FRANKFORT — It took 24 years of collecting trophies and memories, but the towel is finally being thrown in.
Tim Reznich, who almost always has a purple towel over his left shoulder while roaming the sideline, is retiring as Frankfort’s girls basketball coach.
Reznich posted a 406-162 career record in 24 seasons leading the Frankfort program, guiding the Panthers to 17 district, eight regional titles, seven Northwest Conference and two state championships.
“We’ve had a lot of great kids come through the program,” Reznich said. “They worked so hard. It was fun to push them to a level higher than they might have expected.”
Reznich started his coaching career at Detroit Cooley as a boys basketball assistant.
Reznich, 57, isn’t retiring as a teach yet. He instructs physics, Earth science and sustainable ecology at Frankfort.
“I’ve had a great opportunity to meet a lot of great people,” Reznich said. “Even the officials. Great people.”
Reznich is a six-time regional Coach of the Year by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan, won the Class D Coach of the Year from BCAM once and the state’s overall Coach of the Year from the group in 2006-07, when the Panthers won their second of consecutive Class D state championships.
He served as president of BCAM in 2014, has been on the organization’s board of directors ever since and runs its Hall of Honor, which honors non-head coaches for their involvement in high school basketball (such as inducting former Record-Eagle sports editor Nick Edson in 2003).
“I love running practices and doing all the teaching there,” Reznich said. “I’m so proud of all the girls with the program and seeing how well they’re doing. I love watching kids going to college and seeing all the great things they’re doing.”
Part of the reason for stepping away is having two assistants who are ready to step up in Lindsey (Pettit) Banktson and Presley (Hudson) Kreski.
Banktson, an all-state player at Portland and Reznich’s assistant coach for a dozen years, is a physician assistant with Crystal Lake Clinic.
Kreski is Central Michigan University’s all-time leader in points and assists and had coaching stints as an assist at Western Michigan and CMU before joining Frankfort’s staff in 2023.
“I’ve had two of the best assistants in the state, and they’re both hungry,” Reznich said. “One of my favorite things is being in the gym, working on basketball with the kids. All the other things are just tiring, especially by the end of the year. (Banktson and Kreski) have so much energy and they’re going to be great.”
Ryan Knudsen coached against Reznich for a dozen years at Leland, plus several more when the two led boys junior varsity teams at their schools when the girls season was in fall.
“The thing that stoop out about Rez was how disciplined his teams were,” Knudsen said. “You could tell he did things the right way with his kids. He was very good at sharing things with younger coaches. Basketball in northern Michigan is better because of having Reznich over the years.”
Matt Schelich and Reznich go way back. Even farther than they originally thought.
They’ve been coaching in the same conference the last 24 seasons, usually going head-to-head twice a year. Then they discovered they played against each other in high school, when Reznich was at Roscommon and Schelich, 54, at Beaverton.
“They were always intense, hard-fought games,” Schelich said. “We’re both old-school. We believe in getting kids in the gym and working on things. He’s a simplistic coach, and that’s what I love about him. We’ve gone fishing a couple times and we need to go more. He’s just a great guy.”
The Stags and Panthers developed a long friendly rivalry, and Kingsley would play in Reznich’s Frankfort Shootout each summer against bigger downstate teams.
Reznich said he appreciated his family supporting his coaching career.
“I can’t even imagine the hours I spent away from family,” he said.
His daughter Lucy played for him and his son Jack was a team manager.
Reznich also thanked the Frankfort administration, which he said never told him no when he wanted to take the team on a long road trip to play top competition.