Compelled to Coach: David Reske ’16

COMPELLED TO COACH

DAVID RESKE ’16 RETURNS THE FAVOR

—By Brendan J. O’Brien, Director of Communication

WHIP and wOBA and WAR. More and more baseball is becoming a sport dominated by data.

Funny that the most important aspect of the game doesn’t have a thing to do with statistics.

“Going through middle school and high school sports here I had really good coaches,” says David Reske ’16, Varsity Baseball Assistant. “I had Coach Oakland for soccer and Coach Mallwitz for baseball and they both set really good examples of how you can impact a kid,” Reske says.

Reske’s love for baseball has been lifelong. After graduating from Prairie he attended Marquette University where he played four years for the school’s club team. After graduation from MU, he returned to Prairie to teach 4th grade and wasted little time in finding his way to the dugout.

“Coach Mallwitz was great with relationships,” he says. “We stayed in touch after high school. Just how much love he showed his players not only as athletes, but as people off the field. That’s something I’ve tried to emulate. Not just ‘I’m your coach,’ but ‘do you need help with school?’ ‘Do you need help looking at colleges?’ ‘Do you need help with whatever it might be?’”

And while numbers in baseball aren’t going away, the reasons David Reske fell in love with our national pastime – the beauty, the camaraderie, the relationships – will remain his priority as long as he puts on a jersey.

“I’ve grown up loving baseball my entire life. I’m doing what I can to help kids feel the same so they become the ones passing that love down in the future,” he says. “I want to be the reason that even if a kid doesn’t necessarily have a ton of success, they’re still considering coming back out next year just because they enjoyed playing and being on the team.”

Premiere 2022

Join us for Premiere 2022: Thrive, an evening to support the Prairie Scholarship Program.

Some fifty years ago, in 1971, the very first Prairie fundraiser – a rummage sale – took shape from a desire to make Prairie more accessible. Today that blueprint has morphed into Prairie Premiere, and that dream continues as more and more deserving students are able to experience the benefits of a Prairie education.

Your support of Premiere makes Prairie possible.

for more information visit: prairieschool.com/premiere

QUESTIONS? WANT TO GET INVOLVED?

W I T H A L U M N I I N

Contact Austin Gundlach, Assistant Director of Advancement: 262.752.2524 // agundlach@prairieschool.com