This story has been updated for clarity purposes.
SOUTH BEND ― The process may have taken longer than expected, but Steve Reynolds and his three oldest daughters know which college they will call home next season.
In an exclusive interview with The South Bend Tribune, Reynolds said the four will be part of the University of Texas at Arlington women’s basketball program. It is expected that Steve will become an assistant coach, although that is not official yet. His three daughters ― Mila, Amiyah, and Kira ― will be players for the Mavericks. Mila is a redshirt junior, Amiyah a redshirt sophomore, and Kira a true freshman.
Steve had been the head coach of the South Bend Washington High School girls basketball program for the last 11 years, coaching all three of his daughters along the way. In the one year they were all together, they won the IHSAA Class 3A state championship in 2022 with a record-setting blowout victory in the final, 93-35 over Silver Creek.
“For me, one of the most important things was to try and get the girls in a position ― especially my oldest ― to get their mojo back,” Steve Reynolds said. “This thing started to germinate where it was like, ‘Hey dad if you get a job, would you coach us?’ … At the end of the day, they played their best basketball under me, so that was a deciding factor for Mila and Amiyah.”
Mila and Amiyah both played for Purdue University the last two seasons but never shared the court. Amiyah missed the 2023-24 campaign due to injury, while Mila missed last year because of the same reason.
Kira had been a verbal commit to Purdue since the start of her junior high school year. All three either entered the transfer portal or decommitted from Purdue around the same time Steve announced his resignation from Washington on March 11.
It was long believed all four would end up in the same location. That dream became a reality at UT-Arlington.
“There’s a stigma that comes with a dad coaching his daughters,” Steve Reynolds said. “You hear the horror stories, but there’s a lot of stories out there of it working on both the men’s and the women’s side. I have thoroughly enjoyed coaching my daughters at the high school level.
“UTA took the time to get to know us, and when they did, it really changed their perspective on what it could be. We’ve prided ourselves on being solid people. They were the ones that really dug in out of the options we had and really began to dream with us as we began to dream with them. That’s why we pulled the trigger. It wasn’t just about basketball.”
There were thoughts that another South Bend Washington-turned-Purdue product, Rashunda Jones, might join the Reynolds family wherever they ended up. Jones officially transferred to Michigan State this past Sunday, though, meaning Jones won’t play basketball with a Reynolds family member for the first time in at least six years.
A full relocation for the Reynolds family
The entire Reynolds family ― including mother, Marcy, younger daughters Jordan (8th grade) and Aubrey (7th grade), and sons Steven III (high school junior) and Tristian (3rd grade) ― will be moving to The Lone Star State. That means Steven III, the highest-rated high school boys basketball prospect in Indiana for the Class of 2026, will not play his senior season at Washington.
Whether Steven III plays at a local high school in Arlington or a prep academy will be determined by how this summer goes, according to his father. Steven III holds offers from programs like Notre Dame, Indiana, Purdue and Michigan State, among others.
“We’re going to start over our lives, so to speak,” Steve Reynolds said.
At Washington, Steve Reynolds amassed a 189-89 record, with his greatest success coming in the final five seasons. Along with the 2022 state title, the Panthers won sectional titles every year (two in Class 3A, three in 4A), reached the 2021 Class 3A state final, and added a Class 4A regional title in 2023. He is one of two Black men to lead a girls basketball team to a state title in IHSAA history.
“Right up until Warsaw (in the 4A regional game this season), I had no thought of coaching college basketball,” Steve Reynolds said. “I thought I was going to rebuild this thing. With that loss to Warsaw, we were going back to Class 3A. I have a 7th and 8th grader coming; very similar situation as before, and I thought I’d build this thing up. There were a lot of factors that just pushed some doors open over that next week or two, and this became a reality.”
UT-Arlington is coming off an 18-14 season. They finished 10-6 in the Western Athletic Conference, reaching the WAC Tournament championship game before losing to Grand Canyon. Head coach Shereka Wright has been there five seasons, reaching the NCAA Tournament in the 2021-22 campaign.
Wright played collegiately at Purdue, reaching the national title game with the Boilermakers in 2001. She’s been inducted into the Purdue Athletic Hall of Fame.
“I’m just very grateful for the experience the last month-and-a-half or so because I learned so much from connecting with people,” Steve Reynolds said.
“How the college world works, and from a recruiting standpoint as a parent’s perspective, but also former high school coach and incumbent assistant coach at the college level. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. There were ups and downs, starts and false starts; it was quite the process, but it was definitely worth it.”
Follow Austin Hough on X (formerly Twitter) @AustinRHough and on Facebook at “Austin Hough – South Bend Tribune.” Hough can be emailed at ahough@gannett.com.
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