Risley to be inducted into the IWCOA Hall of Fame

By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com

Life sometimes gets in the way of goals and expectations, derailing ambitions but setting a person’s course in an unexpected — but rewarding — direction.

Jim Risley had plans as he graduated from the University of Illinois. He expected to combine his teaching career with time devoted to coaching.

“My biggest goal,” Risley said, “was to be a head football coach.”

When he was hired in 1980 for his first — and only — full-time teaching position at Mahomet-Seymour, “there were no openings in football,” he said.

He spent four years in the fall working with the volleyball staff. His other coaching stints were spent with the wrestling and girls’ track and field programs.

“I never got a chance to coach football,” Risley said.

And yet, in retrospect, he doesn’t wonder what might have been, but takes satisfaction in what was his reality.

“I’m happy as could be,” Risley said. “I was where I wanted to be. Everything was so good.”

In four years coaching volleyball, he helped the program achieve a state ranking and back-to-back sectional championships.

In wrestling, he was on staff with a program that won five team state titles and nine trophies during his 11 years as a coach.

In girls’ track and field, Risley headed programs that captured two state trophies, including one state crown in his 13-year career.

Risley will soon be recognized by the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association for his efforts in that sport. On April 7, he will be inducted into the IWCOA Hall of Fame.

“It’s an honor to be placed in the category of people in the Hall who I’ve looked up to, but didn’t see myself in that category of respect,” Risley said. “It makes me think of all the people who helped me get to this, Bob Handlin, Marty Williams, Tom Porter.

“Without them, I wouldn’t be there.”

Risley’s background in wrestling as an athlete at St. Joseph-Ogden spurred his future in the sport as a coach.

As a high school senior, Risley took a break from sports after the fall football season.

“I thought I was going to be a great shot and disc thrower,” he said.

He later second-guessed his teenage decision to not participate in wrestling as a senior.

“I regretted it and wished I’d been out,” he said. “It was the sport I wished I’d put my heart into.

“As a result, it was where I wanted to focus and learn (as a coach). I wanted to learn how to do it and how to coach it.”

While still attending the UI, he returned to his alma mater as a volunteer for rookie wrestling coach Gregg Jarman.

“We learned a lot together,” Risley said.

When he arrived at M-S a year later, and accepted an opening on Handlin’s staff, he said, “I thought I knew more about wrestling than I did.”

He found himself in an ideal position, studying first under Handlin and then under Williams.

“To learn from the best is very satisfying,” Risley said, “and to go through it with Marty was an incredible bonus.”

He viewed his coaching role as more of one of guidance.

“I learned how important it is to communicate with young people,” said Risley, who was inducted into his high school Hall of Fame in 2016, “and treat them with respect.

“I was never there to have them serve me. I was there to serve them. I looked at the kids and never saw myself as able to do the things they did.

“Marty and I used to talk, ‘They are the pearls. We’re just there to polish it.’ You felt compelled to do your best because they were doing it for you.“

Risley had a brief stint as head wrestling coach, serving for seven matches during the first semester of the 1989-90 school year. He filled in after Williams resigned in October and before his replacement — Rob Porter — could finish his academic obligations at Edinboro (Pa.) College in December.

“That was one of the most trying times, but a very satisfying time,” Risley said. “We had to cross that bridge from Marty (whose career record was 189-4) to whomever, and keep the tradition alive.”

His original plan was to step aside when Williams left.

“I felt the girls’ track team was getting short-changed,” Risley said. “Indoor track was getting bigger and bigger and by the time wrestling was over, they had been practicing over a month.

“That’s where I saw myself finishing my career and I thought they needed more of my energy.”

Risley helped Porter with his transition during the first year and a half back at his alma mater, leaving the staff after a third-place state finish in 1991.

He found his years working in wrestling a pleasant experience, from the administrators to the parents and to the other coaching members and the athletes themselves.

“There was such euphoric happiness,” Risley said. “The laughter was always there and that made the hard work worthwhile.

I enjoyed the fantasticness of it.”

He feels fortunate to be recognized for his years of service.

“There were so many coaches who didn’t have the athletes I had, but if they’d had the athletes, they would have done better,” Risley said.

The Hall of Fame honor doesn’t mean Risley is ready to slip into the background.

“This community is my home,” he said. “I’m not going to go silently into the night. I want to help if I can.”

After officially retiring from full-time coaching duties, Risley continued as an event-specific coach in track, working with pole vaulters for 15 years. He has also helped oversee the boys’ basketball weight training program, a role he embraced again this season.

Among the other IWCOA inductees in April will be M-S graduate Ryan Berger, a four-time wrestling state-placer. Berger will be profiled in an upcoming story.