Richardson era nears an end at Palatine

The image my memory conjures up when I think of the first time I met Ed Richardson bears little resemblance to the man you'd see today coaching swimmers at Palatine High School.

Of course, this was some 30 years ago, when Richardson was breathing life into the Palatine High School and Palatine Park District swimming programs. But it's hard to forget how he looked back then - quite different from your average age group swimming coach. Very long hair, usually flying out wildly to the side under a wide-brimmed hat as he barked out splits from the side of a sun-splashed pool. I'm picturing him at Portage Park, DeKalb, Joliet; the usual summer long-course meets.

I remember thinking he looked like the Dennis Hopper character from the film Easy Rider - except he was wearing flip-flops instead of biker boots, and he was all business as he calmly but firmly directed his swimmers.

Much has changed since those days. And more change is on the way, as Richardson is in his final year of coaching swimming at Palatine. After 32 consecutive seasons of directing the girls team, he will coach his last girls sectional and state meets over the next two weeks before his finale at Palatine in the winter, when he'll coach the boys one last time.

It will be swimming's loss.

Summing up the career of a coach such as Richardson isn't easy because of the scope of what he has accomplished.

The big-picture achievements are easy enough to grasp - four second-place finishes and a third for the Palatine girls in the high school state meet, plus another nine finishes in the top 10. A string of six straight conference championships bridging the late 1980s and early '90s, and three more league titles in the early '80s.

Further evidence of his coaching ability is revealed by both the number and variety of individual girls state champions he trained at Palatine, including Alison Wimer (sprinter), Kim Staab (breaststroke, IM), Katie McMillan (breaststroke), Jenny Kleeman (freestyle) and Lisa Hunt (distance freestyle). Dozens more made the state finals, and still more participated on point-scoring relays. He coached more than 80 all-state girls swimmers at Palatine.

Beyond his high school groups were a great many more swimmers who trained with his Palatine Park District teams and reached an elite level. Most notable among the girls was freestyler Lindsey Farella, who attended Elk Grove and alongside Wimer formed one of the great rivalries in state history.

Richardson's influence also extended to many of the area's boys swimmers through both the Palatine High School team (he opted to concentrate on coaching the high school girls nine seasons ago) and some real stars in his PPD program. In addition to grooming all-around standouts Greg Plank and Brian McKay at Palatine, Richardson also helped groom future gold medalist Dan Jorgensen and Fremd standout Jay Glenn.

These leading swimmers still only hint at the breadth of Richardson's impact.

Among parents, swimmers and peers, he earned the reputation of a coach who was tough but fair, and who cared about individuals far beyond the limts of the sport he coached.

Perhaps most importantly, you didn't have to be a world-class swimmer to be treated like one by Richardson.

Palatine's Meredith Gieseler sent two daughters and a son - of varying abilities - through Richardson.

"He treated slow swimmers and fast swimmers the same," she said. "He had a love of swimming, and the kids responded to that. He gave his all, and he expected everyone to do their best in return.

"He set high standards for not only swimming, but also their academic and personal lives. He was strict in the sense that you had to be there and ready to do your best - and there was no backsliding on that."

Another veteran Mid-Suburban League swimming coach, Schaumburg's Tom Gallagher, has been on the swimming scene about as long as Richardson.

"Ed is passionate about the sport," Gallagher said. "Not many coaches enjoy the sport as much as Ed. But he never allowed his passion for the sport to take him overboard in how he dealt with his athletes. He always interacted with his swimmers in a gentle and nurturing way."

Richardson's own take on the reasons behind his success and longevity is a little bit different.

"I just always felt like coaching was my hobby," he said. "It's something I love to do. Most people pick a hobby, then they have to pay for it. It was the other way around for me - I got paid for my hobby."

Along the way, Richardson gave a significant boost to another hobby, volleyball. He and Curt Pinley banded together to form one of the first boys club teams in the area, and the sport eventually took off and gained full-fledged IHSA status in 1992.

Richardson's background as a swimmer came by necessity. In his freshman year at St. George High School in Evanston (which shuttered its doors just after he graduated), Richardson broke both wrists playing football. At his mom's urging, he decided to give swimming a try, but his relatively late introduction to swimming kept him from achieving at the highest levels. Still, he attended Indiana University in the glory days of that program, with teammates such as Mark Spitz and a coaching legend named Doc Counsilman.

After a short while, Richardson realized he didn't fit ability-wise with the Olympians that were all around him and said farewell to swimming. He took up playing volleyball as a club sport for his remaining days at IU, loaded up on coursework in his pre-med major and started preparing for a career in medicine.

