Hardwood Texas
Hardwood Texas
Beyond the Boxscore Episode 3: Bo Rickner
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Hey Hardwood, Texas, the school year is underway. The kids are back. Week one of Friday night football is here, and you can feel basketball season creeping closer. Coaches are back in the building, athletes are getting settled into a new year, and before we know it, gyms across Texas will be packed again. We got this podcast rolling with Live Pan coach and TABC president Brent Gaylor, and last week we had the Nazareth girls coach and nine-time state champion Eric Schilling off. Thank you so much for the support so far. Make sure you spread the word about the podcast and tell people to follow Beyond the Box Score on Facebook and Instagram, and keep up with Hardwood Texas on X. We've got a lot more coming your way as we head toward another basketball season. And coaches, refs, parents, or just Texas high school basketball fans aren't going to want to miss any of it. Today, I'm talking to the new head coach of one of the most historic small school programs in the state, Coach Bo Rickner of Greyford. Coach Rickner is currently the head boys basketball coach and boys coordinator at Grayford. Before that, he was the head coach at Perrin from 2007 to 2010. From there, he spent 10 years as an assistant at Brock, where he went to the state tournament five times and won it in 2015. In 2020, he left Brock and became an assistant at Chrome. He was there two years before taking the head boys basketball job at Paradise in 2022. While at Paradise, he changed the culture and turned the Panthers into a serious threat by making it to the state tournament in 2025 and 2026. After finishing runner-up in 2025, he and his players achieved the ultimate goal of state champion the next season. So far, he has won over 140 games in his career. Coach Richner graduated high school from Dallas Lighthouse Christian Academy, where he played in the 2001 Taps State Tournament. From there, he attended Oklahoma University, where he received his bachelor's degree. He and his wife, Jenny, have been married for 17 years. Together they have a daughter, Presley, and a son, Grayson.
SPEAKER_00Coach Regner, thanks for being on the podcast. Thank you for having me. Excited to be here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're uh you're a hot name right now, obviously, based on what you've done. And so people want to hear from you. So I'm glad I'm glad you agreed to be on. Uh a question I ask every coach that's been on so far, and I'm gonna ask you as well: other than the Alamo Dome and other than the drum, what are some of your favorite gyms that you've coached in?
SPEAKER_00That's honestly, I mean, that's a hard question, uh, especially doing this for 20 years. I've been I've coached in some pretty good gyms, some pretty good atmospheres. Uh off the top, I mean, I've I've gotta I've gotta say Paradise was was really good because I mean we finished there with a 20-game win streak. Um undefeated this last year. And uh really the season opener in the 24-25 season is the last game we lost there. So uh we always played well there. Um honestly and Greyford, we we played Greyford every year I was there. Uh coming over to Grayford, it's a hard place to play. Um, I always felt like anyway. Uh so those are two that are really good. But um the Glen Rose, the Prosper's. Uh we played the regional tournament in Prosper uh in the last one that was there in 24, um, which was really cool. Those gyms are obviously really nice. Um, but I'm partial to, you know, I some big gyms that were the the bleachers come to the floor, you feel the fans around you. Uh, and around this area, Graham, Berg Burnett are two really fun gyms, I think, to coach in. Uh, a couple throwbacks and maybe a one a random one. Uh when the regional tournament when I was at Brock was at Wisdom Gym at Tarleton. I always thought was really cool. I love that setup where the bleachers are coming down on both sides. Uh the fans are right there on the court. Um, and then uh another random one is Godly, the old Godly gym. Uh when they were in our district when I was at Brock, and then they were really good a couple of years. And we'd go over there, and it was a small gym, uh, standing room only, and they had the little bleachers on the ends where the band was and things like that. That was a really cool atmosphere. So I like the ones where the bleachers come down the floor, and you even have a on one end or something, you have some bleachers and things like that. So yeah, I'm partial to those.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, those are good ones. Godley's kind of upgraded a little bit.
