May 22, 2026 — 12:44 PM EDT
By Jeremy Symons
Story Details
Subject: Ryan Reichel Steps Away from Ishpeming Basketball
Location: Ishpeming, MI
Program: Ishpeming High School Girls Basketball
Years as Head Coach: 11 Seasons
Highlights: Division 4 State Champions (2024, 2026)
...
When the season ended in March, Ryan Reichel summed the journey up with one word:
perseverance.
At the time, it felt like he was talking about the week.
The schedule changes.
The travel.
Three games in four days.
The pressure of the moment.
And then the finish.
But looking back now, maybe he was talking about something much bigger.
This week, two months after leading Ishpeming High School to its second Division 4 state championship in three seasons, Reichel officially stepped down as head coach of the Hematites girls basketball program after 11 unforgettable years.
Not because he stopped loving the game.
But because he knew what mattered next.
“It is not a decision I want to make, it is one I have to make,” Reichel wrote in a letter submitted to school administration. “Coaching at Ishpeming has been such a great honor.”
For most people around the Upper Peninsula basketball world, Ryan Reichel became synonymous with Ishpeming girls basketball.
Discipline. Toughness. Preparation. Purpose.
His teams played with control. They defended. They executed. They showed up when the moment got heavy.
Exactly the way it was drawn up.
But the story didn’t start there.
Reichel grew up in the Westwood area and played basketball for Westwood High School before continuing his career at Northern Michigan University.
And despite the championships, the awards, the packed gyms, and the success that eventually followed, he never really changed the way he viewed himself.
“I’m just a kid from a trailer park.”
That line has followed him for years.
Not as a joke.
Not as a brand.
Just as the truth he’s always carried with him.
His coaching journey itself was never simple either.
After beginning his head coaching career at his alma mater, Reichel eventually found himself stepping away from Westwood before later getting another opportunity across town at Ishpeming — a rival school with its own expectations, traditions, and pressure.
What followed was more than winning basketball.
Over 11 seasons, Reichel helped build one of the premier girls basketball programs in the Upper Peninsula.
Two state championships.
A culture.
An identity.
But underneath all of it was perseverance.
The kind built through setbacks, pressure, long winters, and years spent carrying the responsibility that comes with leading a program.
And eventually, after reaching the top once again in 2026, Reichel realized something else.
His daughters’ journeys were beginning too.
“At this time, they need to become #1,” he wrote. “Their careers are starting and their final buzzer will come before I know it.”
That reality stayed with him.
Not because basketball stopped mattering.
But because he understood how fast those years move.
The camps.
The practices.
The games.
The rides home.
The moments you think will always be there until suddenly they aren’t.
“This program has become so much more than basketball to me,” Reichel wrote. “It has been about relationships, growth, adversity, and unforgettable moments shared with incredible young women.”
And maybe that’s why the timing somehow feels right.
Not easy.
But right.
Because when Ishpeming won that final game in East Lansing, it didn’t just feel like the end of a season.
It felt complete.
The banners will hang.
The trophies will stay.
The memories are already part of U.P. basketball history.
But when Ryan Reichel officially stepped away from Ishpeming basketball this week, it wasn’t because the game stopped mattering.
It was because somewhere else, another basketball journey was just beginning.
And this time—
he didn’t want to miss it.
...
About the author
Jeremy “Syms” Symons is the founder of Roundballin, a Michigan-based designer, creative director, and storyteller documenting basketball through design, media, and culture.