Sep 19, 2021 9 min read

On his way to building one of the most successful playing, coaching and officiating soccer careers in Pennsylvania, Art Richardson never expected anything more from anyone than he was willing to give himself.

What he gave was all he had in talent, work ethic, spirit, will, determination and smarts.

Those he played for and with knew it. His players took on his personality and willingness to work – Art’s way – and those he officiated appreciated his knowledge and fairness

All agree, what Richardson brought was a rare brilliance and understanding of the game and a complete awareness of what it takes to be great in soccer.

Richardson played soccer on a national level. He coached it like no one else in this area and he officiated as well as anyone.

He built a tremendously successful boy’s program at Trinity, serving as coach from 1968 through 1985. In his tenure, the Hillers went 225-67-31.

Richardson’s teams won 10 section championships, the 1974 WPIAL title and a PIAA championship in 1983. The Hillers also finished as WPIAL runners-up three times (1975, 1983 and 1984).

The 1983 season was the pinnacle for the Hillers’ program. Trinity was state co-champions after a 16-overtime, 1-1, tie against Bethlehem Freedom.

“The key to the 1983 team was an arrival of several very young players with exceptional skills, athleticism, and dedication,” Richardson said. “In 1981, a young Kory Sensky played as a teammate of senior Mike Ault (who scored 63 goals that year and would later be a national All-American at Bethany College). To learn from Mike Ault was an honor.

“In 1982, a sophomore named Greg Day moved into the Trinity School District and quickly became a starting defender. By 1983, the key pieces were in place, although still young, only four starting seniors – Todd Hammond, Ault, Jason Harr, Gregg Gaido. Four juniors – Sensky, Day, Heath Hamilton, and Scott Ickes with three sophomores – Scott Armstrong, Bryan Hammond and Steve Miller.”

Many of Richardson’s players advanced their careers in college, several earning All-America honors. He also produced All-District and All-State players, some of the greatest in WPIAL and PIAA history.

Perhaps the greatest was John Colombo, an All-State and All-Regional performer in 1973 and 1974 and an NSCAA IN 1974.

“He changed everything,” Richardson said of Colombo. “He might be the greatest athlete I ever saw at Trinity.”

Soccer was a lead sport and popular at Trinity when it wasn’t in other schools. The reason it attracted some of the greatest athletes in Trinity High School history was Richardson.

“My fondest memories are the success stories of the hundreds of athletes I was blessed to coach,” Richardson said.

“First, I looked on coaching as an extension of my profession – teaching. I taught history for 36 years, but I didn’t teach history to make my students history majors or historians. I used history to develop academic skills necessary for success – like critical analysis, work ethic, sound preparation, evaluation of source validity, logical presentation and defense of a theory or historical interpretation, etc. I had to motivate students who had no idea about history to accept the fact that their teacher, me, thought that history was the most important subject they had even if they didn’t.

“I used very similar methods in coaching soccer. I had to create a culture of team discipline, team achievement, team focus to create team success. In individual sports, an athlete’s success is measured by individual abilities and dedication. Many never experience success. In team sports, every athlete has a chance for recognition, accomplishment, and success by being part of a team that achieves success and by being around great athletes who are necessary for success, they get to share it.”

Richardson was a three-year letterman at the University of Pittsburgh, a 1966 team captain, Most Valuable Player and a 1965 and 1966 Regional Soccer All-American.

He played semi-pro soccer throughout Western Pennsylvania from 1966 through 1988, and Professional Soccer for the Pittsburgh Cannons in 1973 and Pittsburgh Miners in 1975.

He was named the WPIAL Coach-of-the-Year in 1983 and he developed an incredible 84 WPIAL All-Star players, 11 All-PIAA players and four All-America players at Trinity.

In 2000, Richardson became the first Western Pennsylvania Coach selected to the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He also is a member of the Washington-Greene Co. Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.

Steve Ritter played for Richardson at Trinity and was team captain and MVP in 1976.

“You wanted to win for him,” Ritter said. “We felt when we played, there was no one in better conditioned or better coached than we were. That’s the essence of Art Richardson’ teaching and coaching.

“He made me into the person I am. I think his attitude toward the players was incredible. He treated everyone as individuals. He gave everyone a nickname and treated everyone well, whether it be the 30th guy on the team to John Columbo – probably the greatest player (goalkeeper) he coached at Trinity.