Before he committed to med school, Richardson had a stint working in the emergency room at Lutheran General that opened his eyes to some of the harsh realities of his chosen field.

"Looking back on it," he said, "I think it's probably fair to say I was a little too idealistic."

Suddenly, Richardson found himself in search of a new career path and decided to giving coaching a shot. He took a position as an unpaid volunteer B swim team coach at Northwest Suburban YMCA in Des Plaines (now Lattof YMCA), and after a coaching resignation, was promoted to head coach in a matter of weeks.

A couple of years after that, he started the Palatine Park District program, which at first was a summer-only team. It kept growing, especially after Palatine and other MSL schools were able to build pools. After that, swimmers were drawn to the program, and over time PPD became synonymous with excellence.

One reason Richardson believes it turned out so well was his belief in giving everyone the opportunity to succeed.

"I had a saying: 'We all put on our suits the same way - one leg at a time,'" he said. "Treating everyone the same might have come a little easier for me because of my own experience as a swimmer. It was easy for me to relate to the kid who maybe wasn't so talented."

Palatine diving coach Donna O'Brien has been alongside Richardson since 1983. The Arlington High grad was starting her own career as a coach at that point and is grateful that fate put her next to a consumate professional.

"He was such a good role model for me," said O'Brien, who has coached 36 all-staters and nine state finalists. "He really showed me what it was going to take to be a successful coach. He's never changed in his dedication to what he was doing."

That dedication was at least partly repaid when a party in Richardson's honor was held a little over a month ago in downtown Palatine.

Many of the great ones from Palatine's storied swimming past were in attendance, as one might expect. But they were outnumbered by the rank and file, swimmers who got plenty out of the sport by simply competing.

"Not just the top kids came," O'Brien said. "There were kids of all ability levels, which was really neat. He had that kind of effect because of the way he coaches."

"I've always treated swimming like it was a family," Richardson said. "I approached swimming as an opportunity to teach life lessons - being organized, being disciplined, setting goals for yourself - so hopefully anybody that swam could take away things that would serve them, help them be better human beings long after they were done with swimming."

The commitment to excellence and adherence to ideals is probably what elevates Richardson into that rare category of coaches who transcend their sport.

"The first thing that struck me about him was how precise he was," O'Brien said. "He's the most dedicated coach I've been around. I really benefitted from seeing that. He was never late - never."

Though in one sense, at least, Richardson was a little later than most. He met his wife, Joyce, at Palatine about 10 years ago. She'd been hired to coach volleyball. They now have three young children - Ian (8), Peyton (7) and McKenna (4) - and Joyce stepped away from coaching a few years ago to devote more time to the home front.

Their roles will soon reverse, as Joyce returns to coaching high school volleyball at Palatine, with Ed concentrating on supporting her and the Richardson brood.

Soon, his swimming family will take a back seat, and his actual family becomes the priority. The change in perspective has Richardson in a reflective state of mind.

"I feel like I've been blessed to have had so many outstanding young people around me," he said. "Before I had kids of my own, I thought I understood it, but you don't, really, until you have your own. The thing I tell coaches now is, don't take for granted the opportunity and responsibility you have. These parents, they're trusting us with the most important things in their lives. We're getting the most precious thing they can give us - their kids."

On a November afternoon, I dropped by the Palatine pool to watch the master at his craft. Richardson was preparing the swimmers who will be competing in this weekend's sectional meet. His freestylers were attempting a set that involves varying distances, descending intervals and short rest - it was too complex for this reporter to quickly grasp, but the swimmers understood it and were executing it as Richardson related their precise times each time they stopped.

A great finish to Palatine's season would be to qualify Monica Dorszewski for the state meet in her individual races, and perhaps a relay. This is far from a state trophy-caliber team, but from the enthusiasm Richardson has in talking about the potential he sees in swimmers such as Nicole Theis, you'd never guess it.

"It's not the stars that make your program," said Gallagher, "it's the swimmers that come in knowing nothing about the sport, and a coach's ability to develop a passion within them.

"Ed was great at that. He could coach at any level, from high school JV to Olympic level. His knowledge of training techniques in the sport and ability to motivate young people to commit is beyond compare."

As I watched Richardson operate on deck, I couldn't help noticing the long hair is long gone. But that cosmetic difference is about the only major change I can detect.

He's still wearing the flip-flops. And the passion never left, either.

"I guess he's mellowed a little bit with age, maybe, but he's always been the same person," said Barrington coach Jim Bart, whose team could threaten for a trophy at the state meet a week from Saturday. "He's helped out so many swimmers, so many other coaches.

"He's been great for Palatine, great for the MSL, great for our sport. We're all lucky to have had him."

agabriel@dailyherald.com