'Ville' Coach Driven to Make Difference
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
December 30, 2015
DETROIT – It’s unlikely. But if Juan Rickman ever gets bored, he would be a prime candidate to participate in a sleep-deprivation study.
Rickman, 32, spent five seasons as the boys basketball coach at Detroit Crockett, then became the coach at Detroit East English Village Prep when Crockett merged with Detroit Finney for the start of the 2012-13 school year.
His fulltime job is serving as an attendant agent for the Detroit Public Schools. In layman’s terms, he’s a truant officer. He also works for Wayne County in its juvenile detention department.
And if that’s not enough, Rickman and a partner are in the process of starting a medical transportation business. Rickman said he has the drivers lined up. Purchasing the vehicles is the next step.
Rickman also is a husband and a father. He and his wife Kateena have a 16-month-old daughter, Amira.
A graduate of Detroit Cass Tech and the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Rickman is driven. Achievement is the driving force that supplies the motivation for himself and his family, and for the students for whom he is responsible.
“I’m grinding, just grinding,” he said. “My wife and I have a budget.
“She’s totally into my life. You want a means to an end. We want to buy a house.”
A typical day for Rickman begins at 7:45 a.m. at East English. School ends at 3:30 p.m., and then study table begins a half hour later for his players and lasts an hour and a half. Practice runs from 5:50-8 p.m. His job with Wayne County begins at 11 p.m. and he’s off at 7 – then he’s back at East English.
Rickman isn’t Superman, so this routine isn’t played out every day. But there are weeks where he’ll work three nights for Wayne County, then work a Sunday.
“There are some days I don’t sleep,” he said. “This past week I got up Monday morning and didn’t sleep until 11 (p.m.) on Wednesday.
“When my wife wasn’t working, I had to (work extended hours). Sometimes I’ll take some time off (from Wayne County). The thing is, I know when I need to tone it down.”
Kateena returned to work for an insurance company soon after giving birth. Though this helps monetarily, it also forces the Rickmans to send their child to day care.
It can be a dilemma, and it is a balancing act. But they’re determined to create a good life for themselves and their child.
Juan Rickman said he planned on cutting back on his hours during the holidays to spend more time with his family.
Along with the rewards financially from their hard work is the satisfaction of knowing they are contributing to their community. Because of his jobs within DPS and Wayne County, Juan Rickman deals with many troubled youths. He knows he’s in a position to set an example as a positive role model, and there is a responsibility to fulfill these expectations.
“I take it seriously,” Rickman said. “A big part of my job is to get these kids into college. I’ve had six of my players go on to a Division I school, but what I’m most proud of is the others. I didn’t have to work hard to get the Division I kids in school. College coaches came after them. I’m more proud of the D-II and the (players who went to) NAIA (schools). Look at Jaylin McFadden. We worked hard to get him into Ferris State.
“And these players come back around. Even the ones I kicked off the team come back. It’s a good feeling.”
Rickman and others at East English also helped the team manager earn a scholarship. Devin Smith is a senior and he’s earned a scholarship to Madonna University in Livonia through a fund the university set up.
East English is off to a 1-2 start, but the Bulldogs are expected to be a significant factor in the race for the Public School League title.
“I’m content coaching high school basketball,” Rickman said. “I’ve had opportunities to go to the next level. I didn’t like the situation.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit East English boys basketball coach Juan Rickman works with his players during a practice. (Middle) Rickman, with wife Kateena, holds daughter Amira. (Photos courtesy of the Rickman family.)
Dollar Bay Adding to UP's D Dominance
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
March 6, 2018
DOLLAR BAY — Small school. Huge tradition.
That’s pretty much the way it is with the boys basketball program at Dollar Bay, a high school of 100 students in this tiny community in the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Dollar Bay completed a perfect regular season Thursday night with a 70-59 victory at Painesdale Jeffers and opened District play Monday with a 47-24 win over Chassell in Class D.
The Blue Bolts (21-0) hope to go deeper into this year’s tournament and next host Baraga in a Wednesday District Semifinal.
A year ago, they reached the Regional opener at Negaunee where they dropped a 75-73 decision to Powers North Central. The Jets then went on to capture their third consecutive Class D title.
“The biggest thing I took from that game is what we can do as a team,” said senior forward Jaden Janke, an all-Upper Peninsula Class D second-team pick last season. “That got us excited for this season. It made us want to work that much harder.”
Senior guard Devin Schmitz, an all-U.P. Class D first-team selection, had similar thoughts.
“We wanted to show we had good Class D teams up here,” he said. “We didn’t have Brandon (Thompson) for that game. Just having all the guys coming back made us excited for this season.”
If the Blue Bolts win the District, they would be shooting for the school’s first Regional crown since 1979.
“To have a successful program at Dollar Bay, it has to start from the ground up,” said coach Jesse Kentala. “The kids love basketball and play it on their days off. It’s really a joy being around these guys every day. In a small community, you get to know the families real well. There’s a lot of basketball history here.”
Pete Dix, a 1994 graduate, holds the all-time career scoring record at Dollar Bay with 1,556 points.
Schmitz scored 30 at Painesdale on Thursday, running his career total to 1,537. But Kentala said the players have always put the team before their personal goals.
“I’ve been coaching for 11 years and these are some of the most competitive practices I’ve seen,” he added. “The strength of our team is we have all five guys working together. This is the most unselfish group of guys I ever coached. For them it’s all about sharing the ball.”
“Our second unit is also real good,” Schmitz added. “Having these guys to practice with helps the starters. It’s kind of like playing with your little brother. They’re going to beat you sometimes.”
Dollar Bay already has some experience playing on a big stage this season. Last month it earned a 51-42 victory over Ewen-Trout Creek in front of a crowd of nearly 3,300 at nearby Michigan Tech.
“We were originally scheduled for Tuesday (Feb. 6) at our place, then we changed it to Wednesday night because nothing else was going on,” said Kentala. “We thought they would draw 1,000-1,500 people. None of us expected that kind of atmosphere. They were at capacity. There were people sitting on the hardwood. That might have been the biggest attendance for a jayvee game in the U.P.”
The contest was heavily promoted by Houghton Daily Mining Gazette sports editor Bryce Derouin and got media attention statewide.
“Bryce promoted the game real well,” said Kentala. “We had two real good basketball teams, programs that have had success for years. I think it was great for both programs.
"Moving the game to Tech is a decision we’ll never regret, and that’s something the kids will remember for the rest of their lives. I even talked to a writer from the Detroit Free Press who did a small article on our team. You can’t help but chuckle when you think about it.”
What was it like playing in front of so many fans?
“It was real exciting,” said Schmitz. “We never played in front of that many people before. It was very loud. We couldn’t hear the coaches. When we went out and saw that many people, we said, ‘This is going to be fun.’ It made us want to dunk before the officials came to the floor. We could feel the building shake. We were lucky to experience that.”
Dollar Bay had a close call two nights later, edging Ontonagon 62-61 on its home floor.
“The week before, (the Ewen-Trout Creek game was) all people were talking about,” said Janke. “We’re trying not to make that game our peak. It was exciting to play at Tech, but we were glad to be on our home floor. Ontonagon has a good team. They’re not to be taken lightly.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Dollar Bay's Devin Schmitz goes up for a layup during Monday’s District win over Chassell. (Middle) Dollar Bay's Jacob Iacono drives to the basket. (Below) This season’s Dollar Bay boys basketball team, after its win Monday. (Top and middle photos courtesy of Bryce Derouin/Houghton Daily Mining Gazette. Below photo courtesy of the Dollar Bay athletic department.)