Bosch and Risley resign from Mahomet-Seymour coaching posts
By FRED KRONER
MAHOMET – There are special moments they will remember and cherish dearly.
“Being able to watch the girls hoist the (championship) plaques,” Garret Risley said.
“Back-to-back regionals was really special, especially against a Hall-of-Fame coach (Lincoln’s Neil Alexander),” Ryan Bosch said.
Those memories have more in common than occurring in the sport of basketball during the past two years when Risley and Bosch were head coaches at Mahomet-Seymour High School, where they once were athletes.
The people they were watching celebrate the successes, the ones with the huge smiles, were someone else’s children.
As parents themselves, Risley and Bosch felt a strong desire to be an active participant or observer in their own children’s lives.
Within the last five weeks, both Risley (the M-S girls’ basketball head coach) and Bosch (the M-S boys’ basketball head coach) have resigned their positions.
Neither Risley nor Bosch had discussed with the other that they were considering stepping aside as a coach.
“It was probably for similar reasons,” Risley said, “but the decisions were made independently.”
The choices were also made with considerable contemplation.
“It was a difficult decision, but I felt my priorities as a husband and father were not aligning with where my time was being spent,” Risley said.
Bosch’s sentiments are indeed similar.
“You do it (coaching) because you love it,” he said. “You love going to practice. You love being around the kids. You love the guys you’re coaching with.
“That love and passion is not going away, but I felt imbalanced personally. As the postseason and offseason is getting underway, I needed to re-prioritize for my kids.
“They are starting to get involved with extra-curriculars and it’s getting into a busy time of life for us. I can sleep easy at night knowing I have these priorities.”
Both coaches – now former coaches – said there was no pressure to resign.
“No one was rushing me out the door,” said Bosch, who resigned on Monday. “I felt from my end, this is where my heart was at (to step aside).”
Risley has only positive thoughts about those he worked with and those that he worked for at Mahomet-Seymour.
“The staff and administration is everything that I wanted,” Risley said. “I have nothing but good things to say about the working conditions.
“The big picture is I need to be home.”
Risley and his wife, Katie, have an 18-month-old son and recently moved into a home that they are remodeling.
Bosch and his wife, Kristen, have a fourth-grade son who will soon be 10 and a first-grade daughter who will soon be 7.
“I’ve been on the sidelines for 19 years, counting when I helped coach track when I was student teaching,” said Bosch, who graduated from M-S in 2001. “That’s all my wife has been married to and all my kids have had as a dad.
“I foresee it being hard not to coach, but it will be nice for me to go and watch their games, and not have to cut out early or get there late. It will be nice to have more time with them in the summer.”
Bosch’s time on the sidelines has changed during his nearly two-decade tenure as the coaching aspect has taken on much more of a year-round commitment.
“There was always something to do to develop a part of the program or to give attention to,” Bosch said. “I’m doing more than I was 10 or 12 years ago.
“Every season, you feel pulled to watch film or to get yourself prepped and ready to go. With those things, it grows to feel like work. I’m not saying I don’t love to make practice plans, but the sacrifices feel bigger than what I’ve been making the past 19 years.”
In three years as the girls’ basketball head coach – after six years as a boys’ assistant coach with the Bulldogs – Risley’s teams were 62-23, including regional crowns in 2022 and 2023 as well as the school’s first-ever girls’ basketball sectional championship in 2022. His 2021-22 squad won a school-record 30 games.
“The underclassmen will have success under Coach (Tom) Garriott (the incoming girls’ head coach),” said Risley, who doesn’t intend to be a shadow looking over the program.
“I’ll be supporting them, but I want to give them their space,” he said. “I’ll probably be watching from home on Bulldog TV. I’m happy with the decision I made.”
Neither Bosch nor Risley said they felt undue pressure returning home to coach at their alma mater.
“My expectations are higher than anyone’s,” said Risley, who graduated in 2012. “Coaching at my alma mater made it that much better.”
Risley’s career success rate (72.9 percent) is the highest of any of the 10 people who have served as girls’ basketball head coaches in the 46 years M-S has offered the sport.
In Bosch’s five seasons as head coach, he compiled a 74-64 overall record. He had assisted former coach Chad Benedict in his last four years as the head coach.
Early in his coaching career (Bosch got his start for three years at Argenta-Oreana), Bosch didn’t anticipate coaching the Bulldogs.
“I never had any intentions of coming back to Mahomet,” he said.
Working where he was a former student, Bosch acknowledged, “is a different dynamic,” but he added, “it has also brought me a lot of joy.
“I used to sit in the stands watching Kevin Dyer rain threes, and now I’m coaching his son (Adam). I feel like I’ve come full circle.”
Bosch’s best team (record-wise) was the 2019-20 team, which finished 21-11.
The following year, when COVID-19 forced a truncated 14-game regular-season-only schedule, the Bulldogs were 10-4.
“After 14 games, we were playing as well as anyone,” Bosch said. “We were the only team to defeat (state-ranked) Effingham and we won at Lincoln, when they were state-ranked. I would have loved to have had a postseason with them.”
In his final two seasons, M-S peaked for the postseason and captured Class 3A regional titles in both 2022 and 2023.
Bosch expects there will be many applicants to fill his position.
“Being the head coach at Mahomet-Seymour will be attractive to a lot of people around the state,” Bosch said. “It’s one of the best jobs you can get in Illinois because of the quality of the community, our facilities and the types of kids that are going through our hallways.
“The groundwork was laid by Chad Benedict (current M-S principal), and someone could make this into a good situation. There’s a stellar non-conference schedule and you’re in a conference where you’re tested on the X’s and O’s every night. It’s the right-sized school to be competitive in Class 3A.
“I respect a lot of programs, but I don’t put any in higher regard than where we’re at. The program feels like it is in a solid place and, I hope, is set up for success for whoever follows me. The kids coming back have a ton of talent.”
As for what to do with his free time, Risley believes his to-do list is longer than his hours in the foreseeable future.
“There are a lot of house projects,” he said. “I’ll be able to start those up, and I don’t see any end in sight.”
Bosch, a history instructor, and Risley, a special education teacher, are going to keep their academic positions.
Neither man believes he is saying goodbye to coaching forever.
“I do plan on doing it again at some time,” Risley said, “and this is exactly what I want (for a staff and administration).”
Bosch’s coaching duties will likely start sooner than later.
“My kids will get some coaching in the driveway,” he said.
Something else won’t change, he added.
“I’ll always be a Bulldog,” Bosch said.
