recently chatted with PressBox about growing up around Notre Dame football, why she’s interested in assistive technology and more. The 5-foot-8 guard averaged 6.0 points and 2.7 rebounds for the Greyhounds in 2022-23. She shot 42.4 percent from 3-point range. Ratigan is a native of South Bend, Ind., and graduate of Saint Joseph High School.
Her father, Brian, played football for Notre Dame and the Indianapolis Colts.
PressBox: How did you first become interested in basketball?
Kelly Ratigan: I grew up with two older brothers, both super athletic kids, and I was involved in all kinds of sports when I was younger, but basketball was the one that stuck. It’s the most fast-paced. It’s the most team-oriented, I think, out of most sports. I’ve developed a really strong relationship with a good portion of all my teammates and all the teams that I’ve been on.
PB: Who was the biggest influence on your game growing up?
KR: I would say my dad. My dad played college football for Notre Dame and he also played for the Indianapolis Colts. His work ethic, his drive and his ability to make the game fun for me at pretty much every level have been why I have continued with basketball for so long.
PB: What is your first memory involving Notre Dame football?
KR: I was probably 5 or 6. I moved [to Indiana] in I think 2008. The first memory I have is tailgating with my brothers, going to see Touchdown Jesus and playing two-hand touch at Touchdown Jesus in front of the stadium outside of the game.
PB: Did you grow up going to games and alumni events?
KR: I pretty much grew up going to every single game that I could. When you’re young, you don’t want to sit in the cold, so I avoided the colder games in the fall. But as I got older, I tried to get to as many games as I could. My dad is the orthopedic surgeon for the football team now as well, so my family gets to travel with the team for all the bowl trips, which has been one of the many highlights of our experience — going to Florida, going to Texas, being with the team, being with the other staffs’ families. That has been probably my favorite part of Notre Dame football is traveling with the team.
PB: What was your senior year of high school like given how productive you were? (She averaged 24.1 points, 5.1 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game and broke the school’s scoring record.)
KR: Senior season is one of my favorite years of high school, for sure, if not my favorite year. I had unbelievable coach. His name is Scott Francoeur. He developed my game, my shot and my ball-handling, but my biggest step up was my confidence. He had everybody on the team backing me up. He had all the confidence in the world in me. The game just came really naturally to me at that time because I had grown up with these girls pretty much all my life. They trusted me. I trust them. I had a really core group of shooters around me, so when it came to facilitating, they made my job pretty easy. But obviously the scoring record was fun. My coach had a lot of confidence in me shooting the ball from the deep, which is kind of at the core of my game, which is the three-ball. I just really excelled using the three and finding a way to get my teammates open throughout the game, so they were productive and I could be productive in many other parts of the game as well.
PB: Why did you choose to go to Loyola?
KR: I’d say the girls and the coaches, just the whole community. I’ve never been a part of a family like it is here. My senior year and my high school team, we were close but not to any level that this is here. This truly is a family. I wake up every day excited to get after it with my teammates. The coaches have been nothing but supportive this entire time. We’re building something here. It’s really fun to see this family kind of grow and excel. To be able to meet girls from all around the country and extended overseas, too, it’s been unbelievable.
PB: Do you have a favorite memory from your freshman season?
KR: I would say the first round of the Patriot League tournament when we beat Lafayette. The energy in the locker room, that whole trip, that whole experience, being able to drive out to Boston the next day, it felt like we were in it. It wasn’t March Madness, obviously, but it felt like we were on the road to the March tournament. The energy was at an all-time high. Everybody’s confidence was up. That’s when we were playing our best basketball, by far.
PB: What’s your favorite thing about Loyola?
KR: I would say the girls on this team. They are my best friends, and of any basketball team that I’ve been on, I’ve been close with the girls but they haven’t been the people that I’ve usually hung out with and this group is. My roommates, they are my best friends. Lex Therien and Ally Lovisolo, they are my rocks here. I’d say the support system that I’m getting from them is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. … Ally Lovisolo, she was my roommate last year and we just developed a friendship because we lived together and we have really similar personalities. Lex, she just has this contagious energy that you can’t really escape. For some reason, we just have been sticking by each other this whole time. She’s become my rock here.
PB: What’s your favorite thing about Baltimore?
KR: The seafood. You don’t get that in Indiana.
PB: Who did you look up to as a freshman last year?
KR: Taleah Dixon, for sure. She had the confidence that I had in my senior year [of high school] to go out there, play every game like it’s your last and shoot with confidence. She made everybody feel like they were an important part of this team, and she did that all while putting up consistent numbers throughout the season. Her energy and her drive for this team was incredible to see.
PB: What advice would you give to younger players?
KR: Get in the gym as much as you can. Work on the things that you see a defender actually doing. I feel like a lot of the time when people get in the gym, they get form shots up, which is great, and they shoot. But actually envisioning a defender and knowing what play is most likely going to come instead of what is more fun to work on is what’s going to make you separate from any other player.
PB: What are your goals for after basketball, whenever it ends?
KR: I’m hoping to work in some kind of assistive technology, wherever that takes me. I’m hoping to stay on the East Coast, but if it takes me back to the Midwest, that’s OK with me, too. I’m hoping to work with disabled and those who are less fortunate in the mobility area.
PB: You mentioned your dad is an orthopedic surgeon. Is that how you became interested in this?
KR: No, actually. As funny as it is, I don’t do blood. That’s not my thing. I try to stay away from it as much as I can, but my best friend growing up, his name is KJ Anderson. He has cerebral palsy. Growing up with him for 18 years, I would just like to know a better way that I could help him, whether that’s coming up with a better wheelchair or a way that he could walk more efficiently, that’s what I want to do and help people like him.
Photo Credit: Larry French
Issue 283: October/November 2023
Originally published Oct. 18, 2023