SPEAKER_00I I think so, yeah. I haven't set foot in the new one, but I've seen the pictures, I've seen film in there and things like that. And yeah, they're they're really nice. There's some really nice ones. We got to we actually played Legacy last year at uh Midwestern State, and that was a cool place to coach in too. I like that gym and that setup. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01All right. So you graduated from a private school, and now you're coaching in a public, you know, public setting. So what are kind of talk us through what are some of the differences in the just the athletic side of private versus public schools?
SPEAKER_00Well, first, that was a long time ago. Yeah, so a lot's changed, I'm sure, since then. But I mean, I and and I went to a small one, um, kind of in the middle of Dallas in the Duncanville, Oak Cliff area. Uh, and so it I think I graduated with 25 to 30 kids were in my my graduating class. But I mean, resources, uh, obviously. Um, I know there's some private schools that, you know, are really nice and really expensive and have all those things, uh, but not the one that where I came from. We we were very limited in some of the resources and facilities and things like that. Um obviously the kids, uh, and of course it kind of goes with time, like in the summers and things like that. You had kids that, you know, lived anywhere and everywhere around there. It wasn't just, you know, a school district or a town that you pulled from. So in the summers and things like that, you know, you really did kind of you had you did stuff on your own. I think we did a league every summer uh where we would play one night a week for a couple weeks, but that was about it. Um obviously there was no strength and conditioning camp and things like that. So the community feel, I think, is also uh a big thing that you miss in the private schools, uh especially when you know when you spend your time in small towns like I have, uh, where the community really supports the the pro athletic programs in the schools where that's the backbone uh where the town gets their identity from. That's really awesome to have. So definitely prefer the public schools.
SPEAKER_01Well, and like you said, a lot's probably changed. You know, there there wasn't strength and conditioning summer stuff in public school back then, and now it's now it's you know almost too much. So um, all right. So you won the state championship last year, but it wasn't easy. Um not even not even just the state championship game, the games before that. Um, you know, you you trailed just specifically the state championship game. You trailed for most of the game before, you know, taking the lead in the fourth quarter and the final play um was kind of a uh what just happened kind of moment. So take us through kind of the the final timeout, what was set in the huddle, what did you draw up, and did it unfold the way that you wanted it to unfold?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. That's exactly how we wanted the play to work out. Yeah, exactly. Throw the ball to the other team, the best player, and give him an open look. No. And and I've taken I will say I've I've taken responsibility on this. Anyways, we were in the huddle, and there's 0.8 seconds, and we confer, you know, the coaches, we all get together and we're like, hey, we just got to throw this thing deep. We the only thing was we can't we've got to touch it. We can't let it go out of bounds. Like, all right, we so we're in the huddle, and first thing is we got to figure out our inbounder. Well, and I figure they're probably gonna put one of their big kids on the inbounds. And our biggest kid had actually fouled out about two minutes left in the game. And so the kid that subbed in for him, I said, all right, you're gonna throw the ball in. He's about, you know, 6'2, 6'3, and he's smart. Uh, he's really smart. He's gonna be like valedictorian, salutatorian of the class next year. And I said, You're gonna throw the ball in. Uh and we just got to get this ball across the half court line, throw it to the free throw line, throw it, give it some air so that it gets touched. And so we're gonna bring four guys, we're gonna line them across the free throw line uh on the end where we're on the side we're inbounding, and we're gonna loop one of our players across the front, and if he's open, great. If it's an easy pass, and that's something I shouldn't have done. Which looking at it now, hey, there's some risks there to get a turnover, but as everyone else was going back, and and that's really where the play was. It's like we're gonna, and that's the last thing we told the kid. Throw the ball deep to the guys that are gonna run into the backcourt, make sure it can get touched, throw it to the free throw line. Gotcha. Okay. So we go out there and we think, okay, we've gone over this, we got this. And uh, so we run the play and he locks on to uh Cooper Jones, uh, who was you know the 3A player of the year last year, and he's the one I've looped around kind of the front to see if he was open, and he kind of locks on to him, and Cooper tells him when you can see on the film, throw it deep, and he's kind of pointing. Well, he the inbounder thinks that, oh, he's gonna go to the space right here to throw it there. And, you know, in the moment he throws it to that space, and nobody is there except for Kavian Bryant from Westwood, and it is right in line with me. Like, if the ball took another bounce, it I was standing at the half-court line, it would have came to me. And he caught it, and when it released his hands, I was like, oh no, it was one of those things. The world stops, like it's slow motion, and luckily I had a good line and I could see it was gonna be off. But yeah, my heart like completely went up in my throat. I'd everything kind of stood still. But luckily, and and we kind of laugh about it now, and and we can just kind of say, in the end, we won. So it it worked out. Uh, we'll take it. It wasn't pretty, wasn't how we designed it, but hey, we got the gold medal, and uh it's something we can look back now and laugh, and you know, hopefully when I'm alive in 25 years when we get together back down in the state tournament, and we'll be telling that story still, probably every time.