Risley steps away as head coach at Windham

Patrick Risley, the long-time coach at Windham High who was named national wrestling coach of the year in 2019, recently resigned as head coach of the Whippets after 28 years. He has been coaching wrestling for 38 years, including five years as the head coach in Plainville.

“I just thought it was the right time,” Risley said. “It was getting harder and harder to coordinate everything and it was beginning to weigh on me.

“We have a grandchild coming in September. I have shoulder surgery coming up. I began thinking about the upcoming season and I wasn’t as excited as I’ve been in the past,” he said. “I always told myself you’ll know when the time is right to go.”

For the past 7½ years, Risley has also been the assistant principal at Windham High. He is one of the few coaches in the state who was allowed to continue coaching while keeping his administrative position.

Risley had an incredible record at Windham, where he led the Whippets to seven state championships – five in Class S and two in Class M, four Eastern Connecticut Conference titles (2004, 2015, 2016, 2023), three CCC East titles (2000-02) and a career dual meet record of 603-248-2. He is the third coach in state history with more than 600 dual meet wins.

The Whippets won a school-record 73 dual meets in a row from 2014-17 – the second longest streak in state history at the time –and finished second at the State Open twice behind Danbury in 2004 and 2013.

“Coaching has never simply been about wins and losses,” Risley said in an online post announcing his resignation in July. “It has always been about the young people who walked into the wrestling room looking for an opportunity to challenge themselves and left as stronger, more confident, and more resilient individuals.

“Wrestling has a unique way of teaching lessons that extend far beyond the mat—discipline, accountability, perseverance, humility, sacrifice, and respect. It has been the greatest honor of my life to help pass those lessons on to generations of student-athletes,” he said.

It won’t be easy to walk away from a sport that has been a part of Risley’s life for the past 50 years. He wrestled at Windham where he was captain of the Whippet team that won the school’s first state title in wrestling in 1983 under Hall of Fame coach Brian Crudden. He wrestled in college at Central Connecticut State and Hartford under Hall of Fame coaches Ken Destefanis and Shirzad Ahmadi, respectively.

Crudden, Destefanis and Ahmadi are in the Connecticut Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Risley was still in college at Central Connecticut when the head coaching job for the Plainville wrestling program opened up in the fall of 1998. He married his high school sweetheart, Mandy, just before the wrestling season began. The honeymoon had to wait.

He spent five years at Plainville (1989-93) before returning to Windham to be an assistant coach under Crudden. Along with wrestling, Risley was the first varsity boys soccer coach at Plainville, the coach of the freshman team in the baseball program and the coach of the Plainville American Legion baseball team.

He came to Windham in 1994 and spent five seasons as an assistant coach before taking over the program in 1999. Risley coached the middle school boys soccer program for 12 years and was the varsity girls soccer coach at least five years.

From 2006 to 2019, Risley served as Windham High’s athletic director. He was one of the rare ADs in Connecticut who also coached a varsity team. It’s virtually unheard of for an AD to coach two varsity programs and run an athletic department. He is still an assistant principal at Windham High.

Through it all, he coached wrestling at Windham from 1999 through 2026.

“I won’t remember the trophies as much as I will remember the people,” he wrote. “I will remember early morning practices, long bus rides, the excitement before tournaments, the heartbreak of close defeats, and the joy of seeing wrestlers accomplish goals they once thought impossible.

“I will remember watching shy freshmen become confident seniors, teammates become lifelong friends, and former wrestlers return years later to introduce me to their families and tell me how the lessons they learned in our wrestling room helped shape their lives,” Risley wrote.

Risley won’t miss those long Saturday afternoons or long bus rides across the state in search of tough competition.

“I will miss working with the kids, trying to help them become better wrestlers and help them become better people,” he said. “I will miss working with the athletes.”

Every championship is special. Getting that first state championship in 2004 at the Class M championship was significant. “I was wondering if it would ever happen,” Risley said. The Whippets were second in 2003 (9½ points behind Killingly) and third in 2002 and 2001.

In 2004, one of his starting wrestlers got hurt riding in an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) the day before the tournament began. Freshman Jon Torres stepped in and finished fourth with several key victories. Four Whippets won state titles, and five other wrestlers won medals by finishing in the top six of their respective weight classes.

In 2013, Windham won a Class S state champions and set a new Class S tournament record for points (since broken) with 283½. Windham had seven finalists – all in consecutive weight classes.

“To be sitting in that chair for seven straight matches was something special,” Risley said. “The kids worked hard to get here.” Six of the seven Whippet wrestlers won state titles, three by pin.

In 2016, Windham did set a new Class S tournament record with 288 points with 13 of the 14 wrestlers they brought to the tournament, finishing in the top six of their respective weight classes. Five won state titles as the Whippets won their fourth straight Class S championship — a first for a Class S program.

“We focus on improving every week. And this team hasn’t let me down. Every week, we improved,” Risley said in 2016.

Windham had consecutive undefeated seasons in 2015 (23-0) and in 2016 (20-0) – a tough task in a challenging ECC.

“I’ve been blessed with a lot of good kids willing to work hard, who put the time and effort to be successful and buy into the program,” Risley said. “We’ve done a lot together. Great assistant coaches who have been really committed and cared and loved the kids. I’ve been lucky with that.”

It will be a different winter for Risley and his family this year. You will probably see him at Windham matches, cheering on the Whippets. “I still love the sport of wrestling,” he said.

But don’t expect to see Risley on the corner of the mat or down in the steamy Whippet wrestling room too often. “I don’t want to step on their toes (of the new coach and his staff),” he said. “I don’t want the kids looking in my direction.”

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Risley numbers

Career record: 603-248-3 at Plainville (1989-93) and Windham (1999-2026)
Undefeated seasons: Two, 2015 (23-0) and 2016 (20-0)
State championships: Seven. Five in Class S (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018) and two in Class M (2004, 2006)
ECC championships: Four (2004, 2015, 2016, 2023)
CCC East championships: Three (2000, 2001, 2002)
Winning streak: Windham won 73 dual meets in a row from 2014-17, the second-longest streak in state history when it ended.
State Open: Five times in the top three. Finished second twice behind Danbury in 2004 and 2013. Finished third in 2005, 2006 and 2008