The shortest sprints are in a straight line.
Other foot races have curves.
Kind of like life.
Like Richard O’Riley’s life, for sure.
Many area track and field athletes and fans will recognize that name as belonging to the Valhalla High School coach who has turned a small-school program into a force.
Seventeen medals at the recent state outdoor championships confirm that.
O’Riley was also one of eight coaches, and the only one from the high school level, chosen from across the country by USA Track & Field, to receive fully-funded instruction last month as part of the USATF Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
But it wasn’t that long ago he had a far different job.
O’Riley left teaching Spanish at Albany High School and his work as an adjunct professor and assistant hurdles and jumps coach at the University at Albany to become a top-level clearance linguist for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Working in part out of Albany and San Antonio, Texas, his job involved national security investigations for the FBI.