OCEAN PARK – As a 10-year-old, Matt Richert wanted to do sports play-by-play on radio or TV. The golden voice of Richert has been a local treasure since he came to Astoria in 1999 to do sports for the four nearby Oregon schools and Ilwaco and Naselle.

Richert does two basketball games or one football contest a week, plus playoffs and state tournaments for AM 1230 ESPN Sports Radio, KKEE and also does a sports radio show daily from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. for the New Northwest Broadcasters Corporation. He also does sports highlight spots twice hourly at 6 a.m., noon, and 4 p.m. on KAST AM 1470.

“As a kid I used to help my dad do radio broadcasts of Southwest Washington District basketball games,” Richert said. He grew up in Chehalis, played basketball for W.F. West High School, and graduated in 1987.

“I remember being intimidated by Coach Lyle Patterson of Naselle and knew he was a hall-of-famer even then,” he said.

“I feel high school athletics is pure sport, something you can feel good about as a participant or fan. The kids who play live down your block. They will be the future health care workers or policemen or bankers in your community,” Richert explained. “I give them the same attention I would give if I did play-by-play for the Supersonics. They deserve it because they are dedicated and work hard and handle the burden of sports and school.”

Richert announced the Ilwaco girls’ game at Toledo last Friday. He will do Naselle at Warrenton boys Dec. 7, Ilwaco boys hosting Napavine Dec. 20, and the Naselle girls playing at home against Taholah Feb. 3, among other local broadcasts. He will cover three IHS boys and two IHS girls basketball games and one boys and girls game for Naselle, plus playoffs.

Following in his dad’s footsteps, (Steve Richert is still program director at KELA of AM 1470 in Chehalis), Matt earned a degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Washington in 1991. He joined a marketing research firm in Seattle and moved to Kansas City when he was promoted.

From there he traveled to Atlanta in 1995 so he “could see the Olympic Games first hand.” He worked for Borders Book and Music and at the ticket office at the Atlanta Olympics. “I had access to a ton of events at the Games,” Richert said. In 1996 he reached a crossroads. Borders was going to promote him, which would have precipitated a move to the San Francisco area.

Richert had been returning to Chehalis each year to do free-lance broadcasting for the District IV Tournament games, and had friends in the Seattle area. He decided to return to Washington and work part-time at Boeing among other places.

“I had time on my hands so I began looking for broadcasting opportunities again,” Richert said.

In 1997 Richert began doing radio in the Mount Vernon area and also writing sports stories for the Everett Herald. “I was busy,” he said. Richert did play-by-play basketball and football for several nearby teams and followed Mount Vernon to the State Tournament.

During this time he also met his future wife, Julia Roberts. He said, “She was happy to get rid of that name and become Mrs. Julia Richert.” Matt also heard of a broadcasting opportunity in the Astoria area for KAST radio.

“We got married on the Saturday before Labor Day, moved to Astoria the next Wednesday, and I did my first play-by-play game between Astoria at Stayton that Friday. The Fishermen won in overtime,” he remembers of his whirlwind re-location in 1999. “So much for a honeymoon,” he said.

Richert believes it is more difficult to broadcast football than basketball because there are three times as many players on the roster and because of the dead-air time between plays in football. He prepares by going over pre-season predictions, getting rosters and projected starters from coaches, reading newspaper stories of recent games, and interviewing both coaches if possible for his morning sports talk show.

Some memorable games include the Philomath versus Central 3A Oregon State hoops championship game.

“I have been selected the past four years to do the 3A tournament and was honored to do play-by-play of the final game. It ended in overtime and was fun. Astoria’s retiring coach, Mike Goin, had lost to Philomath in the semi’s and he is a class person,” he said.

Richert’s most memorable player is Jill Noe of Wilsonville. “She was the star player when they defeated Astoria in the state semi-finals basketball game and the next year her team visited the Brick House (Astoria’s venerable home court),” Richert said. “When she came here she had her own fan club – from the Astoria boys cheering section. She is an exciting athlete and also a very striking young lady and it was amazing to see the guy’s reactions – a phenomenon.”

He has special memories of Naselle girls playing well, but losing in 2001 in Spokane and coming back the next year to win 22 straight games and place seventh at state. “I recall the Ilwaco girls defeating Toledo despite Beth Layton who holds the District scoring record of 47 points.”

Some of Richert’s favorite coaches to interview are Craig Cokley of Knappa boy’s basketball (“He’s a gifted orator and intense coach”), John Broderick of Seaside soccer (“The history teacher can really tell a story, complete with Civil War annotations”), and Lenny Wolfe of Warrenton baseball (“I appreciate his attention to detail and candor on and off the record).

Richert would like to have Ilwaco boy’s hoops coach Matt Blair do “color” while he is broadcasting play-by-play some time because, “Matt Blair is so energetic and knows the game of basketball.” Richert also said the current Ilwaco baseball coach is the most “entertaining” interviewee he has encountered

The most memorable game he has broadcast was an Astoria football comeback from a 35-7 deficit with an interception and touchdown runback on the final play of the game. His most frightening moment occurred during the earthquake that rocked the Tacoma Dome during the 3A tourney in 2003. “I was frozen in the triple-threat ready position, but didn’t know what to do or where to go,” he jokes. “Pretty soon the games started up again and everyone was OK.”

While doing a Naselle girls state tourney game in Spokane the power went out to the scoreboards and his headphones began to make clacking noises. Thinking Richert was off the air, he got on the floor of the Coliseum and began to test the wiring connections. “I said a few words the director would rather I wouldn’t have said,” he chuckled.

Matt’s pet peeve is coaches who “don’t call back” when they have the chance to promote their teams. He is also concerned with cutbacks in local sports radio coverage.

“Three years ago we did four football games and up to a dozen basketball games a week,” Richert said. “But we are a business and have shareholders to please. The sponsor’s support is down. We are in danger of losing local sports broadcasting of games as early as next year.

“The radio stations belong to the community and our directors listen to our constituents,” Richert said. “It costs money to broadcast a game and we have to make ends meet here at the radio station. I have traveled to many games ‘on my dime’ and I’m happy to do it, but we need sponsor’s support to continue.”

Richert’s future plans are to “do play-by-play at the next game.” His wife Julia is assistant to Regional President of U.S. Bank in Astoria and Richert said, “We love living in the Northwest and my bosses are great to work for.” However, he is always aware of broadcasting opportunities.

“For now I want to provide quality entertainment in a beautiful part of the world,” Richert said. Every Ilwaco and Naselle sports fan or athlete is fortunate he has the opportunity and exceptional talents to do just that.