File photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm girls’ basketball coach Dan Reinhart hugs his daughter Meleah Reinhart after a loss in the Section 2AAA girls’ basketball championship game to Waseca at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. Reinhart coached at NUHS for four years, compiling a record of 60-49.

NEW ULM — The search is on for a new head girls’ basketball coach at New Ulm High School after Dan Reinhart submitted a letter of resignation on Wednesday.

Reinhart, who has been the head girls’ basketball coach for four years, said his reason for his resigning was family.

“Basically I am resigning to be a dad,” said Reinhart, who is a sixth grade math teacher. “I want to watch my daughter Meleah play college basketball at Southwest State — I can’t get those four years back that I would be missing if I kept coaching high school basketball. That is it in a nutshell — I waited it out and Troy [Guentzel, New Ulm High School Activities Director] gave me some time to think about it. The Northern Sun Conference [where Southwest State plays] is basically a Friday and Saturday league and there were going to be too many conflicts. In talking with people who have had kids that have played college sports, those four years fly by and you can never get those four years back so that is why I made my decision.”

Reinhart, who compiled a 60-49 mark in his four years at NUHS including a 23-6 record this last season, said that the decision to step down “was a tough decision. You invest a lot of time with these kids and we have a lot of good kids in the program — that was hard to tell the kids and the parents. But the cupboard is not bare. There is plenty of talent coming back. So it was not easy to do but in the end I think someone said that blood is thicker than water.

“I want to be a dad and watch Meleah play some basketball at Southwest State,” he said. “Troy knew this decision was coming and I have gotten nothing but support from the administration at New Ulm High School.”

Reinhart has coached his daughter basically since kindergarten with NUBA (New Ulm Basketball Association) and did ask for her opinion.

“I did talk to Meleah prior to making my decision and she thought that it would be in my best interest to keep coaching,” he said. “She knows that I have zero hobbies in the winter. But I told her that when she is playing in Marshall on a Friday and Saturday night and we have back-to-back games here on a Friday and Saturday are you going to want me in your gym — she said that it would be nice to have you at my game.

“She knew that I loved doing what I was doing but I think that she is going to like my support at her games too,” Reinhart said. “She kind of waivered on it but I think that she knows I will be involved with the girls’ basketball in some way here whether it is coaching a seventh or eighth grade team. I know the importance of having people that know what they are doing down there at that level.”

Reinhart said that whoever is hired as the new head coach, “I will support 100 percent. But anytime you give something up where you have made strides forward was tough. I am going to miss coaching — I have been either a head coach or an assistant coach for 28 years for boys’ or girls’ basketball.”

But could Reinhart come back as a head coach again?

“I told someone Thursday who has a fourth grade daughter that four years from now when Meleah has graduated — I get refreshed a little bit, I will still be in my mid 50s — who knows what will happen four years from now. I might be at it again.”