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, for sure. So you're you're at Grayford now. So prior to your arrival at Paradise, though, Paradise had never won a state championship in any sport, and they weren't really known for their athletic success. Um, during your time there, things have shifted, not just basketball, but paradise in general, but specifically your teams, you know, went to the state tournament back-to-back years, first state title in school history. Now you're stepping into Grayford, which is a completely different situation. It's a program with a rich tradition. Um the expectation is to compete for championships every year. So, how, if at all, has your mindset or your approach changed from building something up at Paradise to kind of taking over a program where the standard is already established?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, in terms of mindset, I don't think anything changes. Like we're gonna come in, um, you know, when we got to Paradise, you're exactly right. We did not have the expectations weren't there. The goals could be talked about, but yeah, honestly, they weren't realistic. When I took the Paradise job, you know, I I talked to some other coaches and things like that. I knew there were gonna be, you know, some talented players coming through to where we could compete and kind of start changing that culture. Uh, but I never I didn't take that job with the intent that, hey, we're gonna win a state championship here. You know, it's just something that we had to build. And then over time, uh by just staying consistent and doing what we're doing uh with our mindset, it became a realistic goal. As we got better and better, uh made deeper runs in the postseason every single year, it it became a realistic goal. Um, and and guys kind of bought in, and you know, like this last year, those guys were freshmen when I got there, the ones that graduating class, they spent four years in the program uh playing with each other. Our chemistry, our our bond on and off the court uh was unbelievable. Um but yeah, the expectation coming to Greyford, it's here now. Like that's not something I have to worry about, like at Paradise, where it took a little bit of time to say, hey, yeah, this is state championship. That's something, that's a realistic possibility. You walk through the doors in Grayford, uh it that's the expectation every single year. Hey, we want to compete, you know, uh to get to state and compete for championships and things like that. So the kids here, they already believe it. I asked them day one, hey, what is your goal uh for this upcoming year? And their goal was to win the state. They said, hey, we want to win a state title. Um, you know, that was not the case at Paradise. But yeah, approach-wise, I'm coming in here. We're gonna, you know, we're doing the same thing, uh, kind of, you know, start with the fundamentals, start with the basics of our offense and defense and things that we want to do. And uh so far, the kids have been great. They've bought in. You know, kids don't miss. They're here, they're bought in. Um, they've been working really hard. So I'm I'm excited uh to see what we can do here uh with a lot of with the kids and the community and the support uh and the expectations that come with it. And you know, it's it's kind of a double-edged sword, I guess, for a catch-22. Like, you know, the expectations are how you want them high. You want to be at a place where the expectations are high because uh, you know, that brings success up by the field.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Um, so talk a little bit. I know you haven't been there long, but you you know Grayford, you, you've you've watched them play, you even played against them, you played in their own gym. So talk about kind of what are you excited about most with your new job? Um, what are you most looking forward to kind of in this new chapter of your career?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, first off, just outside of basketball, it gives me a chance uh, you know, as boys coordinator and you know, to take on kind of a little bigger role, more responsibilities and things like that. Um I'm excited to be a part of, you know, uh my family, I think will be a good situation here uh in a community like this. But I'm excited to be here in a place where that has the rich tradition, uh, where the community and things like that support the program, um, show up on Tuesday and Friday nights uh and support the kids that the and to be part, work with these kids that, you know, they're in the gym. Uh the gym is open 24 hours a day almost, I'm pretty sure. There is somebody, like I'm sitting in here right now, there are a couple kids out there shooting. I haven't been in my office one time, and and there'd not be a kid out there uh on the floor shooting. So, so just kind of that culture uh and tradition uh that comes with being at Grayford.
