PORT ST. LUCIE — Treasure Coast is seeking a new boys basketball coach.

Titans coach Rob Recknagel resigned for personal reasons, but will remain at the school as a science teacher. In two seasons, Recknagel guided Treasure Coast to two regional appearances and a 32-22 record.

“It was a tough decision for me to make, and I will miss it, but basically I wanted to spend more time with my kids,” said Recknagel, who has two young children, 3-year-old Brady and 4-year-old Ella. “I knew eventually I would get to a point where I would want to spend more time with my kids than someone else’s kids.

“It was a good experience. We were successful, and it’s tough to leave the returning seniors and the kids in the program.”

Recknagel submitted a letter of resignation about a month ago, but athletic director Dan Comeau said he encouraged the coach to “let the dust settle and keep thinking about it.” Recknagel recently informed Comeau of his final decision and the job opening was posted last week through the St. Lucie County School District’s Paperless Applicant Tracking system online.

“It was very hard to accept,” Comeau said. “He had done such a wonderful job here at Treasure Coast. He instilled a lot of discipline and stability. Just watching his coaching technique and demeanor on the court with the kids, he related well with them, and he taught the game of basketball well. He displayed a lot of passion for the kids and the game.”

In Recknagel’s first season, Treasure Coast bounced back from a 4-18 debut in 2006-07 to finish 17-11. The Titans finished 15-11 this year as District 13-5A runners-up and regional quarterfinalists for a second straight season.

A series of bizarre incidents occurred during the team’s district final against Sebastian River when the Titans were penalized for three technical fouls, an unruly fan was tossed from the game and several players had to be restrained while jawing at fans across the gymnasium. But Recknagel said that did not discourage him from returning.

“It was an unfortunate situation, but it had no impact on my decision,” Recknagel said. “It was frustrating, but things happen in the heat of the moment and I think we learned a lot from it.”

Comeau said no deadline has been set on applications, but he hopes to “close this fairly quickly.”
By Laurel Pfahler, TCPalm.com

Tags: basketball, coach, recknagel, resigned, Schools, teacher

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 8:38 am and is filed under Port St. Lucie, Schools, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.