Former Colt will visit Wednesday

When he was a youngster, Joe Reitz used to spend his summers in Jay County.

He and his brother Andy stayed with cousins Ben Reinhart and Pete and Nick May.

During the week of the Jay County Fair, the four of them used to run wild around the fairgrounds. They were nearly impossible to pry away from the rides and attractions.

But as he got older, went away to college and had a nine-year career in the National Football League, Reitz was never able to return to the fair.

Until now.

Reitz, who in March retired from the Indianapolis Colts, will visit the Jay County Fair from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday in conjunction with Colts In Motion, a 42-foot long traveling museum.

“It is really special for me,” said Reitz, a Fishers native who currently lives in Westfield with his wife Jill, and four young children. “My roots are in Jay County. That is the truth. My mom and dad grew up there. I have a ton of aunts and uncles and cousins that still live there.”

His parents Dave and Jane (Hemmelgarn) Reitz are Jay County High School graduates.

He is related to the Hemmelgarn clan — including 2014 JCHS graduate Eric Hemmelgarn, who plays football for University of Saint Francis.

“We would bounce back and forth from family farm to family farm,” Reitz said of visiting Jay County as a child. “I have a lot of great memories as a kid and especially at the Jay County Fair.

“It is really going to be cool to see it now as an adult and in a different way.”

Fair board president Rob Weaver said it was an easy decision to try to get Reitz to visit the place he spent so much time as a child

“He’s always been one of Jay County’s favorites because his parents are both JCHS graduates,” Weaver said. “We’ve enjoyed following his career through the years he’s been on the Colts. We could never get him before because he was still on the team.”

Optional team activities (OTAs) and preparing for training camp often kept Reitz from doing too much during the summer months.

“Once he retired, we thought ‘Why not?’” Weaver said.

John Hemmelgarn, Portland building and planning director and Reitz’s uncle, first floated the idea to the former Western Michigan University basketball standout to visit Jay County during the fair. Hemmelgarn put his nephew in contact with Weaver, and the ball started rolling.

“I thought it’d be pretty cool that the Colts will be coming up,” said Reitz, who was an ambassador for the Colts for the April’s NFL Draft in Philadelphia. “Obviously I have a lot of family ties in Jay County, so it was a real fit for me and I’m glad my schedule was able to work out for me to be able to come up and be a part of it.”

Weaver agreed.

“We thought it was a natural to have him here with the Colts In Motion museum,” he said.

Reitz’s road to NFL retirement wasn’t an easy one. He had aspirations of playing professional basketball overseas after his time in Kalamazoo, Michigan. But a couple NFL teams came knocking after his junior season.

He signed as an undrafted free agent with the Baltimore Ravens in 2008 and spent two seasons on their practice squad. He was waived by the Ravens in September 2010, and was picked up by the Miami Dolphins, but his stint with the team lasted just three days as he was waived yet again.

His hometown team, Indianapolis, claimed him — but again waived him — before re-signing him as a practice squad member.

It wasn’t until Aug. 16, 2011, that Reitz made his first career start.

“It was an unbelievable ride for me,” he said. “It was a long, hard journey. Lot of twists and turns.

“There are a lot of great memories and a lot of great friendships I’ve formed that I’ll have for the rest of his life.”

And now that his schedule has opened up during the summer months, he hopes to continue working with and representing the Colts in the future.

“I had a great career and loved my time in Indianapolis,” he said. “I look forward to continuing my relationship with the Colts, the horseshoe and continuing to give back to the community and to the Colts.”

Reitz enjoyed his time as a child at the fair with his brother and cousins, and looks forward to a chance to share the same experience with his wife Jill and their four children — 6-year-old Juliana, 4-year-old AJ, 2-year-old Virginia and the newest Reitz, 10-week-old Johnny.

“Kind of a full-circle experience, I guess,” he said, noting it will be a game-time decision as to whether he makes the roughly 80-mile drive alone or with a full vehicle. “Something I did as a kid and now I get to share it with my family. It is pretty special.”