Mike Ritchey, one of the most respected figures in small-college wrestling and the longtime heartbeat of the sport at Southern Oregon University, begins his 25th season as the Raiders’ head coach in 2019-20.
In his 36th year as a competitor or a coach for the perennial NAIA powerhouse, Ritchey also oversaw the SOU's women's wrestling program from 2017-19.
Since becoming the school’s first four-time NAIA All-American during his wrestling days, Ritchey has guided the Raiders to a dual record of 230-99 (making him the second-winningest coach in program history), 14 conference or regional titles and 12 top-five team finishes at the NAIA Championships.
The nine-time regional coach of the year has overseen 22 of SOU’s 35 individual national titles, including those of Brock Gutches, who in 2015 became the seventh four-time champion in NAIA history and the first to do it at 174 pounds.
After Ritchey took over as head coach in 1995, SOU extended its record-setting streak of consecutive winning seasons to 48, and he has guided 136 NAIA All-Americans and 20 national academic all-stars.
Ritchey’s crowning career achievement to date came in March 2001 when the fifth-ranked (and darkhorse) Raiders captured the school’s fourth NAIA team championship, and he became only the second coach in school history to earn NAIA coach-of-the-year kudos in the process.
Ritchey also led the 2009 squad to the program's first-ever NWCA National Dual Meet Championship and also back-to-back second place finishes at the NAIA National Championships in 2009 and 2010. The Raiders were back-to-back runners up again in 2012 and 2013, and Ritchey was the NAIA's coach of the year for the third time in the latter season.
In 2015, he led the Raiders to their fifth runner-up finish in seven seasons behind six All-America performances and titles for Gutches and Taylor Johnson.
In 2017-18, his Raiders earned a share of the first-ever Cascade Conference championship.
Ritchey’s teams regularly take on the nation’s best, and his teams have defeated 13 NCAA Division I opponents in dual encounters.
The NAIA regional meet was discontinued in 1998 season (and reborn in 2002) after the school had won three straight titles for only the second time in its tradition-rich history, the 1999-2000 team won a Northwest Conference title.
His 1998-99 team produced two national champions, seven All-Americans and amassed 133 team points for third-place — enough to win a team title any other year.
In 1997-98, Ritchey piloted SOU to an NAIA District II crown, and the next year, two Raiders won national individual titles.
The 1995-96 edition spent six weeks as the No. 1 team in the NAIA rankings and finished with a 9-2 record.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in 1990 and following a stint as a congressional aide for Rep. Bob Smith in 1990-91, the Salem native served as an assistant coach for his predecessors, Bob Riehm and Bob Bergen, for five seasons.
Ritchey competed at 126 for Riehm from 1985 to ’88, and is one of only four SOU student-athletes to earn four-year All-American status. As a senior, he was voted Most Inspirational and led the team to a 15-0 record and a third-place national finish.