Megan Richter steps away from Coupeville girls basketball program

Megan Richter has stepped away from the Coupeville High School girls basketball varsity program, closing out a run that connected the current Wolves to one of the school’s deepest basketball families. Richter said the move was driven by family and work, as she shifts her focus to teaching, raising two young children with her husband, Bennett, and finishing her master’s degree.

Her departure leaves Coupeville with a clear coaching vacancy heading into the summer and the next school year, and it comes at a time when the program’s identity has long depended on continuity. Richter told players and parents it was a difficult decision and said she was sad to leave, but believed it was what was best for her family right now.

Richter’s roots in Coupeville basketball run deep. She played for the Wolves from 2006 to 2010, earned three Coupeville High School Female Athlete of the Year awards and finished her career with 1,042 points, which ranks fourth all-time in CHS girls basketball scoring. She took over the varsity job in 2021 after Scott Fox stepped down, coming up through the system after time as a middle school coach and junior varsity coach.

The family connection goes back another generation. Richter is the daughter of Willie and Cherie Smith, who coached the CHS girls program from 1994 to 2000. Willie Smith’s 1994-2000 team delivered the first state-tournament win in school history for any Wolf girls team in any sport, a milestone that still carries weight in Coupeville gym history.

Richter’s exit also reaches beyond the high school roster. She had remained involved in youth development and camp planning, including a July 1-3 skills camp for players entering grades 6-9, showing how much of her work extended into the feeder system that shapes future varsity players. Her message to the program emphasized gratitude to families, players, assistant coaches, athletic director Julie Wheat and the broader community, and she said she would stay involved through the Coupeville Youth Basketball Association.

The transition comes after Richter previously took a year away after the birth of her second child, with Scout Smith filling the varsity sideline during that stretch. That pattern makes this latest shift feel less like a sudden break than another family-centered adjustment inside a program that has long relied on former players, former coaches and local volunteers to keep Wolf basketball moving.