In 2007, Meredith Ward was the Gatorade Rhode Island Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year, competing for Westerly High School where she is the all-time leading scorer with 2,226 points.

Ward’s coach at Westerly was Holly Misto.

On Friday, Ward and Misto will meet for the first time as head coaches when New London’s girls’ team plays at Fitch beginning at 7 p.m. Misto is in her first year as the head coach at New London after nine seasons at Westerly, while Ward is in her first season at Fitch.

“It’s going to be interesting,” Misto said after Tuesday night’s 62-38 victory at Waterford. “(Ward is) doing well down there. We still communicate all the time.

“She has tremendous knowledge of the game and she loves working with the kids.”

The two programs are in different places.

New London (16-2) is the defending Class M champion and ranked ninth in the New Haven Register Top 10 poll. Fitch (7-10) needs one more victory to qualify for the Eastern Connecticut Conference and Class L state tournaments.

But that won’t stop two competitive people from wanting to, well, compete.

Ward, who went on to play at Holy Cross, said, in fact, that’s what makes Misto such a good coach.

“I think her attention to detail, her fire and desire to win is just so apparent it carries down to everybody else,” Ward said.

“... We’re both very competitive. We both want to win no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what the skill level is. It will be funny, it will be fun, but it will be a challenge. We’re there to do our job.”

Misto (1983) and Ward (2007) are both Westerly High graduates.

Misto also brought another Westerly mainstay with her to New London in Tucker Terranova, a member of the Westerly Athletic Hall of Fame and Misto’s junior varsity coach.

Ward, meanwhile, says she’s seen improvement in the program at Fitch, helped by the support from athletic director Marc Romano all the way down to the leadership of Falcons’ captain Jackie Lewis. Fitch was 4-16 last season.

“We’re starting to play together, but it’s not going to happen in one season, it’s not going to happen in two days, it’s not going to happen in 17 games,” said Ward, adding the Falcons will hold a camp this year to reach the town’s younger athletes.

“From day one to now, I definitely see improvement.”