[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 69 (Monday, April 20, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1836-S1837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO KEITH RILEY

  Mr. MORAN. Madam President, the residents of Hill City, KS, a county 
seat town in Northwest Kansas will experience something new next 
winter: a new boys basketball coach will be on the sidelines for the 
Hill City Ringnecks. After 58 seasons as the head coach of Hill City 
High School, Keith Riley has officially retired.
  Today, I pay tribute to his career, not just as a coach on the 
basketball court and the track field, but also as a teacher in the 
classroom.
  His success was the result of his genuine interest in the well-being 
of the students who walked the halls of Hill City High School. Whether 
kids played for him or simply took his industrial arts classes, Coach 
Riley sought to help them achieve their full potential.
  Like so many educators, he cared about his students, and they knew he 
cared. He freely gave his time to kids who asked to spend an extra hour 
in the evening shooting hoops or a Sunday afternoon in the spring 
learning to pole-vault.
  When class projects were due at the end of the school year, he stayed 
in the woodworking shop late into the evening so his students could 
apply that last coat of varnish.
  Under his leadership, Coach Riley's team won more than 800 games and 
3 State titles--plus another 6 track and field championships--and his 
students won class projects; they won competitions there.
  In those seasons where there was less success, his expectations for 
his players remained unchanged. Talent wasn't required to play hard and 
do the fundamentals well.
  Teaching basketball over decades required him to be a student of the 
game himself. He would watch KU practice under Ted Owens, Larry Brown, 
Bill Self and take those ideas home to Hill City from Lawrence. He 
learned from other peers at coaching clinics and befriended many of 
them. His own work ethic and that of his players would result in him 
being inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches 
Association Hall of Fame in 2018. But for Coach Riley, personal 
accolades were far less important than the success of his kids, in high 
school and beyond.
  Many of his players went on to become teachers and coaches too, no 
doubt running the same plays they learned from him. His assistant 
coaches became head coaches and won State titles on their own. Those 
who pursued other professional paths also credit Coach Riley's impact 
on their lives.
  For Coach and his wife Merriel, his players were like their boys, in 
addition to their sons Brian and Geoff both who played for him. Players 
from his first year as coach still call him to check in, or if they are 
in town, they drop by his house.
  He has always credited any success to those who played for him. I 
lived briefly in Hill City shortly after Coach

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Riley won his second State basketball championship. The Mid-Continent 
League was known for its football towns, like Smith Center and 
Plainville and Norton, but under Coach Riley, Hill City was definitely 
a basketball town. You knew where most of the community would be on 
Tuesday and Friday nights during the winter.
  While Coach's voice will no longer ring out from the sidelines, the 
gym in which he spent countless hours teaching kids the game he loves 
appropriately bears his name. Keith Riley Fieldhouse boasts many State 
title banners, won over nearly six decades, but his true legacy can be 
seen in the lives he changed along the way.
  Coach Riley, congratulations on a legendary career, and I wish you 
and Merriel all the very best in your retirement.
  I yield the floor.
  (Mr. MORAN assumed the Chair.)
  (Mrs. BRITT assumed the Chair.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.

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