Profile: Dick Nicholl, Player to Coach

Dick Nicholl led Western Washington
in rushing in 1963.

Athlete: Dick Nicholl, Bothell, Class of 1957

Sports: Football, track and field, basketball

High-school rewind: All-conference running back in football. Placed third in the state in shot put at 54 feet, 11 inches. Considered by some to be the best male athlete in school history.

After high school: Received football scholarship to University of Washington. Later attended Western Washington, where he led team in rushing in 1963 and was an All-Evergreen Conference selection. Set WWU record in shot put at 49-11 ¾.

After athletics: Joined the Peace Corps and volunteered in Venezuela for two years after graduating with a degree in Spanish literature. Taught Spanish in high school for 34 years and is in his 40th year coaching high-school football.

Personal: Nicholl, 67, lives on Mercer Island with his wife of 40 years, Linda. They have three children and six grandchildren.

Fast forward: Last February, Nicholl joined some of the state's best-known high-school coaches at a football clinic in Mexico City. Although he served mainly as an interpreter, he was astonished at how popular the sport has become in Mexico.

"It's becoming an international game," he said.

Coaching duties and parental desires collided when Nicholl's son, Chris, took his all-state football talents to WWU. Chris was a first-team All-American at Western and holds many school records.

Following his son's career "was wonderful, but a little hard because I was coaching and trying to see all his games," Nicholl said.

Nicholl has a 178-111-3 record in 31 seasons as a head coach at Centralia and Mercer Island high schools. He is 157-103 at Mercer Island, trailing only Inglemoor's Frank Naish (158) in KingCo Conference coaching victories.

Despite the "ups and downs of coaching," Nicholl insists he'd have it no other way.

"I have been very blessed. Mercer Island has been a wonderful place to live," he said. "I was never caught up with the fact that teachers don't make a lot of money. I think I did what I wanted to do."

Joshua Mayers

This story originally appeared October 24, 2006, in The Seattle Times.