Ben Rikkola has resigned as boys basketball coach at Southern Door High School. The Eagles (10-4) finished third in the Packerland Conference this season and will have 10 varsity players returning next season. Rikkola said that time away from his family made it too difficult to continue….[audio:http://wdor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ben1.mp3|titles=Ben Rikkola- family time was cut short]Rikkola admitted that the job was more time consuming than he thought and required a little more work than he anticipated from the start….[audio:http://wdor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ben2.mp3|titles=Ben Rikkola- Not the original plan]Coach mentioned fundraising efforts, running youth camps and coordinating offseason schedules as the “extra stuff” that goes into running a program. Rikkola said that his resignation was turned in on April 1st, the day before the Southern Door referendum failed. Rikkola added that this was a very difficult decision….[audio:http://wdor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ben3.mp3|titles=Ben Rikkola- Difficult Decision] Rikkola concluded by saying that Southern Door has good players and that’s not going to change. In two seasons under Rikkola, the Eagles went (21-25) overall and (17-11) in the Packerland Conference.
