‘It’s a gut punch’: Northwest and Wichita wrestling community mourn death of coach
.JPG "Northwest wrestling coach Eric Prichard hugs Saul Ortiz at the state meet. In a news release, Northwest announced Prichard died on Tuesday.")
The Wichita Northwest High School community is mourning the sudden loss of long-time wrestling coach and social studies teacher Eric Prichard, 46, who died suddenly at his home on Tuesday, according to the school.
Prichard was best known for his work as a wrestling coach. A Wichita native who was a successful wrestler at South High, Prichard made it a point to return to the City League and coach the sport he loved.
He took over a fledgling program at Northwest that struggled to attract double-digit wrestlers in 2002 and turned it into one of the state’s top programs that regularly had more than 60 wrestlers on the team. In his 18-year tenure, Northwest won four straight City League team titles from 2012-15 and produced 13 individual state champions.
“It’s a gut punch because he had an impact on thousands of kids over the last 20-plus years,” said Heights athletic director Mike Church, a former wrestling coach in the City League. “He was a City League kid as an athlete and he gave back to the community as a coach. He was Northwest wrestling. It was his life’s work. Guys like that are few and far between. This is a huge blow to our league.”
Prichard was synonymous with Northwest wrestling, not only because he was the coach there for nearly two decades, but because his wrestlers all took on his personality on the mat during competition.
“We’ve had a lot of really tough wrestlers over the years and a lot of that is a reflection on the coach himself,” said Northwest assistant wrestling coach Ron Russell. “He was taught to be very aggressive and wrestle the style that we were brought up on by coach (David) Nigg at South and that’s how he taught the kids here. He made it a way of life.”
Prichard was a fiery competitor, but other wrestling coaches admired how he stood up for his kids.
“He had that competitive attitude that sometimes rubbed people the wrong way, but he was just trying to fight for his kids and get the Northwest wrestlers ready to go,” Heights coach Todd Sacquitne said. “He was a good guy and he always brought in a tough group of kids. You always knew Northwest was going to be one of the top teams in the City League.”
“Coach Prichard was truly passionate about his kids and wrestling and he fought hard for them, whether it was a seeding meeting or against calls he thought were wrong,” South coach Brian Westhoff said. “He taught kids to be competitors and to never give up. He was a father figure to many on his teams. My heart and prayers go out to all of his wrestlers, his coaches and especially his wife and kids.”
Prichard was especially influential to Church, who wrestled at South when Prichard was an assistant coach there. Church won a state championship at South in 1997, went to college and returned to the City League to become a wrestling coach — just like his mentor.
“I’m probably not a state champion if he wasn’t my coach, if he wasn’t my workout partner,” Church said. “He was a guy who spent a lot of time with wrestling to help me learn the craft itself. He was so important to my career and any success I’ve had is a product of Eric Prichard.”
While other coaches only saw the fiery side of Prichard, Russell, his long-time assistant coach, said that Prichard was a “devoted family man” away from the sport of wrestling. He had a wife and two children.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a funeral had not been scheduled.
“He was devoted to his kids and he talked about them pretty much non-stop,” Russell said. “And he cared a lot about his wrestling kids, too. He wanted to make sure every kid was taken care of outside of wrestling. He always made sure they had a positive image of their time here.”
Before his time at Northwest, Prichard was an assistant coach at South and Valley Center. He also spent time as an assistant football and baseball coach during his tenure at Northwest, although he had stopped both in recent years to focus solely on wrestling.
Northwest athletic director Lance Deckinger said on Wednesday that the entire school was in shock.
“Eric was someone who had a huge impact on our school for 18 years,” Deckinger said. “He had 60 to 70 wrestlers out every year and that shows a lot right there with how many relationships he was able to build with kids to keep having them come back out. He had a huge impact on not just Northwest, but the entire City League.”
This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 2:12 PM.
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