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OGDEN — Randy Rahe's 16-year career at Weber State wrapped up Monday when he announced his retirement through the university.
But he's not the only Rahe stepping down after a storied career with the university and local community. If you ask the Big Sky's all-time winningest men's basketball coach after wrapping up a three-decade career, he may tell you he wasn't even the best.
After a career that spanned playing, coaching and ultimately officiating Division I women's basketball, Laura Rahe is joining her husband in retirement. For the bulk of Randy Rahe's career leading young players on the basketball court, including a certain six-time NBA All-Star in Damian Lillard, Laura Rahe also developed her own passion at the university — training and educating young teachers through Weber State's education program, as a professor and supervisor of student teachers.
On the side, she didn't give up basketball, either, officiating mostly the women's game in the Mountain West, Western Athletic and West Coast conferences with occasional sidesteps to work men's basketball scrimmages.
"In 16 years, she never missed a call," Randy Rahe told local media on a video call of his wife's record as a referee, with a cheeky smile on his face while she laughed in the chair next to him. "She asked me to review the film several times, and she never did."
Rahe, 61, has been a coach for 36 years, and his wife was a referee for close to 30. Fitting, as it was the game of basketball that brought them together, when Randy Rahe was an assistant coach at Colorado College and he showed up to recruit during a boys high school game in Basalt, Colorado.
He arrived early enough that the girls team was still on the court. But before he could turn to leave, one of the coaches on the bench caught his eye, sparking a courtship and a marriage that stills burns nearly 30 years later.
The Rahes have grown up with the Ogden community for the past 16 years, since Randy Rahe was hired in 2006 after spending three years on the bench as an assistant at the University of Utah. At the time, the couple's two sons Luke and Kade were 4 and 6, respectively, still learning the basics of the game that brought their parents together and making sure dad contributed to the family's "cuss jar" when his Division I basketball coach's language spread over to the dining room.
Both sons are now Weber State students, and mom and dad have no plans beyond enjoying the sunsets and finding out what's next in life's great adventure.
Well, no plans, except for one.
"I've got him on a training program," Laura Rahe said. "We're going to leave in a week, go to Italy and ride bikes through Tuscany, then go to Rome and hang out with the Pope for a few days. He'll be on a bike for a few days. We want to go there, and really enjoy our experience.
"Once we get back, we don't know."
The plan to retire came about rather quickly — as quick as it took Eric Duft, Rahe's long-time assistant and the new head coach at Weber State, to move into his new office, the old boss jokes.
It was just last week that the Rahes were in Hilton Head, South Carolina, combining one of Randy's recruiting visits with a couple's vacation. After one particularly long day, they opened a bottle of wine to sip — "which is what I'm really good at," he quips — and turned their thoughts to the upcoming June period, to offseason workouts and practices, to rebuilding a team losing Utah State and Marquette transfer Kobe McEwen, Florida transfer Dontay Bassett, Utah Valley transfer JJ Overton, and other seniors like Michal Kozak and Donatas Kupsas.
Every season requires a rebuild or a retool or a re-recruitment of some kind; it's simply the life of a college basketball coach. But Randy Rahe knew that when that retool became too much — when he didn't have the passion or the energy or the wherewithal to put 100% into the offseason like he often required of each of his players in-season — then it might be time to call it a career.
And last week, he had that feeling.
"This happened pretty quickly, so we haven't made a lot of plans," Rahe said. "We'll kind of figure it out as we go.
"This is time for me and Laura. I think I quit at the right time, because she still likes me a little bit. A couple of more years to go, and she might not like me as much."
What Randy Rahe will remember are the players, the administrators and the relationships he built over the past two decades with Weber State, the Ogden community, and the state of Utah. He'll remember less about the wins and losses — 316 of the former, a Big Sky record, and 191 of the latter, but who's counting? — and more about the people he knew, the jokes made in his office, the assists that have come and gone.
Randy Rahe had plenty of opportunities to leave Weber State, but he never did. And now just feels like the time is right.
"One of the reasons I felt like I need to be here was the family atmosphere, the other coaches, the administrators, everyone involved in Weber State," he said. "I couldn't find a reason to get out of here, and I'm grateful they've let me stick around."
Of course, he's also not unaware of the changing landscape of college basketball, from the transfer portal to new controls on players' name, image and likeness rights. He knows things are changing, just like the world always changes, and the job of a coach is to adapt and survive. Rahe has always tried to treat his players the same way, whether they are in his program for one year or five.
The portal and the ease at which players can move around in today's game sometimes makes that more challenging. He's lost players to transfers, but Rahe has also used the portal as well as anyone, including bringing McEwen back to the state where he attended Wasatch Academy before signing with Utah State and eventually departing for more playing time in Milwaukee.
"I don't think you can coach Division I basketball without having genuine, caring relationships with your guys," Rahe said.
But ...
"I'm an old-school guy," he added. "Some of this stuff going on in college basketball maybe doesn't fit me as much. But whether it's better or worse, that's for each coach to determine."
What is left for Randy and Laura Rahe to determine is their next vacation, which of Randy's former players they want to watch in the NBA or overseas, and which bottle of wine they'll open next. With the closing of each chapter, a new one begins.
The game that brought them together probably won't be far away, though.
"Basketball brought us together," Laura Rahe said. "I coached until I got married, and I went right into officiating. But I think it's really fit me — and I think it's fit both of us. We've been able to understand each other's passion and drive. I'm a little sad to let those joys go, but we've got a bright, wide-open future, and we're going to keep expanding rather than expiring. I can't wait."
