Another Soliday Adds To The Lore Rhett Leads Reardan To 1a Tourney
Rhett Soliday can trace his basketball pedigree back a ways in Reardan’s prestigious history.
“The Solidays have been Reardan people for years,” coach Dan Smith said. “They’re quite a tradition there.”
“I guess I’m just following suit,” said Rhett, a senior.
Rhett’s father, Larry, won a state championship when he was a senior in 1966. Rhett’s uncle, Jack, had his championship season the next year, and his other uncle, Ron, won back-to-back championships in 1970-71.
Rhett and his older brother, Rob, played on the same Indians team. Rob graduated in 1996 and is playing for Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake. Rhett has a list about a mile long of cousins who played various sports for Reardan.
His predecessors all made their marks at the Class B level.
Now Rhett has a chance to add some of his own lore.
In Reardan’s first season playing in the state’s 1A ranking, the Indians advanced to the state tournament Wednesday through Saturday in the Tacoma Dome. Rhett played an instrumental part in the district championship game with 21 points.
As Rhett was growing up, his father was a coach for several local teams and even guided Cusick to a second-place finish at state in 1980.
Rhett began to play organized basketball when he was in the fifth grade. Even then his Indians teams were dominating. Reardan lost only one game between the fifth and eighth grades. Interestingly enough, that one game was to Freeman, the same Freeman team the Indians defeated in the Northeast 1A District championship game for the right to advance to state.
“He’s the leader of our team,” said Smith about his captain. “When something needs to be said, he’s the guy that says it.”
Though basketball is Rhett’s first love, he is an accomplished three-sport athlete. The Indians’ football team was ranked No. 1 in the state at one point with Rhett playing quarterback. He earned all-league honors.
Last spring, in order to help with his conditioning for basketball and football, he went out for track for the first time since grade school. Rhett qualified for state in the pole vault.
Rhett earned all-league honors in basketball for the first time this season, something he hopes to parlay into a college scholarship. Rhett has drawn looks from a few area schools, but no definite offers have been received.
“Football is something you always miss,” he said, “because you never get to play it again.”
“Basketball is my first love.”
With a 3.6 grade-point average, Rhett would like to major in education and coaching when he makes it to college. He would like to follow in his father’s footsteps as a coach and a history teacher, although sports medicine isn’t out of the question.
“Sports bring you closer to God,” Rhett said about why sports are such a big part of his life. “They teach you the lessons the Lord wants you to learn.”
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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: STATE 1A Reardan (16-7) vs. Life Christian (20-4), noon Wednesday at the Tacoma Dome.