Accomplished West Bend East coach battling rare brain disease

Community rallies around former girls basketball coach Rick Riehl

Gary D’Amato - JS Online

West Bend - Rick Riehl lives mostly in the past now, and that's a blessing because it means he is focused on the things that have been such an important part of his life. Once a coach, always a coach.

And so, in conversation that starts and stops and trails off, he talks about games won and lost, confusing facts and dates and sports but still in touch with the joy and occasional heartache they produced.

"I was the first one to die when we lost and I knew our players were better," he says. "But also I was the first one to tear-pop when we were better than we should have been, when we won more than we should have."

His smile lights up the room.

"His mind is in a happy place," says his wife, Donna. "You can tell. And I'm thankful for that."

Riehl, a retired teacher and former coach at West Bend East High School and a pillar of the community, has been diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an extremely rare, degenerative and invariably fatal brain disorder. There are about 300 cases annually in the United States.

CJD is especially cruel because of the speed with which it incapacitates. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the disease typically appears later in life and runs a rapid course. There is no cure, and about 90% of those afflicted die within a year.

Riehl, 66, is sitting at the kitchen table, the day's mail in front of him — another dozen cards from former students and players to add to an ever-growing stack. Friends and neighbors stop in regularly, or drop off meals. More than 370 people have commented on an Oct. 26 Facebook post, an outpouring of love for Riehl and his family that touches the heart.

"Holy cow," Riehl says. "I don't remember being that nice a guy."