Rick Hite, Andrea Wildrick: Insider Info

    Rick Hite, a well respected three-season coach and assistant to the athletic directors, was an outstanding athlete in his heyday.
    How outstanding was he?
    At George Washington High School in Philadelphia, he was a two-time all-city and all-state wide receiver and defensive back in football.
    At 6-2, 165-pounds, he was twice an all-city guard in basketball, averaged 26.4 points per game as a senior, and scored 1,011 points during his stellar career.
    He lettered three seasons in baseball and two times was an all-city centerfielder.  During his career, he batted an eye-popping .486 and stole 32 bases.
    This past fall, Hite was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame.
    “You put in a lot of time and a lot of work,” he said.  “Then somebody feels that what you’ve done deserves recognition.
    “I had some wonderful teammates.
    “I’ve really been blessed.”
    Hite was drafted out of high school by the New York Mets and played two seasons in their organization.
    Then, he headed for San Diego State, one of the schools which had recruited him for basketball, earned all-rookie honors in the Western Athletic Conference, and started at guard for three seasons before playing two years professionally in Australia.
    He was teaching at Poplar Springs Academy, an alternative school in Petersburg, when he read an ad in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about part-time coaching vacancies at Collegiate.
    The rest, as they say, is history.
    The star athlete is now parlaying his passion for football, basketball, and baseball as a varsity assistant in all three sports.
    “I get even more satisfaction out of coaching than I did playing,” he said.  “Our kids trust their coaches so much that, to me, that’s better than scoring a lot of points or getting awards.”

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    Google the name Andrea Wildrick, and a host of result sheets from track and field competitions throughout the country will cross your screen.
    The Syracuse, NY, native, now an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Collegiate, was a high-flying pole vaulter for Liberty University and in her post-college days.
    She discovered her passion almost by happenstance.
    As a sophomore, she decided to “walk on” the Flames’ track team to fill the void left when she gave up competitive gymnastics, her sport of choice since age 3.
    She briefly tried the high jump, but Coach Lance Bingham quickly recognized her athleticism, knew her gymnastics background, and encouraged her to give the pole vault a try.
    By the end of the spring, she’d cleared 11-0.
    As her career evolved, she won several Big South indoor and outdoor championships and earned All-American honors in the spring of 2000 for her performance (13-1) in the NCAA Division I nationals.
    In 2002, she set the LU indoor record (14-0) and, later that year, pushed her personal best to 14-3, a height she cleared when she finished fourth in the USATF championship at Stanford University in 2002 and which remains her alma mater’s outdoor mark.
    Among other high-profile accomplishments, she qualified for and competed in the 2004 Olympic Trials in Sacramento. Alas, she missed the opening height, but she left exhilarated.
    “The experience,” she says, “was awesome.”
    Wildrick is now a nursing student at Virginia Commonwealth University and somehow found time to train for and complete the 2007 Richmond Marathon in 3:58 and change.
    The pole vault phase of her life is over, but, when she reflects, she has nothing but great memories.
    “If I hadn’t made the decision to try track,” she said, “I’d never have had the opportunities I had.  Track definitely shaped my life.” — Weldon Bradshaw