Coach Heidenreich ends his coaching career on a high note

Congratulations Coach Heidenreich!

The LRS Girls Track and Field won a team state championship this past weekend and it was a fitting end to Randy Heidenreich’ s coaching career. I had the privilege of running for Randy in high school and it was always comforting to know you were getting the best advice and coaching you could get. He was the coach who always would stay late to work on things and had the ability to make the sport fun. Now having helped Randy coach the past 4 years it has been a great education to see how he coaches all levels of athletes, from the kids looking to run in college all the way to the kids just looking to get a tan in the spring.

Track and Field can be a very hard sport to coach as it requires a knowledge base in many different events and time management as there are only so many coaches to help with all of the events.

It involves long Saturday meets most of the spring away from family. Throughout the years Randy has had multiple assistant coaches, and athletes who have combined to win multiple individual and team state championships. However the one constant over the past 22 years has been Randy.

Ritzville has had a rich tradition in track and field and Randy has only helped further it. LRS has been blessed these past 22 years to have a person in charge who had the knowledge and ability to get the most of the athletes. Being a track and field standout himself, he seemed to always know the situation and how to help a kid persevere over any obstacle. Hopefully the next coach will call on him for his experience to help the program continue to thrive.

John Kragt, Ritzville