Fresno State Athletics
Reinert Brings His Hammer to Work
6/10/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
June 10, 2010
FRESNO, Calif. - As the Associate Head Coach of the Fresno State Bulldogs men's basketball team, Jeff Reinert oversees the team's defense, development of post players, recruiting, scheduling, and most importantly, academics.
When Reinert joined the Fresno State men's basketball team in 2007, the 25-year coaching veteran was prepared to coach the team's players on the floor, but wasn't exactly sure what he had begun.
Reinert was an assistant coach at Oregon State for five seasons and before that, he was the head coach at Utah Valley State College for eight seasons. Reinert came to Fresno State to advance his career and get one step closer to a Division I head coaching job.
But without even knowing it, Reinert accepted a challenge to help turn around a program that had been struggling with academic problems.
"I didn't know about those issues when I came here," Reinert said. "Once I was here and saw the emphasis we needed to have on academics, I was a good fit for this program. This is an area I excel in."
Before Head Coach Steve Cleveland was hired in 2005-06, the program had posted poor NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores resulting in penalties. According to Reinert, the coaching staff has been working diligently to address those academic issues and their hard work is paying off.
"When I came here, we had a lot of student-athletes that weren't interested in achieving in the classroom," Reinert said. "With Coach Cleveland's support, we were able to get these young men to graduate through a lot of monitoring and checking."
And graduating players is a key factor to the APR scores.
The APR scores are measured on two main components: eligibility and university retention. Each player is awarded points for these components every year they are with the program. If a player remains eligible every year and is retained by the university, they will eventually graduate and boost the program's APR scores.
"We have graduated a lot of kids recently and we have encouraged former student-athletes to come back and finish their degrees," Reinert said. "There are three or four guys that have 15 credits or less to finish their degree and we would like to see them come back and finish their degrees."
That has been one of the greatest challenges facing the coaching staff - keeping players focused on academics and moving towards graduation.
"Most kids come here because they want to play basketball here. That's the number one reason they are here," Reinert said. "The second reason is that they have a desire to get a degree, but it's probably not as great as that passion to play basketball. They have to understand that they can't do one without the other."
Reinert's passion for education began in his playing days at Gonzaga University. After beginning his college basketball career at University of New Mexico, Reinert transferred to Gonzaga, a school in his native state of Washington.
While playing for the Zags, Reinert experienced personal academic growth and became inspired.
"Out of high school, I wasn't a great student. I was an average student," Reinert said. "I had my struggles in college, but by the time I left Gonzaga, I was an Academic All-League-type player. I take great pride in that."
And that pride has become infectious. According to Reinert, the 'Dogs' most recent APR score was 928, three points higher than NCAA requires. Since the Bulldogs' 2003-04 score, Reinert says the program has improved every year and is now at full scholarship strength. After the current season, the team will no longer be on probation and the academic struggles will be a thing of the past.
Even though it is apparent that Reinert has done great work overseeing academics, he gives credit to Dr. Susan Gutkind, the university's Assistant Athletics Director for Academic Services, Cheng Ao, the basketball team's academic advisor, and the players themselves.
Reinert, a liaison between Academic Services and the players, calls himself "The Hammer." When Gutkind or Ao advise the players, it is his responsibility to come down on the players and keep things in order.
While it has been difficult at times, seeing a project nearing its completion has been rewarding for Reinert and the coaching staff.
"Would I have liked it to be less of a challenge? Yes, 100 percent," Reinert said. "But we are at a point now where concern and worry isn't at the alarming level it was two years ago or a year ago. Every year it has gotten better - to the credit of the kids that have taken passion in valuing their education."
While the credit goes to the players' hard work and dedication to their education, the 'Dogs wouldn't have been able to build their strong academic foundation without "The Hammer."
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