Men’s Basketball Coach Profile
2010-2011 Season
- News | Roster | Schedule/Scores | Coach's Profile | Coaching Staff | Archive | History | Forms
In his first season at the helm Lee Rabas and his staff (Drew Demerath, Rick VanderWyst, Bob Klein, and John Vermeern) guided the Cyclones to a 2nd place finish in the WCC-East with a 10-2 record. A heart breaking one-point loss at UW-Waukesha on February 1st (58-59) kept the Cyclones from a conference title. The 2009-10 Cyclones also made an appearance in the WJCAA State Championship Game. It was only the second time in the 35 year history of the tournament (last year was the final year) that UW-Fox made it to the title game, in which they lost another tight game to UW-Waukesha, 73-75, to finish as 2010 WJCAA Runners-up. For his efforts Rabas was named the WCC-East coach of the year and earned the WBCA junior college coach of the year award.
Coach Rabas is no stranger to basketball in the Fox Valley area. Prior to arriving at UW-Fox Valley Rabas spent 12 years coaching at Xavier High School and Lawrence University, both in Appleton. As the head boys basketball coach at Xavier he led the Hawks to a 103-56 record over seven seasons dating from 1997-2004. During that time his teams captured two conference championships, finished in 2nd place three times, and finished the 1998 season as the WISAA state runners-up. Thanks to his 1997-98 team's efforts he was named the Post-Crescent high school coach of the year. He was also instrumental in Xavier renaming its gym in honor of former coach Gene "Torchy" Clark.
Before taking the reigns of the Cyclones program in June of 2009, Rabas spent five years as an assistant coach at Lawrence University under John Tharp and Joel DePagter. The Vikings were a national power during that time posting a 99-27 record, capturing four Midwest Conference Championships, and earning four post-season berths in the NCAA DIII men's basketball tournament. In 2005-06 the Vikings posted the greatest season in school history when they finished 25-1, spent the last month of the season as the #1 ranked team in the country, and advanced to the Sweet 16 under the legendary Tharp, who is the winningest coach in LU history. In his last year at LU (2008-09) the Vikings lost at the buzzer in the opening round of the NCAA DIII tournament to eventual champion Washington (MO) University.
Before Xavier Rabas served as an assistant coach for seven years at four different schools including La Crosse Aquinas H.S., La Crosse Logan H.S., UW-La Crosse, and Neenah H.S. He has worked and run basketball camps throughout the state and midwest for 19 years, serves on the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association executive board, and is a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
A graduate of Kewaunee (WI) High School, Rabas is an elementary (K-5) physical education instructor in the Neenah Joint School District. His bachelor of science degree is from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where he graduated in 1994 with highest honors. He also holds an M.S. degree in Physical Education from UWL.
He has a blog which may be located at www.UWFoxbasketball.blogspot.com
Where Coach Rabas has been:
1991-92 La Crosse Aquinas HS / Assistant Coach
1992-94 La Crosse Logan HS / Assistant Coach
1994-96 UW-La Crosse / Assistant Coach
1996-97 Neenah HS / Assistant Coach
1997-04 Xavier HS / Head Boys Basketball Coach
2004-09 Lawrence University / Men’s Assistant Basketball Coach
2009-Present UW-Fox Valley