Richland Bombers football coach Neidhold calls it quits ‘with full heart’ after 37 years
For Mike Neidhold, there will be no more Mondays with his football team.
The long-time head football coach at Richland High School announced his retirement on Thursday, after 16 seasons at the helm.
During the playoffs over the years, Neidhold would always talk about getting another Monday practice with his players after the Bombers would win a Friday or Saturday playoff game.
It allowed him and his coaching staff another week’s worth of practices with the players — whom he always cared about the most.
“Yep. No more Mondays,” said Neidhold. “After 37 years of coaching, that’s a long time doing anything.”
He’s been thinking about making the move for awhile.
“I’ve thought about it for a year or two,” he said. “I’d go out on my morning walk and think about it. I thought about what I could do. I love to golf and I love to cook. I’m thinking about all of the things I get to do.”
There will be plenty of time. No more Saturday staff meetings, or long afternoon practices.
He and his wife, Toni, live on the golf course at Horn Rapids in Richland.
And there will be golf trips. “My future son-in-law is a Bandon Dunes nut,” he said. “My son, Kent, loves to play at Bandon Dunes.”
Neidhold himself carries a golf handicap of 8.
“But my daughter (Hope) is a 2,” he said.
Now, he’ll have time to finished school on a weekday, and still play 18 holes to try to catch Hope and her outstanding handicap.
Best of all, Neidhold leaves Richland’s football program on his own terms.
“I found the right opportunity to go,” he said. “I have no pressure to keep going, no pressure from the parents, no pressure from the administration. All of my boxes are checked. I can’t imagine one thing left that I’ve got to do. It’s time to turn this over to someone younger than me who hasn’t had all of those boxes checked.”
Neidhold believes he has a few assistants who might want to apply for the position. And he believes he’s helped them prepare for that position by having some of them plan out practices over the years.
Bomber football legacy
Mike Neidhold is the ultimate Bomber.
He played in the mid-1970s for then-head coach JD Covington, as the team’s quarterback.
After college, he started coaching at Richland as an assistant in 1986 for Lonnie Pierson.
Except for a short stint — as an assistant at Pasco High for John Morgan from 1991-93 — he spent all of his time wearing the green and gold at Richland High.
From 1994 on, he was an assistant. One of his main jobs as an assistant was coaching the offensive line — a position he still has a love affair with, despite being a quarterback himself.
By 2008, he was named head coach at Richland High.
Over his 16 seasons as head coach, Neidhold’s teams sported a 119-55 record. That also included an 81-34 record in conference contests — in either the Big Nine or Mid-Columbia conferences.
The 64-year-old led the Bombers to a Washington state football title in 2017. But he had some great seasons when his team didn’t win a state title.
“I got to go to a state championship game four or five different times (as a player, assistant coach, or head coach). Most people don’t get there once,” he said. “But I also had a team that finished 3-6 with no one expecting us to get those three wins. I loved those relationships I had with the players.”
He’s not going to disappear.
While he turns 65 in another month, Neidhold is not going to stop teaching.
“I want to do one year of teaching without coaching football,” he said.
From there, he’ll figure things out — whether that’s stepping away or still teaching.
For decades, boys basketball had been the marquee sport at Richland High — thanks to the Art Dawald years in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s; and Phil Neill’s short stint in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. Now, Earl Steufert has built a strong program at Richland these past 20 years.
But over those last 20 years, Neidhold has helped make the Bombers football program so strong that it now has equal billing with the boys basketball program.
“The football program is really important to our school,” he said. “Twenty years ago, there weren’t a lot of kids playing football in the park. Now there are. Bomber football is relevant to the community now.”
He’ll also be the biggest booster for Richland football — with the chance to actually watch a game as a fan now.
“Now I can be an ambassador for the next head coach for Bomber football,” he said.
He’s ready.
“I’ve got a full heart and a clear head,” said Neidhold. “Bomber football is on solid ground.”
Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.
