Category: Sports

About two to three times a week, Ryan Richter will sit in front of reporters in the bowels of Subaru Park. His hair will be neatly combed to the side, his hands folded in front of him, with his shirt buttoned to the very top.

The Union’s interim head coach will calmly discuss the game ahead, or the game just played, answering questions as anyone else in his position would. But every now and then, those watching from his hometown of Southampton, Bucks County, have to laugh.

In some ways, this version of Richter is just like he was as a kid: driven, focused, thoroughly prepared. But aesthetically, it is completely different. Richter, a three-sport athlete at William Tennent High School, was captivated by NBA culture growing up, particularly Allen Iverson.

He’d wear a headband during basketball games. He pierced both ears. He’d drive around Bucks County in a white Kia, with an enlarged Jumpman logo on its hood, and Sixers jerseys covering its seats.

À la Shaquille O’Neal, Richter would give himself nicknames: “Shaq Daddy,” “Shaq-Daddy-Licious,” “Ric-Daddy-Docious.” Those monikers are long gone, but that side of Richter isn’t.

“It’s like, I’m still listening to Get Rich or Die Tryin’ when I’m driving into work,” Richter said. “You know?”

His high school basketball coach, Glenn Dolton, called this a “paradox.” Beneath the panache was a teenager who was confident, but not cocky. Hard-working, but also light-hearted, with a self-deprecating sense of humor.

Treating pro soccer as a profession wasn’t a main goal. Richter was always immersed in the sport — his dad played at The College of New Jersey, back when it was known as Trenton State, and his grandfather played for a team in Warminster — but he also played basketball and football through high school.

The Sixers were Richter’s favorite team, and Iverson his favorite player. Richter was in the building for Game 5 of the 2001 Eastern Conference semifinals, when The Answer dropped 52 points, and returned for the Eastern Conference finals against the Milwaukee Bucks.

A La Salle graduate, Richter was drafted by his hometown MLS team in 2011, began coaching for them in 2018, and has gradually worked his way up since.

Now, the 37-year-old is at the helm, leading the Union from the worst record in the league to playoff contention. At the time of this report, the club hasn’t lost a league game under his watch. Players say the energy in the locker room has changed for the better.

The soccer world might be surprised. But Southampton isn’t.

“He knows what it takes to get the job done, and he does not like to lose,” his childhood best friend, Mike Pio Jr., said. “And, I mean, that’s pretty evident with how they’ve been doing so far.”

A fierce competitor

Some people hate losing more than they love winning. Richter says he’s the opposite, and has been that way since he was a child.

He was competitive not just on the field, but in everyday life. If he was playing a game of Connect Four, he’d want to crush the opposition. He and his friends would hang out at the local youth center to jump into hotly contested pickup hoops games.

Once, the teenagers joined an adult bowling league. They were the youngest members by about 20 years, but that didn’t quash Richter’s spirit.

“The competitiveness was also there,” Pio said. “I think everybody else in that league was probably old enough to be our fathers.”

A formative moment came in his freshman year of high school. Richter tried out for the junior varsity basketball and soccer squads, and failed to make either team. He got to work, and by sophomore year, made varsity in both sports.

But he never forgot the feeling of being passed over — or the names of the students who passed him.

“He still reminds me of that occasionally,” Dolton said, “that I should have brought him up. Which, looking back on it, I’m like, ‘Yeah, you may have a good point there.’”

Coaches loved Richter, because he’d push his teammates as hard as he’d push himself. If a fellow athlete wasn’t hustling enough, he’d pull him aside or ask a higher-up to step in.

Pio’s father, Mike Pio Sr., experienced this firsthand when he worked as an assistant soccer coach at Tennent.

“He expected his teammates to basically bleed the way he bled,” Pio Sr. said. “Even during practice, he would call people out.”

Teenagers didn’t always love being challenged, but Richter had an affability which allowed him to break through. He was athletically gifted on the field, but didn’t take himself too seriously or act like he was better than anyone else.

The hood-sized ode to Michael Jordan was evidence of this. So was a photo that Richter took with Pio Jr. when they were in high school. The two friends were at the Willow Grove Park Mall, in an Abercrombie and Fitch dressing room.

Images of models adorned the walls, and Richter and Pio Jr. wondered how easy that work must be.

So, they tried it themselves, posing for a photograph that still hangs beneath a magnet on Pio Sr.’s refrigerator door.

“It was like they were posing for GQ magazine,” Pio Sr. said. “Hilarious.”

The teenager would set up silly challenges, like singing the national anthem before a basketball game, despite the fact that he was not musically inclined. And physical challenges, like improving his vertical so he could dunk in a game.

Richter stood at 6-foot, but had smaller hands, which made it difficult to palm the ball. But he was determined. In a game against Abington, he finally got the moment he’d been waiting for.

“He threw one down, and it was like the place exploded,” Dolton recalled. “It was like the greatest thing that ever happened. It was really funny.”

