Reed Ridder hired as Daytona State men's basketball head coach

The Ridder dynasty continues in Daytona Beach.

On May 4, Daytona State College announced Reed Ridder as its new men’s basketball head coach. He succeeds Joey Cantens, who took over Florida International’s program in March after five years and a 121-41 record with the Falcons.

Ridder is a familiar name. He’s the son of Embry-Riddle legend Steve Ridder and the younger brother of Ryan Ridder, who enjoyed successful stints as head coach at Daytona State and Bethune-Cookman.

Reed spent the last four seasons working under Ryan at UT Martin and Mercer.

“I am honored to be named the head men’s basketball coach at Daytona State College,” Reed Ridder said in a statement. “This is a tremendous opportunity to work with committed student-athletes and to build upon a program that represents the college with pride. I look forward to connecting with our players, staff, alumni and the Daytona Beach community.”

As a Division II college player, the Ormond Beach native scored 1,003 career points. He attended Lynn University as a freshman before transferring to Embry-Riddle for his final three campaigns.

Ridder graduated from ERAU in 2016. He played professionally in Australia and Spain for two years before diving into coaching.

He started as a graduate assistant at Georgia from 2018 to 2020. Then, he held a recruiting/player development role for one season at Georgia Southern before earning his first full-time assistant job at Daytona State under Cantens in 2021-22.

Following one year at DSC, Ridder joined forces with Ryan, at UT Martin for two seasons and the last two at Mercer. The Bears went 19-13 last winter.

“We are excited to welcome Reed back to Daytona State College, this time as our head coach,” Associate Director of Athletics Alison Mohr said in a statement. “Coach Ridder has demonstrated the leadership, basketball knowledge and vision necessary to guide our men’s basketball program forward. We are confident he will make an immediate and lasting impact on our student-athletes and our college community.”