“Art always made sure we went against top competition in practice. He’d bring in alumni, play himself and create an atmosphere that many times was better and more intense than a regular game. Honestly, in a lot of games, we weren’t playing against anything tougher than we had faced in practice. Art was just an amazing coach and is a great man.”

A Work of Art

Richardson is quick to praise and credit his players at Trinity for being willing to work, sacrifice and accept his strategy and his way of thinking.

He is beloved by his players. Richardson was tough on them – painfully and exhaustingly tough on them.

“He was very disciplined in his approach, and he led by his example of hard work,” said Matt Engle. “He commanded respect from each player and the teams themselves. He also commanded respect for every one of our opponents. He took nothing lightly.

“Art was always aware of the opponent. Many times in his career he could have run up the score. He put the starters on the bench and utilized the bench in (lopsided) game. He found it a great way to cultivate and develop younger players. That made the team closer and stronger. I appreciated that aspect of him and his approach to the game. He has a brilliant soccer and coaching mind.”

Having an awareness of the opponent and its strengths and limitations is something that always weighed on Richardson. He understood sportsmanship. Unfortunately, that is rare today as even early in this soccer season some coaches have no remorse on running up scores into the 20s and 30s.

“It’s a challenge to create a culture that is identified by certain values – a great work ethic, a belief in team success, a recognition that when a team succeeds, all succeed. It also puts responsibility on the better players and natural leaders of the team to develop these feelings (and) beliefs into newer and younger players as they come out for the team.

“It was common for graduated players to return to the soccer field each summer and join in pick-up games with that current team’s members. Even fathers of players began to show up and play. Players like Don Cox, Bobby Hull, Bill Haines, Marty Strnisha, Alan Jutca, and Erik Holt had as much to do with the 1974 WPIAL championship and the 1983 PIAA Champions as the teams of those years.”

Jutca said Richardson is responsible for his going to Pitt and playing on the Panthers’ soccer team. He said Richardson’s influence on his life was profound. As father figure to many of his players, Jutca said Richardson’s influence touched many.

“When I played, Art was still in his 20s,” Jutca said. “He was a father figure for many people in classroom and certainly on the field. He had a good balance, always upbeat and friendly. He also had side to him that was ‘This is what we need to do to get job done,’ whether that was getting an A in class or winning a soccer game. He was friendly but matter of fact in what he thought we needed to do to get the job done.

“Art was encouraging to everyone. He was relentless about practicing. We played indoors in the winter and at Lagonda Field every night in the summer. It was not that he expected you to be there, but people clamored and wanted to be there. He made people good because of those reasons.”

In addition to playing and coaching, Richardson was an acclaimed soccer official.

“I loved refereeing just because I, unlike most referees, played the game at the highest level and thus, especially in collegiate games, could quickly identify with what a player was trying to do,” he said.

His excellence in all three phases of the game is rare. Coaching became an unexpected passion.

“I never considered coaching until I actually got hired at Trinity,” Richardson said. “I enjoyed playing so much at Pitt that I decided to start a soccer club at Trinity just for evening recreation after school. I remember asking my 10th grade 5th Period World History class if any of them would be interested in joining a Soccer Recreation Club. Several put their hands up, including Bill Haines (later starting Goalkeeper for Pitt) and Don Cox (later All-WPIAL). We then were asked by AD Milton Decker to make the “club” a varsity program in the WPIAL.

“The tradition and culture of Trinity Soccer belongs to the many players who regularly came to practices as alumni and helped and to the parents who allowed me to train their sons and gave me trust. Graduated players became coaches throughout the WPIAL, and many become my assistants at Trinity.”

Richardson pointed to other former players such as Ryan Julian, Engle, Dan Frazier, Bruce Burnfield, Rick Voytek, J.C. Martin, Dave Ault, Dan Lobozzo, Jim Steele, Perry Presto, and Jim and John Strnisha as being a big part of Trinity’s tradition.

Said Jutca: “Art helped a lot of people see beyond their own limitations of themselves. It was understood that you were better prepared than those you were playing against. There was a pervasive feeling among us that no one had been through what I had been through. Art’s coaching gave us that confidence.”