Richter was recruited by several nearby soccer programs: Temple, Delaware, and Iona. But he ultimately chose La Salle because of its coaching staff.

Head coach Pat Farrell’s rules were rigorous, but aligned with Richter’s already sky-high expectations. He noted that Farrell pushed him, personally too.

“It was just the things that he emphasized,” Richter said. “About taking responsibility, about being a man and taking care of your school stuff, and staying out of trouble.

“He’s not a guy of so many words, but he was just a father figure for everybody.”

Richter upped his work ethic to a new level in college. The striker showed up to practice an hour-and-a-half or two hours early. He’d train with the Ocean City Nor’easters, a USL League Two team, to stay in shape during the offseason.

When he returned in the fall, he’d be ready for more. And by 2011, he was en route to a professional career.

“He would say, ‘Do you want to do some extra [shooting], or do you want to do some skill work,’ like ball work and things like that,” Farrell said. “And we could never say no.”

Bringing back that ‘Philly’ mindset

Richter’s playing career with the Union was brief — only making an appearance in two international friendlies and 10 reserve league matches — but his time as a coach there has spanned nearly nine years.

After playing professionally for seven years, Richter was hired by the Union in 2018 to work at their academy, serving in various development roles.

In 2022, he was promoted to assistant coach of the Union, under then-head coach Jim Curtin, and in 2025, was named head coach of the Philadelphia Union II.

When Bradley Carnell was fired in late May, after a league-worst record of 1-10-4, and replaced with Richter, many current players were already familiar with him.

The Southampton native had coached Cavan Sullivan since he was 8. Outside back Frankie Westfield had never played for Richter, but knew him through regular games of teqball and basketball with his teammates at the Academy.

Centerback Neil Pierre started his season on a six-month loan to a team in Denmark. When he returned in July, he wasn’t sure what he’d find.

He’d heard from teammates that the locker room was “losing its head.” But with Richter already having an established relationship with multiple players, it helped make Pierre’s immersion back into the squad smooth.

“We were going through a tough time,” Pierre said. “I guess it wouldn’t be the same upbeat attitude. People wouldn’t be as into the culture. Kind of lost that ‘Philly’ mindset. And I think when [Richter] came back, he just brought it back.”

Richter’s Bucks County tendencies are never too far. He has been known to challenge other coaches on the basketball court. He is still a massive Sixers fan, and gleefully shared the news of LeBron James coming to Philadelphia after a Union practice in July.

But perhaps the biggest way his upbringing shines through is in his approach to younger players. Sullivan is only 16, but a teenage phenom who is bound for Manchester City when he turns 18.

In an Aug. 19 match between the Union and Inter Miami, Sullivan defended his brother, Quinn, after defender Ian Fray stepped over him and pushed his head down.

Cavan ran over, and got in a scuffle that instantly became the story of the game. He received a red card (later rescinded).

Cavan Sullivan and Richter talked about the incident two days later. The head coach told him that he did nothing wrong, but to remember that he draws scrutiny like nobody else on the roster.

And that if he does act up, it’ll become international news.

“I always try to keep in mind of where some of the younger guys are at, and remember what I was like,” Richter said. “When I was 16, I was driving around with a Jordan logo on my car, and who knows what kind of trouble I was getting in.

“That’s why I think Cavan is such an amazing kid; because of the pressure that he has to deal with, and the spotlight that’s always on him. Could you deal with that when you were 16?”

Learning soccer on the fly

Richter’s friends did not grow up diehard soccer fans. Like most Philadelphians, they are all-in on the Eagles and the Phillies; maybe some basketball and hockey, too.

His new role has served as a teaching moment for everyone. Last month, a group of Southampton natives went to Subaru Park for a game against Atlanta United. They were stunned by what they saw: Union goals in 96th and 97th minute, en route to a 3-2 comeback win.

“They’re like, ‘Soccer is amazing!’” Richter said. “It’s like, ‘This is a one-in-a-thousand game that you guys saw tonight.’”

Nevertheless, the head coach’s buddies have since tuned into to every press conference and every match, home or away. They’ve been filling his group chat with lots of “DOOP” and other words of encouragement.

They’re also provided some friendly, albeit superstitious, advice.

“One of our buddies just texted this morning,” Pio Jr. said “He goes, ‘I changed my mind. I don’t think they should remove the interim tag, because you’re doing way too good with it.’”

Richter’s friends have nine more games to learn; maybe more, if the Union make the playoffs. But regardless of how this season ends, his community will continue to be proud of him.

A local kid, who once patrolled Bucks County, is now patrolling the sidelines of Subaru Park — and doing a good job, at that. The headband and earrings may be gone, and so is the White Kia.

But somewhere, beneath his outward professionalism, is that same Iverson-loving teenager; better known not as Ryan Richter, but as a “licious” or a “docious.”