Richard Sanchez unretired from football coaching in 2018 to take over Santa Rita’s football program. This spring, he was named the new head coach at Tucson High.
A few days before Pueblo High School wrestler Richard Sanchez began the 1975 state championship meet, his coach, John Mulay, knew two things: (1) the undefeated Sanchez had suffered a concussion two weeks earlier and wasn’t at his best; (2) no one was going to beat him anyway.
“I couldn’t imagine Richard not being a state champion,” Mulay told me in 2001.
Mulay was correct, but his singular prediction had a plural outcome. Sanchez went on to win 16 state championships.
The first nine were as Sunnyside High School’s assistant coach, working for Don Klostreich. The next five, in succession, came when Sanchez replaced Klostreich and coached the Blue Devils to consecutive state wrestling championships from 1990-94.
But not even Mulay could’ve predicted what Sanchez did next: He took over a struggling Sunnyside football program and won state championships in 2001 and 2003, finished second twice and coached the Blue Devils to an almost unthinkable 105-24 record from 1999-2009.
Before replacing Klostreich, the founder of Sunnyside’s wrestling dynasty, Sanchez said: “I don’t believe anyone could be as successful as Don. That’s pretty tough.” And yet Sanchez and the Blue Devils won the next five state tournaments.
Sanchez, who is No. 84 in our list of Tucson’s Top 100 Sports Figures of the last 100 years, put together an Act II that no one could’ve seen coming. He switched to football coaching. His Blue Devils football teams had successive records of 10-2, 13-1, 13-1, 12-2 and 11-1.
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