Published: May 18, 2016 - A1
Rick Riehl enters the West Bend Wall of Fame
An honorable man
Daily News
Nearly seven months have passed since beloved coach and teacher Rick Riehl died of a rare brain disease.
His widow, Donna, admits things have been hard, but, “I’ve made tremendous progress.”
Tonight is another chance for reflection for family and friends during
the annual West Bend high schools senior student-athlete awards
ceremony.
During the ceremony, he will be inducted onto the West Bend Athletics Wall of Fame.
Jennifer Sell (East, Class of 1982) will also be inducted, but will be recognized during homecoming in the fall.
Rick died Nov. 29 after a brief battle with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. He was 67.
“I think it would’ve meant everything to him,” said Donna, his wife
of 44 years. “He needed to know and wanted to know that he did make a
difference in people’s lives.”
His daughter, Tara, will accept the honor on her late father’s behalf.
“There’s a lot of mixed feelings,” she said. “It’s something he wanted
for as long as I could remember. Him not being there to receive the
honor is hard. I’m proud and sad, a lot of things at once.”
Another honor awaits Rick in September when he is inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
While honored their beloved husband and father is getting the
recognition they’ve long known he deserved, their only regret is it is
all happening without him to enjoy it.
Tara tried to get that done. Unfortunately, time came up short. Rick died about two months after his diagnosis.
“I would love to have seen the pleasure he would’ve gotten,” Donna said. “He will be receiving it. He’ll be looking down.”
And Donna knows what kind of speech her husband would’ve had lined up.
“There would’ve been humor, but also giving credit to all the people who supported him,” she said.
“I was in awe of him and appreciated him every day of our married
life in that I allowed him to pursue that passion,” Donna added. “It
took a lot of time and energy from us and our family. I knew that was
his passion. But I wanted to help him pursue it.”
It’s moments like these that make it harder on the Riehl family.
“It does re-open those wounds,” Tara said.
Like her mom, it’s been an up-anddown battle with emotions since Rick’s passing.
“It’ll be better for a while, then it’s hard unexpectedly,” Tara said.
“You think you’re out of the woods then you’re crying for three days
straight.”
Rick’s
efforts changed girls basketball in West Bend and throughout Wisconsin.
In 1984, he led East to the city’s first state basketball championship.
“I was told that we would not have the success because it was West
Bend and West Bend doesn’t succeed in basketball,” Rick told the Daily
News in March 2014 — the 30th anniversary of the championship. “You
remember those kinds of things. I wrote that one down.
“We had no business winning a state championship without all sorts of things falling into place.”
In the state quarterfinal, the Suns played Merrill. During warmups,
one of Merrill’s top players tripped over a basketball and sprained her
ankle.
In the state semifinal against Oak Creek, the Suns trailed by 13 points with six minutes to go, but scored the next 14 to win.
In the championship game, the Suns almost booted it away. This time,
they were the ones up by double digits late against Brookfield East.
“We gave up all but one point of it away, but we hung on to win,” Rick
said in 2014. “I remember every minute of all three of those games
because they were one-possession games.”
Thirty years later, it remains the only basketball championship — boys or girls — in West Bend history.
“He was really proud,” Tara said.
Riehl led the Suns to a 178-101 mark in 13 seasons as the girls
basketball coach. He also coached football, baseball and softball at
East. In all, he won 334 games with five conference and 10 regional
championships amongst all the sports he coached.
He was also a teacher for more than 30 years.
One of his greatest contributions to Wisconsin sports was starting the Wisconsin Coaches Scouting Service in 1983, a basketball camp for boys and girls.
In a 1984 West Bend News article, he said he was “immensely frustrated” at the lack of scholarship opportunities for girls.
Thirty years later, more than 500 former and current Division I girls
basketball players have participated in WCSS sessions and received a
scholarship.
“He
would’ve been really humble,” Tara said when asked what she thought her
father would’ve said or done if he could’ve accepted the award. “He
would’ve cracked jokes.”
“It is a great honor for him,” Donna said. “We’re excited that he will be honored.”
Reach sports editor Nicholas Dettmann at ndettmann@conleynet.com.
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