North Platte basketball’s Jonathan Rinke went from having a breakout junior season to suffering a medical emergency leaving his basketball future in doubt.
Rinke played in 17 varsity games as a sophomore in 2024-25, averaging 3.5 points and 1.5 rebounds for a North Platte team that won just two games all year. The 6-foot-4 wing looked like a different player to begin his junior season, scoring in double figures in each of his first six games (including two games with 30-plus points) and averaging 22.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.0 steals.
The Bulldogs matched their 2024-25 win total in the first three games, and Rinke continued to put up numbers even when North Platte came up short. Then everything changed.
Rinke said that he began feeling sick at the beginning of winter break, though he continued to play. He scored seven points in a blowout loss to Lincoln Pius X on Dec. 29, the first of two games in a holiday tournament in Sidney. The flu had been going around the team, but Rinke realized the next day whatever he had wasn’t simple influenza. His condition continued to get worse, landing him in an Omaha hospital on Dec. 31.
“I felt really light-headed Monday, and I was having a pretty bad headache, but I was still good enough to play,” Rinke told Hurrdat Sports. “I tried to play that game, and we kind of got our butts kicked, so it was rough. I didn’t think anything of it, so I was feeling pretty tired that night. I just woke up Tuesday, and I just like couldn’t feel anything, and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’”
Jonathan’s father, Jeremy Rinke, received a call from his son that Tuesday morning, and he drove to Sidney to pick Jonathan up and bring him back to North Platte.
“Eventually, what happened was his antibodies started fighting against his own body, so it caused his legs and arms and everything to go numb,” Jeremy said. “It affected his nervous system, and then his brain. He was having headaches. It affected his vision. It was just messing up everything with his motor skills. So it started because of his antibodies and autoimmune stuff.”
Jonathan spent 12 days in the hospital before his release on Jan. 11. He had to re-learn how to walk during his stay.
“It’s been really hard just knowing I was just playing basketball and now, I can barely walk,” Jonathan said on jan. 7. “That’s been a really tough part thinking about, but I just know anything’s possible. I really think if I just work hard enough, I’ll be able to get back on the court this year.”
The wing began physical therapy after returning home. He suffered a setback on Jan. 26, spending another three days in Omaha due to inflamed nerves. He received more steroids and an IVIG treatment.
“They ended up just doing a couple more steroid doses, and that kind of brought the inflammation out of my back, which caused that tingling to kind of go away,” Jonathan said. “Even when I got back, that tingling was still kind of like driving me crazy, but I didn’t lose any strength at all, so it wasn’t too bad of a setback as the one before, but it was still definitely scary.”
Jeremy said it’s been scary for him as well as he’s watched his son go through this.
Jonathan Rinke surveys the the court against Norfolk. Photo courtesy of the Rinke family.
“Everything was going good, and then just in a moment your life gets turned upside down,” Jeremy said. “It’s just kind of almost been an unreal start to 2026, but it’s been pretty hard to just see him struggle, and there’ve been times where you just know he’s scared about his health. As a dad, you’re always trying to fix things, and you want to make things better, and it’s not something that you can just do. So, that’s been kind of hard.”
Jonathan said he returned to practice the first week of physical therapy, shooting and working on noncontact drills. He practiced with contact a couple times before returning to the court against Gering on Feb. 14. He played in limited action, logging just under two minutes a quarter in the first game. He played a little more in the team’s regular season finale against Sidney and ramped it up even more in a season-ending district loss at Fremont, totaling 13 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.
“It was fun, it was really fun,” Rinke said of his return to action. “I was really looking forward to it. Right when I got back to North Platte, I still was doing physical therapy and even trying to get my strength back. So, even that first practice back, I still didn’t really have my strength back. I still wasn’t really fully there, but I was still very happy to be back. It was definitely tough. The conditioning was all gone, so I had to get that back, but I was really happy to just start being part of the team again.”
Jeremy said that he was happy to see Jonathan’s return.
“Jonathan is just an overcomer,” Jeremy said. “Just to know the fight that’s inside of him and just to know nothing’s impossible, he’s going to overcome whatever obstacle is in front of him, and just to know that he’s not going to let anything in life keep him down, it was a pretty special moment.”
Jonathan said he’s working on recovering both physically and mentally, with the latter presenting a lot of challenges.
“It was mentally tough,” Jonathan said. “It was just crazy, just playing basketball then a couple days later, I couldn’t even walk. It was just super sad, but I just knew there was nothing I can do but just keep pushing myself and just keep working at it.”
Jonathan said his teammates and coaches have supported him along the way. While he was in the hospital, they came to visit him then held a party for him when he returned home.
“It’s meant the world to me,” Jonathan said. “I just tell them every day how much that meant to me. I don’t think I’ll ever forget how much that meant to me. It was so cool.”
Jonathan’s overcome a lot this season hoping that his story reaches others.
“I really want them to learn about valuing your health, and just not taking anything for granted, and just don’t be afraid,” Jonathan said. “You’ll get through it no matter what. You just can’t sit in fear, that’s just the worse; that will just make the recovery take a lot longer. Even just being open about how you’re feeling, you can’t sit mentally depressed either, because that will make it a lot worse too.”
Although Jonathan’s still recovering, he’s hoping to return to full strength next season looking to carry the knowledge he’s gained this year into his senior season.
“I’ve just realized how much you need to value it,” Jonathan said. “My coaches will always say like, ‘These four years are going to fly by,’ and then even just dealing with missing the whole entire year, that just took away a whole year, so I’ve just valued even getting back. I’ve just valued every practice. Even if the practices are intense and hard, I still just value every moment so much. Everything I do with the team I’m just so happy for, because I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to play again this year.
“I just value everything a lot more now.”
