An Amazing Journey for Point Beach's Jarelle Reischel

It sounds like an old joke that the coach of a downtrodden high school boys' basketball program would mutter in a moment of gallows humor.

Why can’t we ever just get some 6-foot-5 exchange student from Germany who can play?

For the last three years at Point Pleasant Beach, that was no joke. It was a reality by the name of Jarelle Reischel.

Three years ago, Reischel arrived as a sophomore from Frankfurt, Germany, where he had grown up as the son of a U.S. military father and a German mother who wanted him to get an American education and pursue his dream of a basketball career.

Reischel leaves as Point Beach’s all-time leading scorer, a versatile wing player who took the Garnet Gulls to heights they had not enjoyed since the 1960s.

With the graduation of Point Beach’s class of 2011 rapidly approaching, he soon will be on to the next step in his journey when he heads to Rice University in Houston, where he looks to continue a career that has taken several unconventional paths.

“My real home is Frankfurt, Germany, but Point Beach will always have a special place in my heart,’’ Reischel said. “It went by so fast that it’s kind of upsetting, but it’s time to move on. I had a great time here, and I wish I could’ve had another year.’’

The Beginning

In July of 2008, Reischel boarded a plane, leaving behind the bustling city of Frankfurt and embarking on a journey to a small town on the Jersey Shore. His father, Terry Carter, was stationed with the U.S. Army in Kuwait, while his mother, Anna Reischel, remained in Germany with all of his friends.

Reischel’s father had sent his son to live with an old friend, Douglas Campbell, who resides in Lavallette, which is in Point Beach’s sending district.

Reischel, who was born in South Carolina but moved to Germany when he was two years old, boarded the plane with a mix of trepidation and anticipation. He had been to the United States before when visiting his grandmother in Freeport, N.Y., but this was a whole different situation.

“I wanted to come over here as badly as my dad wanted me to,’’ he said. “I was nervous because the language is completely different, and so is the style of living and the school system.

"Basketball was the one thing I had in common with everybody else, so I made friends pretty quickly and was comfortable within two months," Reischel said.

Reischel had taken English language classes in his school in Frankfurt but still spoke mostly German.

“I was learning the language and the teachers were speaking so fast that I was like, ‘Can you repeat that?’ I just had to slow it down and get extra help, and soon I got used to it.’’

It showed the naivete of Reischel and his family that he didn’t take the traditional route of many promising foreign imports who come to play high school basketball in New Jersey.

Usually they end up on the doorstep of perennial national powers like St. Anthony, St. Patrick’s, St. Benedict’s Prep or Life Center Academy.

Despite playing for the U-16 German national team, Reischel had somehow stayed under the radar in the age of a million Internet recruiting sites detailing prospects from around the world.

Reischel landed at Ocean County’s smallest public school, which had a program that had not won even a division title since 1968 and was perennially mired near the bottom of the standings in the small-school Shore Conference Class B Central division.

“I had really no idea,’’ Reischel said. “I was like ‘Wow, this team is really not that good.’ I was kind of nervous, but I talked to Coach (Nick Catania) and he said that great players change programs around.’’

Catania, who is a Point Beach graduate, could not believe his good fortune in having Reischel arrive. When he saw the lithe, 6-foot-5 sophomore first walk into the gym over the summer, he immediately called then-principal Dr. Ray Ellis to ask whether this new kid was actually enrolled at Point Beach.

For Catania, Reischel was like a gift from the basketball gods.

And it was possibly some karma coming back Point Beach’s way after Catania had lost 6-foot-10 center P.J. Mills when he transferred to Monmouth Academy in Howell a year earlier.

“When P.J. left all of a sudden, we didn’t complain too much about it, and then we caught a break with Jarelle,’’ Catania said. “I feel fortunate and lucky that he arrived.’’

From the minute he stepped on the court, Reischel had the promise of potentially being the best player in Point Beach’s history. He was a 6-5 wing player who could handle the ball, rebound, and shoot from 3-point range.

At the very least, he was the best anyone in the small town had seen suit up for the Garnet Gulls since long-time Monmouth University men’s basketball assistant Ron Krayl in the early 1960s.

Hearing the Whispers

As Reischel’s career instantly took off as a sophomore, there was a segment in the Shore community that started to feel the story was too good to be true.

Opposing coaches and players began to wonder if Reischel was somehow recruited by Catania through his connections in the youth basketball community to come to Point Beach and whether his story of coming over from Germany was what really happened. 

Recruiting players is against the rules set forth by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the governing body for New Jersey high school sports.

There have been situations at various high schools in the United States of foreign players being specifically steered to attend a certain school, sometimes with a middleman receiving improper benefits for making it happen.

Nothing like that was ever specifically alleged against Catania or Point Beach in any type of formal complaint to the NJSIAA, and Reischel and Catania both still shake their heads and smile about it to this day.

If a player's family or guardian purchases a home in the town and that address is established as a residence, they can attend the school. Point Beach also takes tuition students as well who do not live in the district and pay to attend the school, often because of its academic reputation.

