Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the 1999-00 Embry-Riddle Men's Basketball National Championship

Involvement in Embry-Riddle Athletics has truly been a family affair for the Ridder family. Dad, Steve, is the head coach of the men's basketball program. Mom, Vicky, and all four children – Ryan, Rachel, Rob and Reed - have been fixtures at just about every ERAU men's basketball game in Steve's tenure.
 
Ryan, Rachel and Reed all started their collegiate athletic careers at other institutions, but all three graduated as ERAU student-athlete alumni as Ryan and Reed played basketball for their father and Rachel was a member of the ERAU women's volleyball team.
 
The children are now adults and there are grandkids in the picture, but Embry-Riddle basketball is still very central to the family. Many of their shared memories revolve around basketball road trips, memorable home games, and national tournaments, and while Coach Ridder and the Eagles have enjoyed many other successes to date, the national championship run still rises to the top as one of the most special moments for the Ridders.
 
"The first thing I remember was actually in the process of recruiting Jason Cruse," Ryan said, "I was 14 and he was on his official visit, and I'm not sure why I was there but it was me, my dad and Jason in the car. My dad was telling Jason that we were just one piece away from being really good, and he turns to me in the back seat and says, 'Ryan, what do you think we're missing?'"
 
"I said, 'I think we need the best player in the country.' They kind of laughed a little and then, two years later, Jason ends up being the NAIA National Tournament MVP."
 
Cruse also featured in another of Ryan's recollections from the 1999-00 season.
 
"The thing that stood out to me most from that actual season was when Jason broke his arm," Ryan said. "I remember thinking that their season was over. They had a good run, but they probably weren't going to be able to do what they wanted to do."
 
Cruse went on to prove Ryan and many other skeptics wrong when he returned to the Eagle lineup 53 days after the injury.
 
 
THE END OF THE REGULAR SEASON

Heading into the final three games of the regular season, the Eagles were flying high. They were ranked fifth in the NAIA and needed to win just one of those three games to secure the Florida Sun Conference regular season title, as well as the right to host the conference tournament.
 
"All we had to do is win one of them," Coach said. "I remember losing the overtime game to Webber and I'm thinking 'You gotta be kidding me!' That could have clinched it. Then the one I remember most is we're down at Nova and they didn't have their own facility so we're playing in a high school gym. They beat us and all I kept thinking was look what we just did, mathematically. All we needed was just one win and we win the conference regular season and host the conference tournament; we had never lost a postseason game at the ICI Center."
 
At that time, Coach Ridder was the league chairperson for men's basketball, which meant that as soon as all the regular season games were concluded, he had to send out the matchups and schedule for the upcoming conference tournament to all the coaches.
 
"After we lose to Nova – you talk about gut wrenching – I'm in a trailer, because that's where Nova's basketball offices were," Coach Ridder recounted. "I'm sitting there, drenched in sweat, and before we got on the bus to head back home, I had to contact all the coaches and tell them what the matchups were. I had to sit there and be reminded that we're not hosting the tournament. We're only going to host a first-round game…against Flagler. Instead of playing the No. 8 team now we had to play Flagler, our rival, whom we had just barely beaten twice.
 
"It was really disappointing to lose all three games and give up the regular season championship. That was a bad day for the Eagle family and for our family."
 
"We had a surprise planned," Vicky recalled. "We were so confident that we were going to win one of those games that we had Danny (Coach Ridder's brother) flown in for the conference tournament in Daytona to surprise Steve. So now I had to figure out how to get Danny to the tournament without Steve knowing. We ended up picking him up in Orlando on the way to West Palm Beach."

 
THE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT

Reed, who was only six years old at the time, didn't remember much from that season, but he did recall a special memory he had with his brother Rob during the postseason.
 
"I remember 31 and 7," Reed said. "We were 23 and 7 before the conference tournament."
 
If the Eagles won all three games at the conference tournament and five at nationals, their final record would be 31-7.
 
"Before the conference tournament, all Rob and I kept saying was 31 and 7, 31 and 7," Reed continued. "Whenever people asked us what our record was, even when we were 23-7, we'd say '31 and 7'. So, every time we won a game we'd look at each other and high-five and say '31 and 7, 31 and 7!'"

 
WHO'S GOING TO BRANSON?
 
The Ridders were all together at the basketball games throughout the regular season and conference tournament play. But, when the national tournament came around, scheduling conflicts arose.
 
Ryan had just moved up to the varsity baseball team as a freshman at Father Lopez Catholic High School, and he did not want to pass up the opportunity to play for the Green Wave as a freshman.
 
Rachel was an eighth-grader at Ormond Beach Middle School at the time, and was scheduled for a class trip to Washington, D.C. 
 
"I just think it's ironic that that's the only national tournament they missed," Coach Ridder said as Rachel added that she even went to a final four when her son Case was only 10 days old.
 
"I've been to everyone except for the one when we won the tournament," Rachel said. "I think I asked to not go on my eighth-grade trip. I wanted to go to the tournament more than I wanted to go on my trip.
 
"There wasn't any technology like we have now so I wasn't able to watch live stats or video or anything like that. I kept up with the tournament every day by calling my parents, but there was just no way for me to watch or to stay involved in the games as they were going on, which is weird to think about now."
 
Cell phones weren't as common back then…
 
"I had the number of one of the parents who was [Rachel's] chaperone," Vicky said. "Everyone would line up at phones in the lobby of the Keeter Gymnasium and I would run out right after the game and call that parent and they would pass the word along or if Rachel was nearby she could get on the call."
 
On the night of the national championship game Rachel stayed close to the phone because she knew her mom would be checking in.
 
