Hey everyone-its been a long time since I wrote anything and I promise not to let it happen again.

Lets start out with the summer. I was in St. Louis all summer with a marketing/promotions internship at the Riverfront Times newspaper and then I also had a camp director job running a sports themed day camp for 90 socially and economically disadvantaged kids.

The internship was great and I learned a lot of valuable things which helped me actually land an internship back at my hometown in Chicago for next summer which I’m extremely excited about. I know it’s early, but in my week home I went and interviewed at a firm called THD advertising and afterwards they offered me the 2011 summer full-time intern position so that is great news.

The camp job was one of the most rewarding things I’ve done thus far in my life. These kids were in need of role models, direction, discipline and attention and getting to know them and hang out with them everyday was just awesome. It was through a program called athletic scholars academy where we taught fundamentals of sports, tutored, and taught social skills to these kids. I will continue to help out there when I can during the year and unfortunately I will have some more time than I planned on, which I will get to in a moment.

Aside from the jobs, I was working as hard as I ever have getting ready for the basketball year. With some amazing seniors graduating, this year’s team is going to have a new look and we all had to step up to get ready for it. I thought I would possibly be playing some shooting guard so I was running a lot, working on ball handling/shooting and I was on a workout routine from coach aimed at getting my endurance up instead of building muscle. I ended up losing about 15 pounds and was feeling really good until the 1st open gym where I fell over another player and came down on my arm. I ended up breaking the humerus bone in my left arm so I will be on an unexpected vacation from basketball for the next few months.

The doctors say it will be 3/4 months during which I will be able to rehab but it will be a long hard recovery. Breaking my foot freshman year gave me some insight into how to deal with these kind of things so my heads in a good place right now. I’ve been up and down but I feel like I’m definitely handling it well and will be doing whatever I can to get my team ready come the season. I feel like everything happens for a reason and g-d has a plan for me so I will learn from this and good will come of it.

I already have some plans for the time I have now which I’m actually very excited about. I will be able to help out at that camp I worked at this summer, I’m going to get our freshmen ready for the season because they will have to step up so I’ll be putting them through workouts, I love my classes so I’ll be able to spend plenty of time working on all those, I’m on a charity committee, I’m planning on starting a program similar to big brother, big sister at our school and aside from all that I’ll just get myself back in shape.

December 18th is our game against Illinois Wesleyan at our place before Christmas break so my goal is to get back for that game. If not that then conference, but I do plan on coming back and I do plan on winning a national championship. I’m thankful and blessed that I’m surrounded by friends and family that support me and are here to help me. I’m excited for school to start and especially for basketball to start and I wish everyone good health and good luck. Don’t count Wash U out because were coming!

Thanks and g-d bless,

Dylan Richter

Follow Dylan’s blog at www.drichter20.blogspot.com or on twitter at www.twitter.com/drich20 for more inside information from the Wash U baller…

Hey everyone,

So it’s a sad day for our team over at Wash U. With the playoffs underway we were excited and hoping for another long run. We got past Westminster who played a great game in the first round at our place but then fell to Illinois Wesleyan University in the 2nd round by 5. We’ve played them a few times the last few years and every game has been a battle. They’re a great team with a great coach who I, along with my team, really enjoy playing against. I wish them the best of luck in the tourney and hope they make it all the way.

With basketball coming to an unexpected end so soon, there are a few things to mention. First, after the game I wasn’t so sad that we lost and weren’t going to make it down to Salem again, but more that I wasn’t going to get to play with our seniors again. Each and every one of them were great basketball players but even better people. I’ve learned so much from all of them and couldn’t even begin to try and sum it all up here-so to them thank you for everything. Its been an honor and pleasure playing with and learning from you all. We have a few more weeks together in Phi Slamma Jamma (the frat house we live in this year) so we’ll make it a good time.

Another new thing we are experiencing for the first time, and the seniors are experiencing for the first time in their college careers, is spring break. You don’t really think about it, but we miss Thanksgiving, winter and spring break every year due to basketball but since were out of the playoffs now we have a week with nothing to worry about now. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough on my feet to think of anything exciting to do so I’m afraid I’m going to be stuck at home with about 3 and a half friends here to hang out with. Won’t be your typical sandy-beach-beautiful-people spring break most college kids go on, but it’ll do. I’ll take it easy for a week or so then get ready to put in work for next year.

Speaking of – next year is going to definitely be a different team. We are losing 4 starters and 4 seniors plus one graduate student (sorry Sean, I know the joke’s getting old), and we will have a totally different group of players. I know the talent is there for sure, it will just be a matter of us getting the chemistry together which is something the team this year had plenty of considering they played with each other for 3 years. Either way, I’m SUPER excited about it and super excited to start putting in work. I like to think I have a good work ethic but especially after sitting out for 115 days (yes I counted them all) last year with the broken foot, I have developed a new appreciation for the off-season and how much can be accomplished during it.

