1957-1959 Sumner High School 1959-1973 Bellevue High School 1974-1984 Sammamish High School Jim Richards was a 1957 graduate of Washington State University and began his 26 year wrestling coaching career at Sumner High School, starting their wrestling program in 1957. Two years later in 1959, Richards moved to Bellevue High School to start their wrestling program. In 1963 Bellevue High School won the Wrestling State Championship scoring 30 team points with only three wrestlers. Today Bellevue High School is still the only KingCo Conference team to win a state wrestling title. After 14 years as the wrestling coach at Bellevue High School, Coach Richards became the head wrestling coach for Sammamish High School for the next 10 years, retiring from coaching in 1984. Coach Richards coached 78 state meet qualifiers and ten state placers while at Bellevue and another 10 state placers at Sammamish High School. Seven of his wrestlers went on to become high school wrestling coaches. Richards also officiated high school and college wrestling from 1964-1970. He was camp director from 1968-1974 for Sound Wrestling Camp and was tournament director for three KingCo Conference Tournaments and four WIAA Regional Championships. He was one of the coaches for the 1972 Washington Cultural Exchange Team. Richards served many years as one of the floor managers and later one of the trainers on the medical staff at Mat Classic, The State Wrestling Championships. In 1974 Jim became a Certified Athletic Trainer and started a Sports Medicine course at Sammamish High School. This class was the forerunner for all future high school vocational sports medicine programs in Washington State. In 1980 Richards, with Hall of Famer Dr. Warren Howe's assistance, created a computer program to establish weight classes based on a 7% body fat. Coach Richards implemented the use of this program with eight teams nearly ten years ahead of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) requiring a similar system for all schools. He served on the WIAA Medical Aspects Committee for 18 years representing wrestling. Summers, from 1976 to 1990, he was the athletic trainer for the jockeys at Longacres Race Track and was the Head Athletic Trainer at Northwest University from 2001-2008. Honors have been numerous for Coach Richards. He was the 1963 Washington State Wrestling Coach of the Year, 1982 Region I Coach of the Year and inducted into the Washington State Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1992. In 2005 he was the NAIA National Trainer of the Year and inducted into the Northwest Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2014 Richards was inducted into the Washington State Athletic Trainers and Northwest Universities Hall of Fames. Most recently the Pacific Northwest Wrestling Officials Association Awarded Richards their 2019 Distinguished Service Award. Coach Richards and his wife JoAnn recently moved to the Gig Harbor area after living in Bellevue for 60 years. They have three sons, David, Gary and Dan and five adult grandchildren Kaelin, Logan, Chris, Sammie and Nic. Through the years the Richards have enjoyed many weeks of boating in Puget Sound and Canadian waters on their 30' cruiser.