New coach Hired
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Riley is the second coach named named to replace Mike Billingsly, who took a position to coach at Lincoln Trail College.
A couple of weeks ago the Randolph County Herald Tribune reported that Jason Bauer had been named, but within 24 hours he decided not to take the position because of family affairs.
"I am extremely excited about the head coach position. I finally get a chance to run the show. I hope the athletes give me a high level of commitment and are ready to go when it comes time to play," states Riley.
Riley was the freshman head coach and assistant varsity coach at Indian Creek High School in Shabbona, IL for the 2005-2007 seasons.
He graduated O'Fallon High School in O'Fallon, IL in 1998. In 2002, he graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a Bachelors Degree in History and Secondary Education. He then attended Southwestern Illinois College in 2003 to add Sociology to his teaching degree after friends said jokingly that "he will have a hard time finding a history job."
In 2007, he got married and returned to the St. Louis area. His wife currently works in the East St. Louis area.
"I am very competitive when it comes to sports, I like to get the win," adds Riley. "I would like to have a deep bench with solid players, but if players don't practice, they don't play."
He plans to work with the grade school level in the future to help get a solid basketball program. His plans are to incorporate a pressure defense, scoring on the fast breaks and utilizing his half court sets that will help get the fast breaks needed to score quick and early.
For the current upcoming school year he will be busy commuting back and forth from St. Louis. He will be teaching five different subjects; Sociology, Illinois History, Current Events, Economics and World History. His futures plans are to move closer to the area, but due to the fact he has recently just purchased a new home in the St. Louis area and the current housing market, he knows his home will be hard to sell. Riley adds, "I would like to be a part of the community, but in the meantime, I'll get use to the drive."