From being a nationally ranked high school player at powerhouse St. John Vianney, to two stellar seasons of college basketball, Ashley Sofilkanich is on to her next step in her basketball career by entering the high-major level of women’s basketball.
The 6-foot-3 big originally from South Amboy spent the last two years playing at Bucknell, where she was the Patriot League Player of the Year this past season. She will transfer and play her junior year at Michigan in the Big Ten Conference.
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“I’m definitely really excited,” Sofilkanich said. “Ever since I was little and watching college basketball on TV, it’s always been a dream of mine to play at the higher level and after the two years I had at Bucknell I was so grateful for, I’m kind of able to achieve that dream and play at that level.”
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The past two years at Bucknell were nothing short of spectacular. In her freshman year, she played in all 31 games and averaged 12.5 points and 6.3 boards. Those numbers got her Third Team All-Patriot League, All-Defensive Team, All-Rookie Team and she was Rookie of the Week five times.
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This past season is when she went from a role player to a star. She led the league in scoring with 19.6 points per game. She was third in rebounding with 8.5 per game and led in blocks per game with 2.3. It was the first time the Bisons finished the season with a winning record in the Patriot League since 2021-22.
Holy Cross’ Cara McCormack drives to the hoop on Bucknell’s Emma Theodorsson and Ashley Sofilkanich, right.
The Bisons ended their season with a semifinals loss to Army in the league tournament; Sofilkanich had 13 in that game. Though the season didn’t end how she may have hoped, the impressive jump in her sophomore year garnered attention. She said it all started with the work put in in the offseason.
“Some people talk about a sophomore slump when you have a really good freshman year,” she said. “I took that into account, I worked really hard especially with my position coach and just individual things and working in the weight room because coming into college…I wasn’t in control of my body. Going into this year I didn’t think it would happen, but I’m really glad it did.”
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She dropped a career-high 44 points against Colgate back in January, and it was then that she started to see the trajectory her career was heading. The weekend after the season ended is when she began to talk to her family about possible landing spots. She also made it a point to keep the recruiting process tight-knit. When asked why she chose Michigan, she said her values lied in things that carried on and off the basketball court.
“I wanted a good academic institution, which is what I found in Michigan,” she said. “I’m a political science major and they have the No. 4 political science program in the country. I really wanted that coupled with great basketball and Michigan has that.
“Great facilities, and like their team, their coaching staff, just great culture, great people, to be honest since I was younger I’ve always been a bit of a Michigan fan.”
‘Competitive’ household helped Ashley get to this point
Before college, Ashley played in Holmdel at Shore Conference powerhouse St. John Vianney. She was ranked ESPN No. 13 in the country, won three state championships, including multiple Shore Conference Tournament crowns and a Tournament of Champions. She currently has a younger sister, Taylor, who’s at SJV and ranked No. 38 in the country and an incoming senior. She has a younger sister Brooke who also plays basketball.
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The Sofilkanich family household is full of athletes that compete from an early age, which may explain the high level of play from all of them.
“It’s definitely competitive,” Ashley said on the family dynamic. “My mom doesn’t come out in the driveway and play anymore, but my dad will come out and play us sometimes and it’s still extremely competitive. Even me and Taylor, I’ll ask her to play against me, sometimes she’ll refuse, but my younger sister will play 1 on 1.”
SJV Ashley Sofilkanich drives to the basket. St. John Vianney Girls basketball fefeats Red Bank Catholic 58-52 in Shore Conference Final in West Long Branch on February 19, 2023
Aside from basketball, Ashley is a sports fanatic. She was one of the top players in the country in high school in volleyball. And her parents, JoEllen and Don Sofilkanich were athletes, too; JoEllen was a basketball 1,000-point scorer at the now-closed Cardinal McCarrick High School. Ashley’s grandfather, the late Edmund Paczkowski, played on the Monmouth College basketball team in the late 1950s.
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“I can’t imagine my life without sports,” she said. “I just feel like I grew up around it. My dad was a football coach and then he helped out coaching basketball. And I think even my mom helped us in basketball when we were younger and so did my aunt. I played softball when I was younger, I was on the swim team, I played volleyball when I was younger, I played soccer, all this stuff. We were always doing sports.”
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: College basketball: Ashley Sofilkanich, former SJV star, to Michigan
