(Audubon) KSOM/KS95.7’s Father’s Day Series comes to a close today. Our guests are from Audubon.
Monte Riebhoff was an assistant basketball coach and head track coach when his son Tyler was in high school. Coach Riebhoff remembers Tyler taking full advantage of the learning opportunities even from the very beginning. “He grew up around sports and always enjoyed watching sports. I wasn’t too concerned about him understanding the game. He was certainly a student of the game. I didn’t have to tell him too much where to be and what to do. He was always quite aware of things even at a young age.” Monte says, “There were kids his age that would go off and run around. He was sitting right beside us in the bleachers and watching the game. He always studied the game.”
Monte experienced few, if any, downsides to coaching his own kid. “No, not really. I hear of horror stories with kids coming home and parents. We never really ever did that after games. He’d go do his own thing or we might talk about some of the highlights, but I was never one to second guess him. Sometimes it makes them a little more upset than it does help them. We never really got into the arguing part.”
Tyler grew up with his dad as the head football coach. A role that was relinquished right before Tyler got into high school. “He took that job when I was in kindergarten. I didn’t really know what a water boy was at that time, but I got thrown into it. I was on the Audubon sideline from kindergarten through my senior year of high school. He said, ‘I think it’s time for me to sit back and enjoy it a little bit.’ There’s a lot of hours that go into that.”
Tyler has no doubt his familiarity with the environment of high school sports and knowledge gained from being around athletics helped him excel when it was his turn to don the Wheeler uniform. “I definitely think so, because you look up to guys when you are that young. You have high school heroes when you’re a little kid. You want to be like them someday. I think that really fueled from a young age what I wanted to do.” Riebhoff says, “You got to see the joys of sports from a young age and I think that and my dad himself is what fueled my competitive nature and my love for sports.”
One of Tyler’s best memories came after winning a gold medal at the state track meet. “A big hug that we shared after the shuttle hurdle my sophomore year.” Riebhoff says, “We shared a big hug post-championship that year and that’s one that you don’t forget.”
Monte Riebhoff:
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