SPEAKER_01So you haven't always been a head coach, obviously. You you were an assistant at Brock for 10 years, two years at Crumb. So you you're an assistant at successful programs for 12 years. Um for a lot of assistants, especially when you're winning, it it seems like you're ready to chase your own job, you're ready to lead your own program. Um so kind of talk about your assistant years and how difficult it was to stay patient and kind of wait for that right opportunity. And then looking back now, how did that time as an assistant prepare you for the success you've had as a coach? What would you tell that assistant, you know, that's out there right now that is kind of in that situation where they think, man, I think I could go ahead and do this. I'm just kind of waiting for my own, my own, you know, the right job, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I I think first and foremost, the the thing is to be patient and and make sure you take an opportunity that fits you and your expectations. You know, everybody's situation is different. Family situation, uh, your goals as a coach, things that are important to you. Uh you kind of have you have to have a really good understanding of who you are as a coach and what you really want and what you're looking for. Um and so yeah, just be patient and learn. Um, and that was the biggest thing. Yeah, when I got to Barack, I was excited. I went from, you know, when I took the parent head coaching job out of college, I thought I was, I didn't know any better. Uh, and it was one of the best things that could have happened to me, you know, it kind of just throw me into the fire like that. And I figured out real quick, I don't know everything. In fact, I know very far from half of everything at at the time, really. Um, and so I got the opportunity to go be at uh a place like Brock, and you know, I I loved it there. I enjoyed it there. We were highly successful. So that that made it easy to stay there and to be patient because we were always, you know, competing for a state championship pretty much every single year I was there. Um and so being able to learn uh from the coaches and go through the experiences uh that brought that that came with that. Um, you know, whether it's you know running learning how to run a successful program. It's one thing to have a really good season, you know, but more goes into establishing a strong, successful program that, you know, year in, year out, uh, with the expectations, the pressures, and things like that, how to manage all of that. Um like I said, I I was able to learn from, you know, my coach Bell was there, Jeff Bell was there when I first got there. I worked with him for three years, uh, which opened my eyes and learned a lot, you know, about you know, really discipline and and structure and and really how to run a practice and coach hard and and you know, get after uh the kids and things like that and and run a successful program. And then Coach Boxel, Zach Boxel came in uh kind of the same thing, you know, brought a kind of a similar philosophy but a different style. And uh again, gotta learn a lot from them and not just learning from under them, but making those deep playoff runs and competing against, you know, the Pisters and the Ponders every year in district and the shallow waters and walls and the region, uh, and being in scouting some of those teams and then watching film on other successful programs and you know, seeing what they do that makes them successful. And just over time, all of that experience and and things like that, and and the stuff that you take from coaches you work with and you work against just kind of adds up. Uh and then in 2020, I got a chance to go to Crumb and work with Coach Tabor, who I'd known for years and is a good friend of mine, runs a completely different offensive system. Um, and so I got to go learn that, and that was probably the most beneficial, I think, that that's helped me out as a head coach because I was exposed to, you know, a dribble drive system versus a motion system that I had been under, you know, with Coach Bell and Coach Boxell at Brock. And so that allowed me to kind of see both both different sides that are kind of different and then bring them together and and into kind of our our own kind of you know offensive system. Uh and then at the same time, I got to, you know, work at the foray level and coach against the Argyles and the Decaturs and things like that. So uh all of those experiences, all 12 years, you know, was a work in progress. And and I learned and grew every single year. And when the Paradise Job came open, you know, I wasn't sure, like I said earlier, you know, it took some, you know, convincing from some other coaches in the area and things like that, and kind of picking their brains, like, you know, this this'll be a good spot. And, you know, I went and interviewed and it felt right. And, you know, uh, luckily I was blessed with some, like they said, some really good players and uh, you know, really good things happened being there, but all of that came as a result of being a you know an assistant. And I and you know, I got a little bit, takes a little bit of luck, just like winning a state championship. It takes a little bit of luck. It takes that guy, you know, it takes making a three at the buzzer in the state semifinal. It takes, you know, even though you make a mistake, the other team missing a wide open three at the buzzer, you know, everything takes a little bit of luck. Um, but yeah, just be patient and and know what you're looking for. Don't rush into anything because, you know, if if you're gonna stick with this for your life and your career, you're gonna make a career out of being a coach. You've got a a long way to go. You're gonna coach a lot of games and uh you want to make sure uh you make the best decisions possible for you, your career, your family, and and things like that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, and the the names that you that you mentioned that you worked under, I mean, there's not many assistants out there that have worked under three names like that. I mean, Bell, Boxel, Tabor, you you just know who they are based on their last name. You don't even have to say their first name. Um the amount of wins just from those three alone is is insane. So I can't imagine the the you know knowledge that you gained, the wisdom that you gained. Um like you said, in the in the grand scheme of things of coaching, you coach for 40 years, 12 years doesn't seem like a lot, but it is in the time and and you're learning so much, I I can't imagine from those three guys uh I'm not impressive.