"I do remember that I was with my best friend Lindsey Merrill," Rachel said. "She was so excited, because she was one of the only ones that understood what it meant to win a national championship. My other friends couldn't care less about the news, but at least I had one friend who was an athlete as well and an avid basketball fan, so she kind of got it."
 
"It's crazy that it's the only tournament we didn't get a chance to go to," said Ryan. "We wish we could have been there, but I remember watching it [the championship game] in Houligan's and the place was just going nuts. It was jam-packed, the energy was awesome and everyone was counting down when we had the game in hand in the last 30 seconds. It was like the University of Florida winning a national championship in football; that place was on fire."
 
Like Rachel, Reed had to choose between his class trip and going to the national tournament with his family eight years later.
 
"I was supposed to go to Spain on my class trip," Reed said." But I ended up not going because I was thinking that Ryan and Rachel missed the national championship game and I didn't want that to be me."
 
"There are so many times it's come up that Ryan and Rachel missed the national championship," Vicky added. "That taught us a lesson and impacted how we planned things as a family. We wouldn't have gone back and changed it, because at the time we didn't know, but it really did change the way we looked at things in the future."

 
WELCOME TO BRANSON AND THE COLLEGE OF THE OZARKS
 
"I remember driving on to campus and it reminded me so much of Berea," Vicky said of the College of the Ozarks campus. "There was something cozy about it. I loved how friendly and warm and welcoming everyone was. Even the coach [Al Waller] that we beat in that last game was so warm."
 
Coach Ridder spent his collegiate basketball career and was an assistant coach for eight years at Berea College in Kentucky. It's where he met Vicky and where they lived for a number of years while starting a family.
 
"I liked everything about it," Coach Ridder said about College of the Ozarks. "I felt more at home than I did at any away or neutral site game. I felt like it was a great fit for who we were as a program. We were up close and personal. The whole'Hard Work U' concept was the same as Berea. There were just so many similarities to the place where we had spent the majority of our life. Great venue. Great people. A tremendous fit for our program.
 
"The cool thing was having access to Branson – the go carts, the shows. The timing was great because it wasn't the tourist season yet so we got to enjoy all that stuff without the crowds."

 
THE FAMILY SPORTS INFORMATION DIRECTOR

"He would be the best at remembering every detail," Rachel said of her younger brother Rob whom Coach Ridder describes as having an analytical mind and a passion for details and stats. "He probably would remember every play and what the shot clock was on."
 
"I remember when I would go to the coaches meeting and get the media packets. I would hand it to Rob and he thought it was the greatest thing! I could have the best meal or best toy in the world, or the stats and Rob would grab the stats to get the inside information. He would sit there for a long time and just read through it. And then he'd start asking me questions about this team and that team, and I'm like 'Dude, we just got here. I don't know about all these teams yet.'
 
It was like having our own personal SID."
 
"The middle of the book always had the bracket and he couldn't wait, with his neat handwriting, to fill in the bracket," Vicky said.
 

STICKING TO THE ROUTINE         
 
When the Eagles got to Branson a bit of superstition took hold of the Eagle coaches and players. Assistant Coach Rob Graham was in charge of feeding the group and before each of the five tournament games, the Eagles ate the same meal at Schlotzsky's Deli.
 
"We all rode in the same vehicles and sat in the same seats going to the game," Coach Ridder noted. "Everybody's routine was the same. We just wouldn't change it."
 
For Coach Ridder, the dedication to routine was a little more personal.
 
"Steve wore the same suit," Vicky said.
 
He had a ton of suits, but they won that first game…
 
"For the first couple of games, it was a bit of superstition because he didn't want to change the routine," Vicky continued. "But then it got to 'Oh my gosh, now I have to keep wearing it!' I remember after the fourth game it was so bad he could not wear it the fifth game. So, I had to find a dry cleaner. And I had to find a dry cleaner that could get it back to us in time and there was so much pressure to get that suit back in time for the game!
 
"Steve would always downplay things; 'Oh, we're going to lose. This team is so good. It's going to be a tough competition', and we might have been playing the 300th-ranked team, but somehow 'They were going to win' or 'they had a good chance'.
 
"I remember in the hotel room just as I was getting ready to take the suit to the dry cleaners I said 'Steve do you really think we have a chance?' and for the first time he nodded and said 'Yep. We can win this thing.'"
 
 
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
 
By the time they got to the title game, the number of Ridders in the Eagle fan base had multiplied. Ryan and Rachel might not have been able to make the trip, but there were plenty of extended family members on hand to cheer on their behalf, including Coach Ridder's parents and his brother Danny, who, once again, surprised his brother at a tournament the Eagles were playing in.
 
"I don't necessarily remember any specific plays, but I remember how loud that gym was and how big everything was," Reed said. "I still remember where I was sitting, and although I didn't really remember any of the plays, I remember the feeling of how much it meant to everyone. When the buzzer went off everybody just kind of went crazy. People were running out on to the floor, everyone was hugging each other. That's really what I remember."
 
Ryan spoke with pride about his father building the basketball program at Embry-Riddle and leading the Eagles to the national title.
 
"Everyone on the inside knows how special this program is," he said. "But winning the national title allowed the college basketball fraternity to realize that this program is really special and this coach is really special."
 
Coach Ridder celebrated the moment with his family members that made the trip to Branson, and when he returned to Daytona Beach, he was able to relive the moment again with Ryan and Rachel.
 
They have replayed the national championship game over and over again, and they even wore out the original VHS tape of the game. The 2000 NAIA II national championship may be 20 years old, but many of the memories from that season are still fresh for the Ridders who continue to celebrate each other's accomplishments and support each other's dreams.