After nearly 30 years of service to the College, director of athletics Russ Reilly announces his retirement.
He's won more basketball games at Middlebury than any other coach in the program's history. He's also lost more than anyone else, he'll tell you with a chuckle. In those two sentences, you can learn a lot about Russ Reilly.
A fixture at Middlebury for nearly 30 years—the last nine of which he served as director of athletics—Reilly will retire on June 30. He will leave behind a rich legacy, stunning in its scope, but remembered more for the humility, sense of humor, intelligence, and compassion of the man who created it.
When he arrived in the Champlain Valley in the fall of 1977, the Bates College graduate would serve a one-year coaching apprenticeship under Middlebury legend Tom Lawson, before taking over the reins of the basketball squad the following season. (It would not be the last time he would follow in Lawson's footsteps.) During his 19 years as the men's hoops coach, Reilly also coached golf (1978–93) and women's soccer (1979–86), was named assistant director of athletics in 1983 and associate director in '94. When Lawson retired in 1997, College President John M. McCardell turned to a man who had just been honored by the Institute for International Sport as one who "demonstrated an interest in promoting the ideals of ethics and fair play in sport and society."
During Reilly's tenure as athletics director, Middlebury has captured 22 national titles and 35 NESCAC conference championships; added the Chip Kenyon '85 Arena and the Peter Kohn Field; and expanded the coaching faculty from 16 to 20. The College has also garnered national recognition for its relationship with Butch Varno, a local citizen with cerebral palsy who has had a long-standing relationship with the Middlebury football and basketball teams, dating back to Reilly's early years as a head coach. In 2003, an ESPN feature on Varno won an Emmy Award.
Last November, when Reilly announced his intention to retire, Middlebury President Ron Liebowitz said, "Russ Reilly has been the understated, but essential, force in our program, responsible for setting the tone that defines the values we try to impart to our student-athletes: discipline, dedication, determination, teamwork, personal growth, and having fun along the way."
Many share this sentiment, and the impact of Reilly's pending retirement will be felt far beyond the boundaries of Vermont, NESCAC, or even Division III athletics.
"Russ Reilly is one of the all-time great people in college athletics," says Mike Maker, an assistant basketball coach at Division I power West Virginia. "He personifies the ideal that everyone in sports—in life, really—should strive for."
For many years, Maker and Reilly would convene at summer coaching clinics and camps, where they would talk late into the night about coaching strategy, the principals of sport, and life as a coach and teacher. During these sessions, Maker says that he witnessed in Reilly all that made the Middlebury coach so successful: a thirst for knowledge, and a love of teaching. But he also detected a weakness.
"Strawberry ice cream," Maker says, laughing. "He can't get enough of it."
So here's to 30 years of teaching, coaching, and mentoring Middlebury students. And here's to all the strawberry ice cream Russ Reilly can eat.
He deserves it.
—Matt Jennings, editor