OGDEN, Utah — While on vacation last week in South Carolina, Randy Rahe was thinking about Weber State's upcoming summer workout program. But for the first time since he became the Wildcats' head basketball coach 16 years ago, something felt wrong.
"I didn't feel the same way about it," said Rahe. "I just didn't quite have the same passion, the same excitement. I told myself that if I ever lose any of that, I'm going to know it's time to go. It kind of hit me: 'I think I'm ready to be done.'"
With his recently announced retirement, Coach Rahe leaves as the winningest coach in Weber State and Big Sky Conference history with 316 wins. He led the Wildcats to five Big Sky championships, three trips to the NCAA tournament, and he was named the Big Sky coach of the year four times. But his number one priority was doing it the right way.
"It's been an honor and a privilege for me to be the head basketball coach at Weber State the last 16 years," said Rahe. "It's a responsibility I took very seriously. I just wanted to run a program what I felt was the right way. Try to do it with character and integrity and bring in great kids, graduate kids, follow the rules. We worked hard at that, nothing fancy, just try to do it the right way and build a strong culture. I feel good about walking away knowing that we did just that."
Coach Rahe is retiring along with his wife, Laura. She has been a division one referee for the past 30 years, and supervised student teachers, and taught basketball classes at Weber State for the last 16 years at Weber State. Randy and Laura have a vacation planned for Italy this summer, but after that, they're not sure what's next, other than spending time together and with their two sons.
"I've been consumed by this stuff for basically 37 years of college coaching," Randy said. "It consumes you — 24/7, 365 days a year, it never leaves your mind. I know that I've probably at times neglected Laura and the kids a little bit too much. Now it's our time."
"We've got this big, bright, wide-open future," Laura added. "We're going to keep expanding instead of expiring."
"I think I quit at the right time because she still likes me a little bit," Randy joked. "A couple more years of this she might have not liked me as much, so it's time for us to go, whatever it is, have some fun."