I wish the best of luck to all the teams still competing in the division 3 playoffs and to our Wash U women’s team who is playing at home next weekend. Finally-I’m writing a little journal-ish blog as well once in a while at www.drichter20.blogspot.com in case anyone wants a little additional reading material.

Have a great break,

Dylan Richter

Dylan ended his sophomore season averaging 18 minutes and 6.9 points per game. He shot a very respectable 48.1 percent from the field and 32.6 percent from 3-point range. He needs to work on his free throws (ha! Just teasing, kid!), as he was 40-of-61 from the line (65.6%). Richter also had 13 blocks, 16 steals and 73 rebounds in his second year at Wash U. Overall, the defending champion Bears went 24-3 on the season.

Happy Holidays to everyone! It’s been a while since I last wrote and I apologize-with the end of the semester and break then coming back to school for practices it has kind of slipped my mind.

 So far the team is doing great, we are 10-1 heading into conference play. We’ve had some various minor injuries and sicknesses which has caused us to have to turn to some people to step up and everyone’s done a great job so far. We’re a very deep and talented team and I’m excited to get into conference play because all the teams in our conference have a winning record (I think), so it should be a very tough next two months.

So we came back to school after christmas day on the 26th for practice and went to a tournament in Ohio then got back to campus and have been here since then. The place is deserted, we have practice or a game every day and besides that we all watch t.v. shows, movies, go out to eat and have a few activities like a youth clinic we put on to pass the time. I hate to admit it but I’ve been sucked into a show called Greek-its great!!!! All about fraternity/sorority college drama and I suggest it to anyone with a little extra time on their hands.

I’m going to go back in time here a little bit but the end of first semester academically was pretty good-I held down all B’s and A’s except for one sneaky C but its okay. There is always room for improvement! Unfortunately, next semester’s classes are going to be real tough and being out of town for 4 days at a time every other weekend probably won’t help, but hopefully I’ll survive. I wish I had more to say, but unfortunately not much happens with the Wash U bball team over break when were all alone here.

Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday and I’ll make sure to check back in sooner next time!

looooove,

Dylan

Sorry its been a while! School has started back up and everything that comes with it so I kind of lost track of everything. Since last time nothing too crazy has happened. I’ve been at school for a few weeks now and everything is going real good so far. Classes are pretty interesting so far-I’m taking a few business classes then a psychology class and a music class and I think I’m going to do well in them.

So onto the interesting stuff. Pre-season basketball has started and we are really excited about the team again this year. We lost 1 senior in Tyler Nading last year who was a huge leader and an awesome player/guy but we still have many pieces to the puzzle and although its definitely going to be a different team, I think we are going to have a successful year again. Our freshmen look real good and with our conditioning, weight training, and open gyms, its looking like a real good group of guys again this year. We will be working hard until October 15th when the season begins and another journey starts.

One real cool thing thats happening this year is the whole basketball team is able to live together in a former fraternity house. The fraternity can’t live in the house this year and we (the basketball team) have a real good relationship with the faculty here so we were able to create what they call a “block” here which allows us all to live together. It is probably 12 guys from the basketball team and 10 other friends so its a real good deal. We get some money for activities and we get to participate in charity events and other things like that so its a really cool system.

So far we have had a salsa lessons night where we all dressed up and invited dates and it was probably one of the most fun nights I’ve had here. We just danced the night away-there’s a picture to go with it! We are looking into some other events like working with habitat for humanity and a program for St. Louis area youth where we help tutor them and teach them fundamentals of sports.

Lots of good things coming up here at Wash U and I’ll definitely keep you updated,

Many blessings,

Dylan Richter

Its June 27th right now (happy birthday mom!) and I’m going to be heading to sleep soon (technically June 28th since its 12:48 a.m.). 

Anyways-lots of new stuff has been going down over here in Lincolnshire.  I’ve started working training kids outside at my house and sometimes at theirs.  Its a nice little backyard business and its a lot of fun so far-got a group of 3rd, 6th, and 8th graders and I’m training kids of various ages 1 on 1 also, so all is well there. 

I actually just came back from a week long vacation to Costa Rica with 2 other families and it was a blast.  I had been working hard trying to get in shape and working out and then I decided to give it a week rest, eat my self to sleep every night, and pick it back up when I got back.  It is a beautiful country and the people are very nice.  Lets see…we did a canopy tour on zip lines through the jungle, went down a thousand mile long water slide, rode horses, took a mud bath, went white water rafting and took various site seeing tours.  I’m very blessed to have the opportunity to do such things and I am very thankful for that-it was a lot of fun and a nice break from all the work I was doing before I left.

