Daytona State hires Reed Ridder, continuing a Volusia County coaching legacy

Daytona State put Reed Ridder in charge of its men’s basketball program with a hire that reaches well beyond the bench. Ridder, an Ormond Beach native, became the third Ridder to take a basketball head-coaching job in the Daytona Beach area, joining a family line that starts with Steve Ridder at Embry-Riddle in 1989 and includes Ryan Ridder’s earlier stops at Daytona State and Bethune-Cookman.

The Falcons announced Ridder on May 1 and gave him broad responsibility: recruiting, player development, game strategy and academic success. Associate athletics director Alison Mohr said the college was excited to bring him back because he had the leadership, basketball knowledge and vision needed to move the program forward.

Ridder’s selling point is not just the name on the door. He returned with recent Division I staff experience, spending two seasons at Mercer after two seasons at UT Martin. His UT Martin résumé includes a 2022-23 team that won 19 games, the program’s second-biggest turnaround, and a 2023-24 squad that averaged 81.5 points per game, ranked 23rd in NCAA Division I scoring offense and stood among the nation’s better rebounding teams.

He also already knows Daytona State from the inside. Ridder worked there as a full-time assistant in 2021 under Joey Cantens before moving to UT Martin in 2022 and then Mercer in 2024. In a local profile, Ridder said, “It’s just funny where your connections lay,” and added, “my connections are here in Daytona, and I love it,” a line that captures how much the hire leans on both geography and family.

What makes the move meaningful in Volusia County is the standard he inherits. Cantens was named Daytona State’s head coach on June 14, 2021 and left with a 120-40 record, including a 109-21 mark over his final four seasons. The Falcons also won four straight conference championships and four straight conference coach of the year awards during that run, leaving Ridder to follow a coach who turned consistency into a program identity.

That is why this hire feels bigger than nostalgia. Daytona State did not bring back a familiar name for sentiment alone. It hired a coach with local roots, Division I experience and a track record tied to offense, rebounding and program building, then handed him a roster, a recruiting map and a fan base that will measure him against the winning standard already set in Daytona Beach.