Rigby returns

In the 2005-06 season, Tyler Rigby was the leading scorer on the Patriots’ state finals team.

Twenty years later, he will be leading them again.

Jay School Board hired Rigby on Monday to become the next Jay County High School boys basketball coach.

“I’m excited,” Rigby said. “I’m ready to get going. I think we’re missing out already … From a coaching standpoint, that’s where my mind goes to. …

“I’m ready to be back in the community. It’s been a little while.”

Rigby was selected out of a group of about two dozen candidates. Four were brought in for an interview with a committee that included school board members, administrators and a community member.

“We are thrilled to welcome coach Rigby back to Jay County,”said JCHS athletics director Alex Griffin. “Tyler brings not only a strong basketball pedigree but also a genuine commitment to developing student-athletes both on and off the court. His vision and outlook for our community youth basketball program is exciting too.”

Rigby has spent his entire professional career as an assistant coach for Indiana University – East in Richmond, where he played college basketball for three seasons. He started as a volunteer in 2011 while finishing his degree and then became a full-time assistant. His duties included scouting and recruiting, as well as focusing on the defensive end of the floor for the Red Wolves.

During Rigby’s tenure as an assistant, IU East has made eight NAIA tournament appearances, including advancing to the Final Four in 2016 and ’18. It won five straight regular-season conference titles from 2015 through ’19 and was the conference tournament champion four times in a span of six seasons.

Rigby has also been an assistant coach for the cross country and track teams, and he oversees the Graf Recreation Center.

He said the timing was right to come home to Jay County.

“The way college athletics is going isn’t necessarily in a direction I’ve enjoyed,” he said.

“Just timing, family,” added the father of three children, ages 8, 5 and 1. “We wanted to move, something different. We’ve been there for a long time. Not that it isn’t great … but maybe it’s time for a change.”

He said he plans to run a motion offense, similar to the systems he grew up playing in at JCHS and then continued with at IU East. He said there will be freedom to operate with an understanding of the capabilities of the personnel.

His focus, though, will be on the defensive end, which has been his bread and butter with the Red Wolves.

“As far as Xs and Os, basketball stuff, it’s not rocket science,” he said. “I’m really focused on defense. … It’s going to be very defensive oriented. We talk a lot about that, spend a lot of time on it.”

Rigby, a Bryant native, will return to the court where he played his high school career, including a senior season in which he was the leading scorer on the Patriot team that advanced to the 2006 Class 3A state championship game. His iconic play that year, though, came on a pass rather than a shot as he assisted on Corey Comer’s semi-state game-winner to beat Plymouth at Lafayette Jefferson.

A week later, he was named the Arthur L. Trester Award for Mental Attitude winner following Jay County’s 51-43 loss to New Castle at what was then Conseco Fieldhouse.

He played one season at IU Southeast before shifting to IU East, where he was an NAIA honorable mention All-American as a junior, earned the NAIA National Champions of Character Award as a senior and finished as IU East’s all-time leading scorer with 1,708 points. He still holds the school’s record for free throws in a game with 14.

He’s been in Richmond ever since.

Now, he’s excited to return to the court and community that hold so many special basketball memories.

“It clearly means a lot,” said Rigby, who also advanced to the boys tennis state finals with doubles partner (and basketball teammate) Randy Evans during his senior season. “It’s going to be fun to represent the community again in a different capacity.

“Same principles. Same character. … Just a different group of people at a different time in life.

“But I think that part’s going to be fun, to get back into the community and to be able to try to bring the community together like when I played here.”