I’m back now though and I’m very excited to start working again.  At a recent meeting with the doctor, he said I can start the hardcore physical therapy stuff including running and starting to play all out again in about another week.  That is the best news I’ve heard in a long time!  I can’t wait to start playing again and getting my quickness/jumping and everything else back.  Lots of hours in the gym ahead but I love it. 

There is not much else going on now-I turned 19 a week ago so that was a lot of fun-getting old and grey!  Besides that-not much is happening in my craaaazy (sarcastic) life.

Hope all is well and God bless

RIP Mr. Michael Jackson!  He had his faults but you can’t take away his talent and accomplishments.  King of Pop!

-Dylan

I’ve tried this twice and both times when I finish my e-mail times out and I forget to save it-so basically I’m the worst internet user in the world, so I’m going to keep this nice and short.

Finals went really well-a lot better than last semester-so I was really happy about that. When it was time to leave I still couldn’t walk and my dad was out of town, so my mom picked me up and packed everything which was a great mother’s day present-thanks mom .

Summer’s been real good so far too.  I’ve been spending a lot of time seeing all my friends from other schools, so that has been really fun to catch up with everyone. Unfortunately, I still can’t walk because my foot is taking its sweet time. Last time I was at the doctor they said it was about 10-15% healed so I have a while to go-I have another meeting to get an x-ray this Thursday so I’m hoping for some good news.

I’ve been working out a lot in the mornings so I can stay out of everyone else’s way-haha-and that’s been working out pretty well (no pun intended!). I’ve also been swimming and biking a lot, which has felt great to be able to do some type of cardio. Biking is HARD though-haha-I get tired out after a lap. I’m also going to start training kids for basketball, which is what I did last summer, when I can walk so I’m looking forward to that. 

One last fun thing is that I went out to ASU for my cousin’s graduation and Obama spoke at it so that was really cool/interesting. It was hotttttt though-that was the only downside- probably 37544 degrees (or close to it). I was getting my sun-tan lotion on and I’m nice and PALLEEE so I burned like no other.

Hope everyone has a nice and relaxing summer!

<3
Dylan

What’s up everyone!

This is Dylan Richter from Chicago, Illinois-northwest suburbs to be exact- at approximately 1:36 AM Monday morning after an intense video game session. We are very serious Halo 3 gamers here at Wash U so if anyone wants to play that’s a shout out-get at us! (I’m kidding we’re all really bad, but we mess around and have a good time). So I’m finishing up my first year here at Washington University-IN ST. LOUIS, and it’s been a blast. Classes are tough, I’m not going to lie, but this semester is going pretty well-all I have to do is study for finals for about a week and half now and I’ll be all done-we’ll see how that goes.

Now onto the good stuff-the first year as a Wash U Bear on the basketball team was definitely a success. We won the University Athletic Association conference and ended up winning the Division III national championship for the 2nd year in a row in Salem, Virginia. It was a pretty crazy experience. We knew coming into the season we would have a target on our back and have to play teams at their best which is exactly what happened. We only finished with 2 losses but we played a lot of good teams this year. I had a great time with the guys on the team and there’s tons of stories I could tell ya but I’m going to wait until next year, so you’ll have to keep coming back to read them to see what happens!

I was blessed with the opportunity to come in and contribute my first year with about 15-20 minutes off the bench, and I’m very happy and thankful that I had that opportunity. I gained a lot of experience and I’m really looking forward to next year so we can try and make another run at that national title. Unfortunately in the 1st playoff game I came down on somebody’s foot and instead of anything happening to them, I, of course, decided to go ahead and break mine. It was real rough/tough watching the rest of the games without being able to physically go out and do much but I threw on my cheerleading outfit-not literally-and screamed my way to the championship with them.

Fortunately, well not really fortunately but anyways, Sean Wallis-our ALL STAR point guard, was out last season when he broke his leg so he experienced a similar situation and was able to help me out with the situation-thanks seanzino, <3 ya-along with the rest of the team. This was 7 weeks ago and I have hopefully-knock on wood- 1 more week to go until I get the cast off for good (this Friday). Tip: Don’t break anything in your lower half that makes you use crutches if you can avoid it-crutches are no fun!!!!! I had a medical van that helped me get to classes but gettin’ everywhere else was tough. After the cast comes off for good me and my toothpick right leg-there is nooo muscle left whatsoever-have a nice 6 week road of rehab to drive down so I’m going to be getting after that and I’m really looking forward to it. I can’t wait to start playing and running…and walking…again. I’ve been trying to get in the weight room for some upper body stuff so hopefully I won’t be 100% out of shape, but we’ll see.

This summer will be busy full of rehab, basketball, and work and I wouldn’t have it any other way- I’ll let you all know how it goes as I find out.

Take care and love ya’ll!!!! Till next time

Dylan Richter