As a freshman at California State University at Long Beach, Rich Belcher had a tough decision to make. He had a scholarship to play baseball, but wasn’t sure if he was playing for the right reasons—for others, instead of for himself.

Looking for advice, he went to a young professor of English, Dr. David Knowles, and unburdened himself. Knowles handed him a poem, told him to read it and return.

In Belcher’s hand was a short, rhyming set of stanzas about personal honesty and truth.

“The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life is the man staring back from the glass,” wrote Dale Wimbrow in “The Man in the Glass.”

Belcher read it once, twice, and made a decision. He sat out that season, and soon realized a truth: that he loved the game, not just the competition but the experience of being with his teammates. He came back and earned his spot on the team, but never forgot the lesson.

“Before you expect others to respect you, you need to respect yourself,” Belcher said. “This is about being true to yourself.”

As a coach for more than four decades, Belcher kept instilling lessons of respect, honesty and trust to the young people under his charge. Every one of his varsity high school basketball teams encountered “The Man in the Glass.” Belcher read it to them at the start of each season, and gave them a copy at the end.

This summer, those lessons are echoing back for the Snoqualmie resident. Belcher—Coach B to the generations of players who met him—is now being named to the Washington State Basketball Coaches’ Hall of Fame. An induction ceremony is planned for Thursday, July 28, at the Tacoma Elks Club.

Formerly of Sammamish, Belcher put a huge personal and athletic stamp on the two Washington schools at which he coached, Eastlake and Newport High Schools. Current Mount Si head boys basketball coach Steve Helm is a protege, one of six former players or assistants to go on to head regional programs.

No win or lose

Coaching has always been a part of Belcher’s family life. As a youth, both his father and mother coached the family Little League teams. Belcher met his future wife at a game; her brother was a player.

‘Coach B’ started coaching at age 16, leading his first team, a coed softball team for children ages 7-12, “Belcher’s Bombers.”

“I knew at a young age that I wanted to get into teaching and coaching,” he said. “I was very fortunate. I had a high school coach who was someone I really looked up to”: Mike Gillespie, or Mr. Gillespie to Belcher—always, to this day, Mr. Gillespie, never Mike.

Gillespie instilled an important lesson.

“At no time, was winning or losing ever stressed,” Belcher said. That showed in how his teams performed both on and off the court. Of the 27 varsity basketball teams that Belcher coached, 24 qualified for the state academic award. To him, there was no divide between academics and sports, and the same work ethics applied.

“I’d tell them that gym is a classroom Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Tuesdays and Fridays is when you take your test.”

When he was “barely 20,” Belcher coached a American Legion team of 16- and 17-year-olds. He was doing everything, from running the team to maintaining the field, and not getting paid a dime. But Belcher loved it.

“I felt a connection with the kids,” he said.

His teaching career began at his alma mater, Rolling Hills High School, where the familiarity eased his path while also making for some challenges. He knew the staff quite well, but many of the students knew him as “Rich,” not “Mr. Belcher.”

The first taste of running a school basketball program came next, and Belcher showed his persistent knack for turning underperforming teams around. He took Rolling Hills’ 6-and-14 basketball team to the playoffs in the first year, league championships in the next four years, and in his final year, to state.

“I wanted schools that didn’t win,” Belcher said. “I was looking for teams that are ready to go up.”

Coach B’s technique included showing players and parents that he cared. It was important that they knew he was on their side.

“You see some coaches who rant and rave the whole game,” Belcher said. “I want my players respect me. I always want them to like me, and I want them to like me, too. I really believe they’re going to play hard for someone who is endeared to them.

“During the course of a game, you’ve got the opponents, you’ve got the fans, the officials—the last thing my kids ever needed was to look at the sidelines and see an enemy.”

Yes, teens can make mistakes, “but heck, they’re 16, 17 years old,” Belcher said. “You’ve got to be able to make decisions quickly. That’s why I question people who sit in the 10th row and criticize these kids. He had to make a decision a lot faster than you did.”

Eastside coach

Belcher moved to Washington in 1987, becoming basketball coach at Newport High School in Bellevue.

“Talk about a program that was dormant,” he said. With two losing seasons, turnout and attendance were low. Belcher turned it around. From winning four games in the first year, he got the Knights to the league playoffs in the second, state playoffs in the third.

“The very first game, there might have been 50 people in the stands,” Belcher said. “I told the kids, turn around and look. It’s gonna change.”

From 16 teens in the school camp that fist year, he had 300 at the camp in the fourth year. Other coaches made sure their camps didn’t conflict.

During a four-year break from the high school bench spent leading club teams, Belcher saw a new coaching opportunity at Eastlake High School in Sammamish, where the coach had departed.

He and then-assistant Steve Helm, now Mount Si’s head coach, met several times every week, opening Lil John Restaurant and Lounge at Eastgate at 5 a.m., talking about players and the program they were going to run.

“We’ve had many, many breakfasts at Lil’ John’s,” Helm said.

They were looking forward to a special team, that included seven-footer Utah Jazz signee and European professional Curtis Borchardt.

“He was always a step ahead of everybody,” Helm remembered of Belcher.

Coach B put in a  new system and took the Wolves to second place in league and on to the state final four that year.

“I can never promise wins,” he said. “What I can do is bring the fun back.”

To bond the boys, he started the Belcher Games, a day of scavenger hunts and puzzles hosted annually at his home.

At the first Belcher Games, the players didn’t know what to do. But they soon learned to love the tradition.

“You would have thought these guys were competing for the state title,” the coach said.

Mount Si’s Coach Helm carries on the tradition, with Helm Games.

“He’s put his own signature on it,” Belcher said. “He’s the right person” for the local program. “He’s establishing his traditions and the kids have accepted it.”

“I’ve learned so much from him,” Helm said. “He’s just an amazing man, a great teacher. He was never anything more than about the kids… teaching them how to be a family and bond. The success shows on the floor.”

The man in the glass

A Snoqualmie resident for the past two years, Belcher just finished his 38th year as a teacher. He retired from coaching four years ago.

Coaching had been central to his family life, but “it was time for me, mentally,” he said. “I was tired.”

He went out with an outstanding team of all seniors. Belcher had led teams to dizzying heights, taking players on the road to basketball’s heartland, places like Duke University and Chapel Hill in North Carolina, beating a team from Laney High School, Michael Jordan’s alma mater, in Wilmington.

In another honor, Belcher got to coach both his sons in high school. Mitchell and Brian played for the Wolves between 1999 and 2005.

On his retirement, players presented Belcher with a jersey made up of pieces from both schools where he made a personal difference: Newport and Eastlake. Another memento, among several boxes’ worth, is a framed etching of “The Man in the Glass.” It sits with other prized trophies and photos in Belcher’s Snoqualmie Ridge study.

Receiving nomination letters from former players, Belcher was amazed by how many remembered and were inspired by him.

“This isn’t just the kids who were playing all the time,” he said.

He believes such letters came because he always ensured that players who weren’t in the limelight still felt important.

“The stars know who they are.” Belcher said. “If five are on the floor, that means there are at least seven off. At least four don’t see court time.” Those children, and their families, needed to be connected.

People who work in the ‘adult world’ sometimes denigrate teachers and coaches for working with children, but to Belcher, they don’t realize how the connection pays both ways.

“Really, they’ve inspired me,” Belcher said of his players. “It’s really difficult to put in words. I’ve had such great satisfaction from what the players and families have done for my family. They have trusted me, year after year, to build the character of their kids. It’s been inspiring for me to do that.”

• Learn more about the coaches’ hall of fame at www.washingtonsportshof.com/coaches.htm.