An easy defense against any accusations was the state of Point Beach's program - why would any high-level player be attracted to a tiny Group I team that had not even won a division title since 1968?

Reischel's parents wanted him to get an American education, so they sent him to live with an old friend who happened to live in tiny Lavallette, a sending district for Point Beach.

“I got questions every day about, ‘How did you get here?’’’ he said. “There were all these made-up rumors. Coach warned me about that. Point Beach has never had a kid like me, so I told everybody the story and eventually they started to back off.’’

Shore Conference coaches and fans also began to take a look at Point Beach’s roster, which included Red Bank Catholic transfer Jose Diaz, Central Regional transfer Justin Valentine, and St. Rose transfer Rob Van Nostrand, and figured something was up.

A closer look showed that Diaz had not made the varsity team at RBC so he transferred to Point Beach. And Valentine and Van Nostrand landed at Point Beach for non-basketball reasons.

They also were all there before Reischel showed up, and simply grateful to have another player focused on turning the program around.

“I didn't hear anything about him until coach said that we had a transfer from Germany and that he's a decent player,'' Diaz said at the time. "I wanted to know what he was all about, so I put him to the test the first day. I was shocked to hear that he was a sophomore, honestly.''

However, once senior forward Jordan Wejnert showed up as a transfer from Ramsey High School in Bergen County a year later and junior guard Mike Rotando arrived as a transfer from St. John Vianney, the chorus only grew louder about Point Beach procuring players.

“All the rumors and stuff, that goes along with it, I guess,’’ Catania said. “If people did their research, homes were purchased in our town. Kids were coming here for academics and people wanting to move.’’

“Once we started winning, I think people wanted to come to our program because they saw how much we improved individually,’’ Reischel said. “That’s what we’re known for. We work hard.’’

The reality among the current basketball landscape is that when a team has a high-level talent who is going to have Division I coaches in the stands watching, he becomes a magnet.

Players from around the area and their parents often want to find a way to get into that player’s orbit to hopefully attract some of their own attention. Reischel was Point Beach’s magnet.

In the last three years, Point Beach has produced four scholarship players, including two Division I players, after having never had a Division I recruit in its history.

Wejnert went from off the radar at Ramsey to eventually becoming Point Beach’s first Division I recruit when he signed with the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC), and then Reischel followed a year later by committing to Rice.

Diaz went to Division II power Bentley College, and Rotando has committed to Division II Bloomfield University this year.

The insinuation that Point Beach simply brought in a bunch of stars from other schools bothered the team because all of them besides Reischel were not high-level college prospects until they worked their way to that level while at Point Beach.

“It bothers our kids a little bit because it discredits the hard work they put in,’’ Catania said. “Besides Jarelle, we never got a kid who was getting Division I looks. Diaz didn’t play at RBC, Rotando wasn’t getting a ton of time at St. John Vianney, and Wejnert nobody knew. His highest look was Division III. It kind of takes away from what the kids do.

“Within our team, they joke about it, and they took it well.’’

A Brilliant Career

While his teammates worked their way on to the recruiting radar over the course of a year or two, it only took Reischel about a month after he arrived in the United States.

He starred at Eastern Invitational Camp at the end of the summer and then built some buzz on the AAU circuit in the fall heading into his first season with the Garnet Gulls.

As a sophomore, he averaged 19 points per game, which only continued his rise to prominence.

His increased notoriety also had some observers scratching their heads over why he was staying at Point Beach rather than opting for a high level of competition at a powerhouse like St. Anthony, St. Patrick or St. Benedict’s, which have snapped up plenty of public school talent over the years.

Catania guarded Reischel’s cell phone number like it was the formula to Coca-Cola in order to keep the various middlemen away.

“After my first year, there were people talking in my ear saying, ‘Why don’t you go to a bigger school? Why Point Beach?’’’ Reischel said.

“It would’ve been easy to go to St. Pat’s and be one of the role guys, but I wanted to be remembered. I would rather make a name for myself at Point Beach and change the program.’’

“His biggest thing is that he wasn’t one of these prima donna kids that came in,’’ Catania said. “His whole objective coming here was education, and his second was to get better (at basketball). Everything you told him to do, he bought into it.

“We were tough on him from the beginning. If we had to coddle him, he probably would’ve transferred.’’

His career continued to take off as a junior while adjusting to the American game. In Germany, he has played with a 24-second shot clock, while New Jersey high school basketball does not have a shot clock.

He also had to get used to the more ruggedly physical American game, compared to the more finesse-oriented, pass-heavy European game.

Reischel also embraced the role as the face of the program and defused any tension with teammates over all the attention he was receiving by simply continuing to work hard.

“The attention was something he had to deal with even when he was a sophomore,’’ Catania said. “He wasn’t seeking it out, and that’s what makes him likable. Teachers, kids – nobody has a bad word to say about him. He is the type of kid you want exemplifying the program.’’

