March 7, 2008

At the end of his first year at the United States Naval Academy, Richards participated in the annual Herndon Monument Climb. The Climb is a Navy tradition where plebes vie to grab the hat off the top off the monument to symbolize the end of their first year. In theory, the first person to reach the hat is the first to receive the rank of admiral. With a little help from his friends, Richards reached the hat in a time of 1 hour, 14 minutes and 15 seconds, the fastest mark ever recorded.

"The climb symbolizes growth and stepping up to a full member of the brigade," Richards said. "There are a lot of people there, and everyone kind of has their own idea to get it. The whole idea is to achieve it and come together as a class, and it was just a case of our entire class trying to achieve something as fast as possible. A couple of friends said as tall as I was they could get me up there quick and not use a ton of guys, and it obviously worked out well."

Richards' climb onto the Navy roster, not to mention becoming a significant contributor to the team, was possibly even more challenging. He was on the junior varsity team as a freshman in 2005-06, and finally earned a call-up to the varsity roster in December of 2006 after impressing the coaches with his work in practice.

Richards believes the experience on the junior varsity team was a great benefit to his growth.

"It allowed me to hone my skills a little better while playing quality competition," he said. "We played against Montrose Christian with Kevin Durant (who was picked No. 2 overall in the 2007 NBA Draft by the Seattle Supersonics) and got in there against some good teams instead of just watching. We were running the same things as varsity guys were learning while being able to play."

Richards quickly received minutes during the 2006-07 season, and has made an even greater impact for the Midshipmen this season.

"I think it's just been consistency," he said. "Coach (Billy) Lange has really harped on me being a consistent role player and doing everything I can to help out everyone else."

"The main thing that coaches have been harping on and other players can feed off is my energy and rebounding. The coaches have confidence in me to defend smaller players on the perimeter," he added.

Playing Division I basketball was a major reason that Richards was interested in going to the Naval Academy, especially since it is so close to his Stevensville, Maryland home. Now that he's here, the ocean engineering major knows the varied opportunities that come when he moves on. "I could go to service warfare on a ship, but I'm not sure where I'm going to go until after next year. I may stay in the long run or I may not. If not, I'll pursue something in the core of engineers and a coastal restoration project."

Who knows, maybe Richards will find his way to accomplish things below the sea. He's already done plenty at heights that many would find insurmountable.