Assistant coach Randy Rahe loyal to Morrill, basketball
Success. This is something the Utah State University men’s basketball team has earned its fair share of the last three years.
Led by Head Coach Stew Morrill, the Aggies have posted three consecutive 20-plus win seasons – the program’s most successful stint in 98 seasons of competition.
While it is impossible not to notice the level of success Morrill has brought to Aggie basketball, senior shooting guard Tony Brown said it’s easy to overlook the contributions assistant coaches, such as Randy Rahe, have made.
“Most definitely [the assistant coaches get overlooked],” Brown said. “I think the assistants especially put in hours and hours a day watching film. I’m sure we watch more film than any other team in our conference. I think that is one of the reasons why we have such great success.”
Not only has Rahe played a huge part in USU’s recent success, Morrill said Rahe possesses an attribute that is a driving force when it comes to continuity in a basketball program – loyalty.
“Randy has been with me 11 years [and] that’s kind of unheard of,” Morrill said. “When I hire assistants, the first thing I talk about is loyalty. If a guy is concerned about himself first and his rise in his profession, then you have a problem.
“Randy is just the opposite of that,” he said.
A member of Morrill’s coaching staff since the season Morrill was named the head coach of Colorado State University, Rahe has been a member of Morrill’s staff longer than any other assistant coach.
Ironically, when Morrill arrived in Fort Collins, Colo., he wasn’t familiar with Rahe. Rahe said he was introduced to Morrill by ex-Ram Head Coach Body Grant who “played a huge part in me getting the job.” Morrill had already compiled his entire staff except for one spot, Rahe said.
“Eventually, [Morrill] felt enough confidence in me that he hired me,” Rahe said. “There was a lot of people who wanted [that job], and coach Morrill gave it to me. That was the biggest break of my [coaching] career.”
Before he was hired by Morrill, Rahe had several years of coaching experience. He started out on the high school level in 1985 when he was hired as the head coach of Bethune High School in Colorado. Among the other places he has coached include: Stratton High School (Colo.), Colorado College, the University of Colorado and Denver University.
When asked what influenced him to become a coach, Rahe said his desire to get into the coaching profession was fueled well before he graduated from Buenta Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa.
As a high school junior, he said he was asked by a local junior high coach to help assist him with the team. Although it involved practicing at 6 a.m., Rahe said his desire to become a coach started then.
“From there on, it just kind of got into my blood,” he said. “I loved it. I kind of knew right then and there that that’s what I wanted to do.”
The desire to coach is something Morrill and Brown said Rahe has. Perhaps more importantly, both Morrill and Brown said Rahe is invaluable to the team because he is easy to get along with.
“From a personal standpoint, you need to have guys around that you like spending time with,” Morrill said. “You spend more time with your assistant coaches than you do with your wife during the season. So, it can be pretty miserable if you don’t enjoy [being with your assistants].”
Now in his fourth year at USU, Rahe said his primary responsibilities are recruiting, scheduling future opponents and coaching the defense. Playing solid defense is something the Aggies have thrived on the last couple of years, Rahe said.
“I like the intensity which you have to have [to play defense],” he said. “I love the toughness and heart you have to have to be a defender. I like the idea of trying to instill that in some of our players.”
Although the winning has been nice, Rahe said, coaching at USU has been especially rewarding because he has had the chance to coach “high character guys.”
“When you get them [the players] into the program and see them have success at winning games, having success in the classroom, being quality people, getting their degrees, it’s really rewarding,” he said.
Like many other assistant coaches, Rahe said he would like to become a head coach at the college level in the future. However, he said it’s important the desire to become a head coach doesn’t impede his ability to do his current job.
“I think I would really like to be a head coach, but at the same time, it’s not something that I’m constantly hunting for,” he said. “If it doesn’t happen, it won’t be the end of the world, but I think I’d like to have that challenge some day.”