SPEAKER_00I'm nowhere near uh as you know successful or whatever you want to call it uh without those three guys, one hundred percent. They they've uh helped shape and mold me and and you know, uh make a big part in all the success that I'm able to experience as a head coach. It's it's due to a lot to spending time with those guys.
SPEAKER_01All right. So you were a coach's kid. So talk to, you know, how how did that factor into you wanting to become a coach, you know, later in life?
SPEAKER_00It is everything, honestly. It was everything. If I wasn't a coach's kid, there's a good chance I'm probably not sitting here right now. It was all I knew growing up, um, as a coach's kid, following my dad to practice, going on the, you know, the the bus rides and things like that when I was a little kid. Um when I graduated high school and and went to college, you know, I at first I I, you know, tried to do other things. You know, I my first major, I think, was sports medicine. And I did figured out I didn't want to do that. Uh I went, you know, criminal justice. And even when I graduate, then I went to education, and then even when I graduated from OU, uh, you know, I I was seriously, I worked at a golf course. I was like, I work at a golf course for a year, figure it out, or I was like, considered joining the military. But throughout all of that, everything kept, you know, coming back to basketball. Um, you know, like I said, uh, the sports medicine thing, that's something that came out. I I fell back, you know, that was something that I always knew. I didn't know how to be a business major. I didn't know what that meant. Um, but I knew how to be, I knew what it meant to be a basketball coach and a teacher and be in education. So that's what I was comfortable with, and that's what I knew and and uh things like that. And like I said, I like a lot of things, I luckily got a break midway through summer after I graduated and uh went at coaching school when it was in Fort Worth, uh went up there and ended up getting an interview and a job at at Parent and kind of the rest is history. But uh yeah, being the son of a coach, uh man, it's a great experience. Um now that I have a son of my own, uh I I'm going to try to encourage him to do something else with his life. Not that I don't love what I do, but uh, you know, it a lot of things are changing and things like that. And uh, you know, if he wants to do that, that'll be great. I'll support him. But uh it it makes our time like he's in the gym right now shooting. He's eight years old, and you know, he's ate up with it. And, you know, to bring hit be able to bring him with me to, you know, strength and condition camp and games and and my daughter and stuff like that to sit on the bench throughout as they grow up and be a part of it. Um, you know, there's not a lot of jobs out there where you can let your kids be a part of your job. They get to see what you do and and you get to hang out with them and spend time with them. So very blessed. And that's probably one of the best things about coaching, other than being able to impact, you know, the kids that you coach. It's being able to, you know, spend time with your kids on on top of, yeah, it takes some sacrifice and you lose some time with your family, but you also bless with some extra time with your family as well.
