Kacee Reid stepping down after championship tenure guiding Lansing Catholic girls basketball

As a child, Kacee Reid admired all the time and effort her father, Dan English, put in behind the scenes while being a successful high school basketball coach in Ohio.

Reid remembers being fascinated at the way he prepared his teams for games while winning more than 300 games on the sidelines and leading Sherwood Fairview to a state title in 1989 and state runner-up finishes in 1991, 1993 and 1995.

And when Reid decided to embark on her own coaching career following her days as a standout while playing for her father in high school and then collegiately at Cornell, she strived to apply some of what she learned.

Reid did just that while making her own mark leading the Lansing Catholic girls basketball program for the past 11 seasons. And now she's stepping away after a run that included guiding the Cougars to a Division 2 state championship.

"It's always bittersweet," Reid said. "There's always a little bit of hesitation of, 'Should I?' or 'Is this the right time?' I've been doing this for so long it's truly engrained in my life and my lifestyle. I've been coaching high school sports for 25 years and was involved with it as a player before that. I don't really know a life without basketball. It's a little scary, but I think it's the right time for a lot of different reasons."

Reid continued a family basketball legacy with her success. She guided Lansing Catholic to its second state championship in program history and first since 1995 when it finished on top in 2023. And the Cougars' state title victory came exactly 34 years to the day after her father led Fairview to a state crown.

"It's pretty cool," Reid said of her success at Lansing Catholic. "I have so much support from all of my community back in Ohio where I'm from. It's just one of those things where my dad passed away, probably 12 years ago, so he never really saw me coach at the varsity level. He didn't get to see me. He's the one person in my life I always wanted validation from in the coaching arena.

"You always wonder would he be proud of me? For me to win the state championship and have such good success, especially in the last few years — it kind of validates to me that he would be proud and that would have been something he really relished."

Now that she's stepping away, Reid is looking forward to spending more time around family and getting a chance to watch her youngest child, Joey, embark on his journey in high school athletics.

"I'm anxious to have a summer," Reid said. "I love summer ball and it's probably one of my favorite things of coaching. Summer ball is just so much fun, but I'm also looking forward to maybe taking a trip in December. I have a son who is a freshman and I think I was able to watch maybe three of his games last season.

"I'm at a point where I want to watch him play. I want to watch his games and want to soak it up. He's the last kid and just kind of spending my family time in other ways. I think it's the right time to do that."

Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Kacee Reid steps down as coach of Lansing Catholic girls basketball