Nolan Richartz '16 Recruiting Profile

    High school to me has been very challenging, not because the classes are hard but because I challenge myself in ways others might not do. For my first two years of high school, I played three sports and took AP classes. The following year, I dropped basketball because I wanted to focus on golf and take some harder classes, thus improving my game, and improving my knowledge. My junior year, I focused a lot on what I want to do when i'm older and how I could achieve it. At first, I wanted to be a physical therapist because I'm very passionate about sports and helping people, but then our Health Services class had a Radiologist come in who had suffered from skin cancer and changed my whole outlook on my future and career. Immediately, I wanted to become a Radiologist because the way you can change peoples lives for the better. In order to achieve this goal, I need to go to a school that offers the program. I wanted to go to a smaller college for the first two years, and then hopefully go to Oregon State University to apply to their Nuclear Health/Engineering field, one of the most competitive fields at Oregon State. 

    Sports have always been a big part of my life. I'm always doing something sports related, whether it's watching a golf tournament on T.V., at the range hitting balls, or watching a football game. Sports run in my blood. I played baseball for 12 years, devoting all of my time to the game, until one day, I didn't want to play anymore. The sport felt like a chore. I began to hate it, so my freshman year, I decided to tell the coach that I wasn't going to play. I moved onto golf because the sport seemed interesting and I loved to go out and play with my parents. Even though at the time I wasn't good, I just really enjoyed and respected the game. It took a lot of other skills other sports didn't require like a strong mentality, perfect muscle-memory, and hours and hours of practicing one simple body movement. As the years went on, I fell in love with the game because how quickly you could see your improvement if you put in the time. By my junior season, I had improved over 25 strokes from when I first joined the team. My junior season of playing golf, happened to be my best so far. I ended the season averaging an 80. I made it to the State Tournament after winning a play-off by one stroke. I was awarded Second-Team All-League in the sport, and led my school in the sport. Soon enough, I decided to add soccer to my list of sports. I always enjoyed watching soccer on T.V., Arsenal being on of my favorite teams to watch. I went out for the high school team and made the JV2 team. After being moved up to Junior varsity and receiving very little playing time, I decided that I wanted to devote as much time as possible into the sport that way I could be on varsity the following year. I joined a club-team and made the highest level available. The next season I made the Junior Varsity squad again, forcing me to work even harder for what I wanted. Finally, my senior year, I made the varsity squad. I became a starter after playing the last forty minutes of the first game, and remained a starter for the rest of the season. I led the team in assists and had a game-winning goal against a team our school had never defeated or tied before. I received Second-Team All-League Mid-Fielder. For me, education comes first over anything. Sports will eventually end, but your future is forever. A critical part of education to me is "playing school". Anyone can "play" school and turn in their assignments on time, and take the baseline easy classes and achieve a 4.0, but it takes a real student to find their intellectual character and give up that 4.0 to really strive and take harder classes where you will learn much more and actually be more engaged.