www.KANSASCITYWRESTLINGCLUB.COM/COACH RICH NITSCH IN MEMORIAM
It is with great sadness that we have to announce the unexpected passing of our beloved coach and friend, Rich Nitsch. Rich was a loving husband and a devoted and proud father. Rich started coaching at the Kansas City Wrestling Club after retiring from the FBI. Rich was the most selfless person I ever met. He loved wrestling, but he mostly loved helping kids. He saw wrestling as a way for kids to learn invaluable lessons like working hard and belonging to a team. He was extraordinarily generous with his time and money to make sure that every kid could experience the best that wrestling had to offer. Rich paid for kids to join our team, bought their shoes, paid for them to go to tournaments, drove them to practice, drove them to tournaments and then took them out to pizza afterwards. Before joining the FBI, Rich had been a high school coach in Manhattan, Topeka and Olathe. As a high school coach, Rich coached state champions, national champions and even a world champion (Melvin Douglas). Despite those successes, Rich derived as much pride helping teach a kid who never won a match the value of getting up off the mat and practicing to get better. Rich was always the most enthusiastic supporter of all of our kids. Each wrestler has a story of how Rich supported and encouraged them. Rich was in the process of setting up tutoring for his middle school wrestlers at Indian Hills to help them succeed in the classroom. Of course, Rich organized the whole thing and was going to pay for it himself. At banquets, Rich would give each wrestler a commemorative FBI coin. He would tell them to carry the coin with them in their pocket and rub it during a test or speech to remind themselves of how much hard work they had put in to get where they are. The kids' eyes would always light up when they received their own coin. Rich told me that the coins were meaningful to the kids because they looked official. I knew that the coins were meaningful to the kids because they came from a man who loved them and believed in them. All of our kids, including my own son, were blessed to have Rich as their coach and we were all blessed to have Rich as a friend. Rich will be deeply missed by all who were lucky enough to have him in their lives.
