From Division I to Yuma

New Gila Ridge coach brings NCAA experience

When Longwood University decided to part ways with women’s basketball coach Bill Reinson in March, Reinson asked his wife, Lana, what she wanted to do.

She had spent the past 17-plus years following him around as he lived out his dream as a college basketball coach, and it was her turn to decide where the family would live.

“She said, ‘I want to go to Yuma, Arizona, and go into business with my sister,’” Reinson recalled.

“And that’s what brought me here.”

Indeed, that’s the short story of how the Gila Ridge girls basketball program landed arguably one of the most overqualified coaches this area has ever seen.

Reinson, who moved to Yuma less than two months ago, is in his first season as Gila Ridge’s girls basketball coach. He didn’t move here to take this job, but rather it was a coincidence that there was an opening after he and his wife — who plans to remodel homes — had already decided to move to Yuma.

Reinson spent the past eight years as the head women’s basketball coach at Longwood in Farmville, Virginia, where he previously worked as an assistant on the Lancers’ men’s basketball staff from 200210.

“I was just going to look for a regular job (in Yuma),” he said. “Right about the time I started to move down here, my sisterin-law called me and said, ‘Hey, I think they’re looking for a head girls coach at Gila Ridge.’

“So I sent in a resume — applied just like any other ‘Joe’ — and was fortunate enough they gave me an opportunity to continue coaching.”