Lakeville South's Ringeisen Inducted into Minnesota Swimming Hall of Fame

Lakeville South High School's Rick Ringeisen has been induction into the Minnesota Swimming Hall of Fame, according to a press release dated Friday by Lakeville Area Public Schools.

Ringeisen has a long history in Lakeville swimming, first as a club and high school swimmer and later as a coach at Lakeville and Lakeville South high schools.

According to the Minnesota Swimming Hall of Fame website, only those people who "have made an outstanding contribution to Minnesota swimming diving or brought recognition to Minnesota swimming/diving" are considered for induction.

Last month, Lakeville North High School announced that Ringeisen would be inducted into the Panther Athletic Hall of Fame. He and four other inductees will be honored at a banquet at Crystal Lake Golf Course on July 14. 

Here is the press release from the school district:

Rick Ringeisen is a lifetime resident of Lakeville, Minnesota. He was a multiple sport athlete while growing up there but concentrated on swimming in college. He then returned to Lakeville where he has had a long career as a Social Studies teacher and coach.

Rick grew up on a local lake where he learned to swim at an early age. His first taste of competitive swimming came on the high school team in ninth grade.

Lakeville opened its first pool that year and Rick managed to be the first person to enter the water of the new pool. His first swim club coaches were Mike Larson and John Asmus.  Gene Pressure and Rick Kruger were his first coaches for the high school swimming team. In addition to high school and club swimming, he excelled in football, baseball, and track.

In college he swam for John Martin at Winona State University and referred to himself as a blue collar athlete. He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in social studies and physical education. The positive effect of coaches Rick Kruger and John Martin greatly influenced his life and his coaching.  To this day, Rick Krueger continues to serve as volunteer assistant coach to Rick in the Lakeville Swimming Program. 

After college graduation, his hometown of Lakeville hired him to teach social studies and coach; thirty-four years later he has become one of a very few people to coach over 100 continuous high school sport seasons (now 102 and counting).  This includes girls swimming in the fall, boys swimming in the winter and track & field in the spring.

From 1981 to 2005 Rick and Dan Schneider coached together at the same time in the same pool for both the Lakeville Girls and Boys High School Teams. 

He also spent ten years early in his career as coach of the Lakeville Swim Club, and one year his 17-18 year old boys broke every state relay record.

In the fall of 2005, Lakeville split into two high Schools. Rick then became the head coach for both the girls and boys teams at Lakeville South.

The dual meet records over these years are for girl's seasons 279-166-6 and for the boy's seasons 349-99-3. In addition, the girls won seven conference and thirteen section championships while the boys won thirteen conference and sixteen section championships. At the MSHSL State Meet the girls have finished in the top ten, eleven times with two event champions, twenty-eight All-Americans, and sixty-six Academic All-Americans. The boys have finished in the top ten twenty-three times, with twenty-one event champions including at least one champion in every event, thirty-five All-Americans, and thirty-two Academic All-Americans. The Boys teams have also won two True Team and two MSHSL State Championships.  Rick has been Minnesota State Coach of the Year twice. 

In addition to his coaching Rick has served on many organizations that contribute to swimming. He has been a presenter at five MSCA Clinics, published several swimming articles, and is a long time member of NISCA. He is active in MSHSCA as an Executive Board member and Chair of the Finance Committee. He also has been Vice President, and President of MSCA, and since 2003 has served as the Executive Secretary of the MSCA. This includes being on the Swimming Advisory committee to the MSHSL.

In 2004, he was the power behind the start of the True Team program and has been Chairman of the True Team Committee since its inception.

Rick has also enjoyed success as a track & field coach.  Teams he has coached have won nineteen conference championships, twenty section championships, eight True Team and three MSHSL State Championships.  He has also coached eleven individual state champions in his specialty, the throws events.