SPEAKER_01You're kind of leading into my my last question here. You know, I ask every coach kind of about work life balance. Um, because like you said, you you do lose some time. There are some sacrifices. The the coaching profession is such a demanding profession in terms of time. Um, you have late nights, road trips, early morning practices, road tournaments, holidays are spent in a gym at a basketball, at a basketball tournament, summer vacations are planned around summer leagues and shootouts and camps. So from the outside, you know, a lot of people don't see the sacrifices that are made. They just see a coach that has a bunch of wins and they don't know how it gets there. So how have you managed to, you know, balance being a good coach, a successful coach, while also trying to be a good husband and a good family man? Um, how have you and your wife specifically, you know, coaches' wives are some of the most underrated, not talked about people in the profession? Um, so how have how has your wife handled those long days and demands that kind of come with that profession as well?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, you've got to, like I told you with with coaching, you gotta know who you are and what your your goals are and things like that. I think you've got to know as an individual, you've got to keep your priorities in line, you know. And for us, you gotta have it's faith, then family, and then it's basketball and and your job and your work and things like that. Um basketball is basketball, and it's great to be successful and it's great to to to win and do all those things, and it takes a lot of work, but you have to prioritize your family um and and make them you know set them above the basketball as much as you possibly can. Because like you said, it it's not only just a basketball season thing, like kind of like we've talked about, it's a 365-day a year job and commitment now. Like you're in the gym doing something 365 days a year. Um so with with me and my wife and kids, you know, you you take advantage of the small time that you get. Uh, make sure you plan those vacations, make sure you set aside time on Sundays and family days and things like that. Um, because yeah, during basketball season, they're the ones that get stuck with, you know, being home alone, being at home with the kids while we're gone to games and things like that. You know, uh my kids are getting a little older now, but uh so they're with me. I'm able, like I said, to bring them with me a lot of the time to help her out with so she can work and do her kind of stuff. But uh it also as they get older, we get busier as well. Um, because they're doing their stuff now. So it's not just, hey, we've got basketball stuff. Now the kids have stuff, but and that's kind of where we spend most of our time together at now, is whether it's my daughter's softball games or my son's basketball games or whatever it is, that's just kind of part of our family life now. But yeah, you have to make a conscious effort because it's real easy, especially in the season, to get consumed by it, where it's 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you know, you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about basketball, you're you're gone to or first thing at, you know, in the morning to practice, you have games at night, you know, you don't see the sun come up or go down. You kiss your wife goodbye in the morning, you kiss her goodnight if she's still awake when you get home from a game, and and that takes a toll. So you have to make an effort when you get those chances, have those date nights, take those vacations as much as you possibly can. Be honest, be open, um, you know, be able to share your feelings and things like that, uh, which we could all probably do a better job of. Uh, but luckily I have a wife, you know, she understands it, she gets it. Um she w didn't know much about basketball when we got married, but over the past 17, 18 years or so, she's she's become a pretty good little basketball wife. So uh I'm super appreciative of her.
SPEAKER_01Hopefully you get a better setup in that in that new gym.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I'm I'm ready. Uh the gym should be ready by the start of basketball season. So I think the office and the setup will be a little bit better. This is it's gonna be a nice secondary gym. Uh hopefully the the environment, like I was saying, in the new gym will be what it was uh here in this old gym. Um and I'm sure the the Grayford fans and community will will definitely do their part and and make it tough to play in for our opponents.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, no doubt. So y'all are so you're gonna have three, because you have two right now, that back gym kind of so you're if you're keeping the back one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00There's there's the back one is small. And I think they're gonna build not right away, but it pretty quickly there'll be a back auxiliary gym up at the new school as well. So yeah, we're gonna have a tournament next year. We got 16 teams, I think eight boys' teams, eight girls' teams coming. Uh, so it's gonna be, you know, we're gonna do our best to make it one of the best tournaments here. I think we got the facilities for it, especially for small schools, one A's and two A's. Um we're gonna build it up, do it right, and uh it should be a really good time.
SPEAKER_01Well, like I said, thanks, seriously, thanks for being on. Best of luck. Um I'm I'm a LIPAN guy, but I'll be rooting for you.
SPEAKER_00I appreciate that. Yeah, we don't say the L-word around here.
SPEAKER_01Uh I I learned that pretty quick. But seriously, though, I'll be rooting for you. I was rooting for you at Paradise, obviously. We'll be rooting for you still. Um, so best of luck in the in the next year, and and we'll stay in touch for sure.
SPEAKER_00I appreciate it, man. Yeah, I will be sitting around and tell all your family. Uh I've said hello. Love each and every one of them. We'll do, man. See you later. See you, man.