By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– Drew Richman has returned to his alma mater.
This time as Head Basketball Coach of the Girls Basketball program.
Richman, who came to the Turner-based school in the fifth-grade and graduated from Cascade High School in 2003, got his start at Cascade under Ray Williams as Head Coach straight out of High School and coached under Steve Ball during Ball’s first year with the Cougars. He remembered seeing eventual Cascade-greats Tyrell Williams and Ryan Thompson starting their journeys at the High School level.
“That was pretty cool to look back on,” said Richman.
Richman went to South Salem when current Central Head Coach Tyler Allen started there.
“That was a really incredible experience,” Richman said of his time with the longtime basketball coach.
Richman took some time off before returning to coach under the legendary Cascade Girls Basketball coach Mark Stevens. The connection between the two goes back to when Richman was in High School and Stevens was one of his Football coaches at Cascade High School before Richman returned to the Boys Basketball program under Justin Amaya. Eventually Richman got his crack as a Head Coach at Dallas High School two years ago.
Richman went 11-37 overall at Dallas while going 4-28 in the toughest conference in 5A in the Mid-Willamette Conference before heading back to Cascade entering this season. The two squads are playing in the preseason in December.
“I’m really proud of my time there. I was so blessed at Dallas, the girls there are incredible. The community really brought me in,” starts Richman. “Cascade’s home. I don’t know how it’s going to feel like when I coach my first game there…but my respect I have for Mark Stevens and Darin Drill, those are really big people in my life and part of me getting into coaching is to affect people’s lives like mine was affected when I was in High School.”
Wednesday was the first day of Summer Basketball games. Cascade traveled to West Salem High School and kicked things off with McNary as the program begins the Richman-era in Cascade. The Cougars graduate four major components from their 4A State Third-Place Team, but are expecting to return some big pieces like Lainey Klampe and Pearl Pruett entering next season.
“The Summer really is about that foundation and inserting those non-negotiables and figuring out how we want to play. Honoring what these girls have done because we are returning some girls who have a tremendous track record and great playing career. But how do we honor what Cascade stands for and how we make it ours and take it to new heights and that’s what this Summer is about,” Richman said.
Summer Basketball will go through the remainder of the month for the Cougars with the Winter season picking up in November.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
