By K.D. Norris
The West Michigan Aviation Academy boys basketball is not just a one-man — or one family — show, but the first two names on the roster are senior Joey Riebel and sophomore Luke Riebel, and the Aviators are led by first-year head coach (and father) Austin Riebel.
And as the Aviators have jumped out to a 6-3-1 (with the 1 being a cancelation/postponement), and 3-0 in Alliance League play, it is clear that the family and friends plan may well be working to perfection.
“Both of the boys” are starters and key players, Coach Riebel said to WKTV. “Luke is our leading scorer right now, averaging about 15 (points) a game right now. He’s got a gift and the gift is he can really shoot the ball.”
Joey, “my oldest, is our point guard. He plays a ton. He makes us go. … He is our third leading scores … averages six assists a game and only three turnovers a game, which is great for us.”
But the team is more than just the Riebel boys, and coach Riebel was quick to mention junior 6-foot-6 big man Ethan Dyksterhouse. He is the team’s second leading scorer, averaging about 14 per game with nine rebounds per game. “He has great size inside.”
Coach Riebel also pointed out another big man in the Aviators rotation, 6-7 senior Jonas Bont, as well as senior Zakaria Mohamed, two of the team’s senior captains.
“Zakaria is a great shooter,” he said. “And Jonas does a lot of the intangible things for us … he is a great offensive rebounder.”
The other varsity players on the squad are seniors Eliot McNutt, Gabe Wade and Karsten Kotchenruther; juniors Nolen Sperring Heath Tamlyn and Ian Brown; and sophomore Braeden Mowry.
“They get along really well, we have a great group of guys,” coach Riebel said. “And we actually have a fourth senior captain, Hayden Leenheer. He kind of leads our reserve squad.”
Coach Riebel is assisted by coach Joey Saladino.
But there is not doubt that the Riebels are the heart of this seasons’ Aviators.
And while it is a great experience to coach his sons, coach Riebel says, it might not always be that way for for his sons/players.
“It is pretty special to coach, not one but two of my boys,” coach Riebel said, but “we talked about it ad nauseam even before I decided to do this. … There are definitely hard times, being the dad and the coach, but we worked thorough it.”
Coaching background
While coach Riebel is new to the West Michigan Aviation head coaching job, he is not new to the program or to coaching in West Michigan.
He has 23 years of experience coaching high school basketball in West Michigan, including serving as assistant coach on the Aviators varsity team for the previous three years under Tyler Whitcomb, who left the program for an athletic director position.
The Aviators were 12-6 in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season, which ended with a playoff lost at Grand Rapids Christian.
“I have three sons playing basketball and, with two of them here, that’s why I came here” as an assistant coach, Riebel said. And now, (taking the Aviation Academy head coaching job) “is what works for me. … it just made sense.”
Before coming to the Ford Airport school, Riebel coached at Godwin Heights high, where he taught for 17 years, and spent 10 years in various coaching positions at Forest Hills Central, where he played prep ball and graduated.
He attended Hope College, played a little basketball there, and earned a degree. Now, he is vice-president of TrueSuccess — which, according to its website, “provides research-based educational tools that simultaneously equip kids with behavior and literacy skills that are essential to unleash potential” — and is in his second year as director of the West Michigan Lakers, an AAU travel boys basketball team.
