Meet the new head football coach for Richland High’s Bombers
Josh Jelinek wasn’t sure how people would read his resumé.
There were so many jobs listed on it, “I was thinking people would think I’m not committed to anything.”
But that’s never been the case.
Jelinek goes where he’s needed.
“I’ve always been asked to, ‘Go teach this, go teach that,” said Jelinek. “If you look at my resumé, you see that.”
In this latest case, the need for him to become the 13th head football coach in Richland High School history was his latest assignment. He takes over for Mike Neidhold, who retired as head coach after the 2023 season.
For Jelinek, this job is a dream come true.
Jelinek has pretty much done every job in the district — including athletic director at Hanford High for a few years.
He’ll still teach Career Technical Education at Richland. But now he has an entire football program to run too.
On Thursday, as soon as Richland athletic director Adrian Ochoa announced to the football staff at the Fran Rish Stadium locker room that Jelinek was the guy, the staff responded positively.
“Adrian rounded up 45 to 55 of our football players,” Jelinek said. “There was a knock on the locker room door, and the players came in and cheered. It felt really good.”
And, thanks to a news release that Richland assistant Tait Meyer had prepared — and quickly sent out — Jelinek’s phone started blowing up.
Messages were coming in from everywhere. It included texts from his old Prosser High School football coach, Tom Moore.
“I haven’t had the chance to respond to him yet,” Jelinek said during this phone interview around 8 p.m. Thursday. “I went out for a nice dinner with my mom, wife and daughter first.”
Then it was time to respond to everyone who reached out with texts, emails or phone calls.
Thursday was going to be a long night.
As far as what’s next, Jelinek said he’ll meet with the football coaching staff next week.
“I love these guys, and I hope the entire staff stays,” he said. “We’ve all been together a long time. But I want to know what their dreams and aspirations are.”
Jelinek has been the Bombers’ offensive coordinator, and the 2023 season was outstanding for the Bombers offense with senior quarterback Josh Woodard.
Richland had a great group of receivers — including Brody Bocek and Colson Mackey, who are underclassmen. But as a group, it was pretty apparent they could go six deep, and all of them ran really crisp passing routes.
Whether he stays as offensive coordinator is still to be determined, said Jelinek.
Jelinek also already has experience with paperwork when it comes to football — or any sport, for that matter. After all, he was Hanford’s athletic director.
But one thing Neidhold did over the years was delegate some head coaching responsibilities to a number of his assistants — including Jelinek. The idea was Neidhold wanted anyone with head coaching aspirations to get the chance to experience some of those duties, with Neidhold double checking their work.
Now the real work begins. And everything is on schedule, says Jelinek.
“We’re not behind at all,” he said. Now, if we got into February before this happened, we’d be behind schedule. In preparation for one of the interviews, I mapped out a team (practice and workout) schedule for spring, summer, up to the first game in September, which looks like it’s against Hermiston.
“We’ll pick a (summer) football camp in the next two weeks, and get it out to the families so everybody can prepare.”
For Jelinek, he’s ready to add another job to that busy resumé.
Prep basketball
Here’s the latest look at the 1A South Central Athletic Conference East Division basketball standings, with Wahluke’s boys and College Place’s girls leading the way:
1A SCAC EAST BOYS
Updated through Jan. 2
Wahluke 1-0 SCAC, 9-1 overall
Royal 1-0, 6-4
Connell 1-1, 5-5
Kiona-Benton 0-1, 6-5
College Place 0-1, 4-6
Dec. 29 — DeSales 71, College Place 51; Kiona-Benton 76, Yakama Nation Tribal 56; Royal 81, Lind-Ritzville 54; Wahluke 58, Sunnyside Christian 38
Dec. 30 — Royal 59, Manson 36
Jan. 2 — Connell 48, College Place 47; Royal 57, Kiona-Benton 51; Wahluke 70, Toppenish 48
Jan. 5 — Connell at Kiona-Benton, 7:30 p.m.; Wahluke at College Place, 7:30 p.m.; Zillah at Royal, 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 6 — College Place at Wapato, 7:30 p.m.; Connell at Zillah, 7:30 p.m.; Kiona-Benton at Toppenish, 7:30 p.m.; Royal at La Salle, 6 p.m.; Wahluke at Naches Valley, 7:30 p.m.
1A SCAC EAST GIRLS
Updated through Jan. 2
College Place 1-0, 7-3
Royal 1-0, 4-5
Connell 1-1, 4-6
Kiona-Benton 0-1, 5-4
Wahluke 0-1, 2-7
Dec. 29 — College Place 53, DeSales 41; Kiona-Benton 30, Yakama Nation Tribal 29; Sunnyside Christian 41, Wahluke 21
Dec. 30 — Columbia-Burbank 49, College Place 45; Royal 65, Manson 28
Jan. 2 — College Place 65, Connell 33; Royal 45, Kiona-Benton 20; Toppenish 67, Wahluke 11
Jan. 5 — Connell at Kiona-Benton, 6 p.m.; Wahluke at College Place, 6 p.m.; Zillah at Royal, 6 p.m.
Jan. 6 — College Place at Wapato, 6 p.m.; Connell at Zillah, 6 p.m.; Kiona-Benton at Toppenish, 6 p.m.; Wahluke at Naches Valley, 6 p.m.
College football
Sophomore Thomas Reagan (Hermiston) was named second-team All-Northwest Conference recently.
Reagan plays defensive back at Lewis & Clark College in Portland.
In 10 games for the 5-5 Pioneers, Reagan had 28 tackles, 2 interceptions and 10 pass breakups.
Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.
