Leigh Reiniche adds adapted PE, Unified sports in addition to role as girls volleyball coach at BBCHS

For some college athletes, a season-ending injury can derail a career. But for Leigh Reiniche, it was just the start.

After partially tearing her Achilles tendon as a sophomore on the University of Tennessee-Martin women’s volleyball team in 2001, Reiniche, a 2000 Bradley-Bourbonnais graduate, was given a redshirt year.

During that fifth year as an undergrad, she realized she wanted to follow a path of teaching and coaching.

That led her to ultimately leave college with a master’s degree in K-12 physical education and high school health and the start of a career she hoped could lead her to be as impactful on her students as her own mentor and coach, Darla Moldenhauer.

After a dozen years at Grant Park, including eight as the head volleyball coach, Reiniche was able to live a dream when she returned to her alma mater in 2019.

While that move in itself was a pinch-me moment for Reiniche, not even in her wildest of dreams could she have imagined a role she’s grown into as an adapted PE teacher and coach for the school’s Unified basketball and track and field teams.

“It would have been a dream,” Reiniche said. “I never would have imagined being back here, No. 1, and having an amazing experience to be able to be an adapted teacher, a volleyball coach and hopefully a mentor and role model for youth.”

Adapted PE is a PE class modified to fit students with varying physical, mental, social and emotional disabilities. Reiniche and fellow PE teacher Maddy Smietanski became co-teachers of the class at the start of the semester.

As a student herself, Reiniche had never seen or heard of anything other than a standard PE class. When she first started teaching at Grant Park, all able students took the same PE classes.

As the Boilermakers’ girls volleyball coach, Reiniche’s team holds an annual Best Buddies night to recognize members of the school’s program that encourages friendship and inclusion.

She’s in her second year coaching the school’s Unified track and field team and just finished her first year as a coach for the state champion Unified basketball team.

Now, the middle portion of her day has become her favorite.

Her fourth- and fifth-hour classes consist of adapted PE classes and their peer student leaders. Units have consisted of everything from soccer to swimming, as well as a weekly Fitness Friday of rotational stations of different games and sports. Nitroball, a game where students circle up and attempt to keep the ball in the air by any means necessary, seems to be a favorite.

Fourth-hour adapted PE member Adrian Zaragova, who said he likes Reiniche for not only her helpfulness, but also because “she can be silly sometimes,” enjoys his time in adapted PE for several reasons.

“I enjoy it because I just want to make new friends and visit new people, show some good teamwork and sportsmanship,” Zaragova said. “No matter what we play, we always participate.”

That’s a sentiment shared by the peer leaders from the Best Buddies program. Senior Max LaMore knows that when fourth hour comes every day, he’s about to have a blast.

“I love seeing the smiles on the buddies’ faces when I walk in here,” LaMore said. “I love helping them get better at skills, whether it’s a physical skill or emotional skill.”

While Reiniche did have some experience taking special education classes in college, working with special education students at this close level is something she had limited familiarity with until she started getting involved in Best Buddies and Unified sports.

Her involvement there is something that adapted PE student leaders Emma Baxter and Kate Prairie think is a perfect fit for her.

“She’s a really good teacher and so accommodating to everyone,” Baxter, a senior, said. “She’s very considerate of everyone’s feelings. She’ll ask your opinion, ask how your day is. She cares.”

“She’s very energetic for the kids and likes to bring fun to the class,” Prairie said. “She’s also very caring and very accommodating to the kids and skills that they have. But I feel like mainly her happiness and energy brings the happiness from the kids out as well.”

When Reiniche was a Boilers student-athlete herself, one of the lessons she learned from Moldenhauer was to give all she had in whatever she does.

So, that’s what she does every day in PE. It’s what she does after school as a coach, where she’s gone 125-91 since returning home.

It’s also what she does as wife to Denise and mom to Sydney, a freshman at Illinois State, and Paige and Morgan, twin sophomores at Bradley-Bourbonnais.

“I just feel like I try and give 100% in everything that I do,” Reiniche said, her voice trailing off as it gave way to emotion before Smietanski filled in.

“She’s over 100%. 150%,” Smietanski said. “It never goes unnoticed.”