As a junior, he turned in a monster season with 22.7 points, 13.1 rebounds, 4.4 steals, 4.1 assists and 2.1 blocks per game in leading the Garnet Gulls to one of their best seasons in school history.

They won their first division title since 1968, set a school single-season record with 20 wins, and reached their first NJSIAA sectional final in school history.

Reischel was selected as the recipient of the prestigious Kerwin Award as the Shore’s top player and was also voted the Shore Conference Player of the Year by the Shore Conference coaches.

The South Jersey Group I championship game against Woodbury illustrated just how much things had changed in a short time at Point Beach. The Garnet Gulls hosted their first sectional final after Reischel had nailed a game-winning jumper with 11 seconds left in the game to beat top-seeded Pitman on the road in the semifinals.

“I remember the first couple scrimmages and games when I got here, there were barely any people there,’’ Reischel said. “Against Woodbury, the gym was overflowing. It was just great to see. You know then that you accomplished something.’’

A stifling crowd that was standing-room only against Woodbury was the biggest at a Point Beach game in more than 40 years.

An hour before tipoff, the temperature was about 40 degrees warmer than the wintry landscape outside while a line of about 50 fans was still waiting outside to try and get in.

It ended in disappointment with a lop-sided loss to a Woodbury team with a pair of Division I guards, but it showed how much the basketball team had gotten the attention of the town.

Focus on the Future

That enthusiasm carried over to this past season, including a preseason banquet at Martell’s in Point Pleasant Beach in which the sought-after Reischel finally announced his collegiate choice.

He had more than 40 scholarship offers, and his choice had come down to Seton Hall, Penn State and Rice.

With a smile, he pulled out a Rice baseball cap from inside his Point Beach varsity jacket and yanked it onto his head to the applause of a group of Point Beach coaches, alumni, parents, administrators and fans.

It was the latest unconventional move by Reischel, who spurned the entreaties of schools in the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference to go to a program that plays in Conference USA and has not made the NCAA Tournament since 1970.

He has always enjoyed the challenge of being the centerpiece of an unheralded team on the rise rather than a cog in the machine of an established program.

“It’s very similar to Point Beach,’’ Reischel said about Rice. “I think with me and some other guys coming in, we can turn things around just like we did here at Point Beach.’’

With that decision out of the way, Reischel turned in another superlative season that led to another Kerwin Award and a second straight Player of the Year selection by the Shore Conference coaches.

He averaged 22.1 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 3.9 steals, and 1.5 blocks per game while also shooting 79.8 percent from the foul line on 208 attempts.

The high point was a stunning, 56-55 win over two-time defending Shore Conference Tournament champion Christian Brothers Academy in the SCT quarterfinals in front of a capacity crowd at Brookdale Community College.

Reischel had 27 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists to send the Garnet Gulls to the SCT semifinals for the first time since 1968, where they eventually lost to 13^th-seeded Rumson-Fair Haven.

Point Beach went on to reach the Central Jersey Group I semifinals before losing to eventual Group I champion Asbury Park, which beat the Garnet Gulls three times this season.

It brought an end to a memorable career for Reischel that included 1,683 points to put him ahead of Krayl as the Garnet Gulls' all-time leading scorer.

He also had 899 career rebounds, averaging 11.7 per game for his career, along with a career scoring average of 21.9 points per game.

While Reischel will always remember the big wins in front of the roaring crowds, he said that the part he will really miss will be the hard work and sweat during the summer with his teammates when no one was watching.

“Being in that hot gym with no air-conditioning, seeing my teammates 24-7, working hard to turn the program around – I will never forget that,’’ he said.

The skinny sophomore who was constantly asking classmates, “Is my accent gone yet?’’ after arriving from Germany in 2008 is now a 210-pound Division I basketball player with dual citizenship who considers himself “an American raised in Germany.’’

“Compared to what he is now, it seems like it was 10 years ago when he first got here,’’ Catania said. “I felt like we should’ve won a Shore Conference or state title, and I’m still disappointed about that, but then I take a step back and look at it.

“Four years ago, we were playing Ranney and there were 20 people there. This year we’re playing at Brookdale and the place is packed. It’s been a nice journey, and he has been a huge part of it.’’

Reischel has been in touch with his future Rice teammates on Facebook and Twitter, where he also communicates with his friends back in Germany. The last time he was back to Frankfurt was during his junior year.

His father, who is now a member of the Air Force and serving in Kuwait, will be coming to his high school graduation along with his mother, who will be making the trip from Germany.

The comet that streaked from Germany to the tiny town on the Jersey Shore will now take his talents to Houston, a relatively short journey considering how far he has already traveled.

If he duplicates his experience at Point Beach while playing for the Owls, the next step could be the NBA. Either that or he could possibly play professionally overseas and maybe come full circle by one day returning to Germany.

If he has learned anything during his time at Point Beach, it’s that anything is possible, including playing in the NBA.

"That's my dream and I'm going for it," he said. "I don't think there are any limits."