Garret Risley in line to be the next M-S girls’ basketball head coach
By FRED KRONER
Garret Risley is in position to become Mahomet-Seymour’s second second-generation varsity head coach this century.
The 2012 M-S graduate is the choice of a search committee to fill the vacant girls’ basketball position, pending approval by the board of education at its Aug. 17 meeting.
When the upcoming school year gets under way, Risley will start his fourth year on the high school faculty as a special education mathematics teacher.
His father, Jim, is a long-time M-S teacher and coach and directed the girls’ track team to the Class 1A state championship in 1997.
The wheels were set in motion for Garret Risley’s career path at an early age.
“When Dad would have friends over, they were coaches,” Garret Risley said. “From listening to their conversations, it made me want to be a part of that.
“It definitely influenced me in that regard.”
Garret Risley, 26, has coached three sports during his tenure at M-S.
He was an assistant in football in 2017, worked with pole vaulters in track in 2018 and 2019 and was a four-year member of the boys’ basketball staff, where he coached the freshmen team.
Risley served as the freshmen boys’ head coach the past two seasons, compiling a cumulative record of 22-20, including a 14-7 mark last winter.
M-S athletic director Matt Hensley, who headed the four-person selection committee, said those years of being in charge of a program were significant.
“It was really important,” Hensley said. “Everyone on the committee had seen his work first-hand.
“Three of us (on the committee) are in the building and saw his daily journey as he interacts with students.”
Risley said he feels prepared to tackle varsity duties for a position which opened up when Nathan Seal resigned after 20 years to become athletic director and assistant principal at Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond.
“While I was an assistant, I was preparing myself to be ready,” Risley said. “If you wait until the opportunity presents itself, it’s too late.
“I’m very ready for the job. Anything I don’t know, I’ll figure it out.”
If approved, he will take over a program which is coming off an 18-14 season, but hasn’t had consecutive above-.500 seasons since he was in seventh- and eighth-grade (2007 and 2008).
While a student at M-S, Risley was a letterman in football, basketball and track and field. He was an all-conference second-team selection in football as a senior, the second-leading three-point shooter in basketball as a senior and an individual state-qualifier in track as a junior.
“The coaches I had in high school were my role models and people I wanted to be like,” Risley said. “Being coached by them was pretty special to me.”
Hensley said four individuals applied to be the M-S girls’ basketball head coach. Risley was the only in-district candidate.
Three of the applicants were interviewed last week.
The advantage Risley had was that, “he has been in the building for a few years, is a good classroom teacher and has a proven commitment to the kids,” Hensley said.
“Relationship-building is a strength.”
When the girls’ basketball season starts – at this time, practice is scheduled to begin on Nov. 2 – it will be with an entirely new coaching staff.
Both of the assistants on the 2019-20 team (Brian Kusnerick and ex-Bulldog Cindy Grammer Essex) resigned and moved out of the area.
“It will be a clean slate,” Risley said.
Hensley said one of the two paid girls’ basketball assistant positions has been filled – pending board approval – with an offer made to 2007 M-S graduate Cameron Zindars, who has been hired as a high school social studies teacher.
Zindars was the junior varsity girls’ basketball coach at Downs Tri-Valley for three seasons, but hasn’t coached the past two years.
Both Risley and Zindars earned their bachelor’s degrees from Illinois State University.
Though Risley has primarily coached boys – except for a few pole vaulters – he doesn’t anticipate a difficult transition.
“Athletes are athletes,” he said. “The way I coach, it will work just fine.
“I’ll coach athletes. Girls want to improve and be coached hard.”
His philosophy, he added, is “similar to what it is as an educator, to develop contributors to society. There are lots of ups and downs in a season and those are opportunities for growth.”
The Bulldogs’ 17-member girls’ basketball varsity roster last winter consisted of just three seniors.
Risley said there will be no extra pressure in making his head coaching debut at his alma mater.
“That makes it sweeter, to give back in a community I love,” he said. “It’s my dream come true. I couldn’t be more excited.
“My goal (during college) was to come back to Mahomet-Seymour. I felt the teachers and the community are second to none.”
Six athletes who scored in double figures in at least one game last season were underclassmen. Help will also be provided by members of a 21-3 junior varsity team. With so many experienced varsity players returning in the girls’ basketball program, there will be pressure to produce sooner than later.
“Anywhere I’d coach, the expectations I set on myself will exceed that of any others,” Risley said.
The incoming coach already has his priorities in place.
“The first goal is to implement a staff of role models,” Risley said, “and then develop relationships.
“The relationships have to be there so that they are engaged and the messages that are given throughout the year don’t go in one ear and out the other.”
Risley is pleased to inherit a program that is not entering a rebuilding phase.
“Coach Seal had a lot of good things going,” Risley said. “They (varsity players) seem like a very mature group.”
Risley knows he’ll have at least one fan in the stands – his dad – but hopes he can cut into his retirement time, too.
“If we could get him involved in the weight room, that would be a big help,” Garret Risley said, “and give the girls another face to see.
“The more faces they see, the better so they won’t have to just listen to me all year.”
Besides his time with wrestling (which won multiple team state titles) and girls’ track, Jim Risley coached volleyball at M-S from 1980-84, and then was an unpaid assistant in cross-country for several years. He also coached the boys’ pole vaulters from 1999-2013 and started serving as the volunteer weight coach in boys’ basketball in 2002.
One of Jim Risley’s many pole vault state qualifiers was son Garret in 2011.
“My path in coaching was not how I had it planned out,” Jim Risley said, “but it turned out better than I could have ever planned it.”
Garret Risley’s coaching path – thus far – is following the script he envisioned since deciding to focus on basketball last year.
“I like the number of athletes you work with on a daily basis,” he said. “Smaller teams lend itself to building relationships.
“We work with about 15 at a time (in basketball) and that load is easier to manage.”
Though schedules could change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, M-S is currently slated to play its home-opener in girls’ basketball on Nov. 30 against Mount Zion.
Garret Risley plans to hold a players’ meeting later this week and then will meet with parents soon thereafter.
He expects to take advantage of IHSA contact days in September and October, though nothing is set. How that will look remains unknown.
“Right now, there are probably more questions than answers,” Garret Risley said, “but we’ll get the ball rolling as early as we can.
“We’ll have to have a lot of flexibility.”
The Risleys could soon join the Porters as M-S’ two sets of two-generation varsity head coaches at the school this century.
Rob Porter was the head wrestling coach for 12 years, concluding with the 2000-01 season. He was replaced for the next two seasons by his father, Tom.
