Awards Under Coach Carissa Ratliff
- RMAC Honorable Mention, Victoria Perez, 2024-25
- RMAC Honorable Mention, Dasiya Jones, 2024-25
- RMAC Honorable Mention, Nicole Bowlin, 2024-25
Carissa Ratliff (formerly Verkaik) took over as the Interim Head Coach of CCU’s Women’s Basketball in October of the 2024–25 season. Prior to this season, she served as an assistant coach for the Cougars from 2018–2022 and spent six years overall in the Colorado Christian University athletic department, including two years assisting the track & field program.Â
Before beginning her coaching career, Ratliff was one of the most decorated NCAA Division III athletes of her era. A standout at Calvin University (MI), she is the program’s all-time leader in points (2,236) and blocked shots (440), and ranks second in career rebounds (1,071). She received NCAA DIII All-American honors all
four years of her career, was a four-time MIAA Most Valuable Player, and was named to the D3hoops.com All-Decade First Team for the 2010s.
Following her playing career, Ratliff taught middle school math and Bible and began coaching basketball and track and field at the high school level and later transitioned to collegiate coaching in 2016–17. While coaching at Colorado Christian, she pursued and earned her Master’s degree in Sport and Ex
ercise Science from the University of Northern Colorado in 2019, with an emphasis in the Social Psychology of Sport.
During her coaching career she has had 10 players receive RMAC All-Conference recognition and has helped hold the WBB program to high standards in the classroom including with this past year's team achieving a GPA average of 3.7.Â
Ratliff is married to her loving and supportive husband, Levi Ratliff, and they were blessed to become parents this past spring to their beautiful little girl.Â
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