SULTAN — Sultan High School boys basketball coach Nate Trichler, who spent all his high school coaching years with the Turks, is stepping down after 24 seasons.
Trichler began in 2001, and his teams made two state tournament appearances at the Yakima Valley SunDome: one as a Class 2A program in 2009 and another as 1A in 2024.
Working at the high school as a computer programming teacher along with being a husband and father of three, he said “I don’t know if I’m done for good, but I definitely need a break.
“It was the stresses of coaching year after year and the time commitment, and with (sons Toby and Eli) graduating, it just kind of feels like a natural time for me to step away.”
Trichler coached his sons from 2021-24, seeing them earn All-Emerald Sound Conference selections their sophomore, junior and senior years and leading the squad in points, assists, rebounds, steals and blocks.
In 2023, Toby averaged 20.5 points, 2.9 assists, 6.5 rebounds, 3.1 steals and eight blocks and Eli 17.1 points, 4.1 assists, 4.6 rebounds, 2.4 steals and five blocks per game. Toby concluded the 2024 season with an average of 18.4 points, 3.4 assists, 6.9 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 1.2 blocks and Eli 17.8 points, 5.1 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game.
During the 2020-21 COVID-19 modified season, Sultan played 10 games concluding 7-3, despite having losing records the previous three years. In 2022 and 2023, Trichler led Sultan to two District 1/2 crossover winner-to-state, loser-out games where the Turks lost both outings to the would-be state champion Lynden Christian. The team also set a school record in 2023 with 20 wins. Finally in 2024, all the hard work came full-circle for Trichler when Toby and Eli joined the 1,000-point club and Sultan received its first 1A state tournament berth since 2009, marking the Turks’ third trip to the Dome in program history.
“My two boys, they grew up in the gym with me coaching my whole life and my daughter also. Going to state was something they wanted to achieve in their lifetime,” Trichler said. “They were just babies when Sultan made it in 2009, and so it was kind of like this quest to get to state again. And they kind of wanted to get to state for dad because they knew how much that meant to me. Every year they put the pressure on themselves to try to get there.”
Trichler was 26 when he began coaching at Sultan, and with a vast knowledge of basketball, he said he soon found out how much time and effort was needed to develop players and mold a team.
“My knowledge grew as a coach, being around other coaches all the time and trying this and that out,” he said. “You pick your two or three things that you really care about, and you emphasize instead of trying to solve every problem.”
The summertime, specifically June, was a pivotal month where Trichler’s team would play between 20-30 non-counting games against other conference teams to help prepare for winter.
“The emphasis isn’t winning or losing a league game. It was about developing as a team, and it became my favorite time of year, way more than the regular season,” he said. “I’ve had a few really, really motivated kids over the years. … And that’s when it becomes fun when you have those kids that are really itching to improve.”
One moment Trichler said he’ll miss is the second day of practice, watching all the prospective varsity players run a 6:30 mile.
“Some kids hated it, some kids thought it was no big deal,” he said. “What was fun was it always kind of bonded the kids from generation to generation. … After practice, you go to the track and run a mile for time, and if you don’t get it, you get to run it again the next day with the understanding you’ve got to come in in shape and work hard. It kind of bonded the group because they all went through that terrible first week of conditioning with kind of the same idea.”
Though Trichler took the lead role, he credits his assistant, Jeff Brumley, for being by his side all 24 seasons.
“It’s always great to leave a program in a better place than you found it. That’s what we’ve done is we’ve built a program, and the kids know what it takes to be good because the expectation is we’re going to be competitive each and every year. That’s what we’ve tried to instill,” he said. “Luckily, I’ve had an assistant coach with me the whole ride, which is really rare. Jeff Brumley. … We always talk ‘we,’ like ‘what can we instill, what’s important to us, how’s our program doing.’ It’s never been ‘mine,’ it’s been ‘ours.’
“If I had (regrets), I think I always tried to address it right away,” he continued. “I always tried to be really approachable with my players. I know I made some decisions down stretches of games. I made mistakes. And I told the kids, ‘That was my bad. That one’s on me, guys.’ We’re all human. For them to learn that mistakes are OK, it’s about the effort, is kind of what I was trying to instill.”
Trichler didn’t coach his oldest child, Grace, while at Sultan, but she was a two-time league MVP and holds all the major records for the girls basketball team: 1,216 points, 184 assists and 304 steals. Her efforts also helped the Turks win back-to-back Emerald Sound Conference Coho Division titles.
To say the Trichler family eats, sleeps and breathes basketball would be an understatement, and he credits his wife, Allison, for also hanging in there with him.
“All the sacrifices she’s made when I was coaching. I can’t imagine being the coach’s wife with all the nights locked into a room watching film,” he said. “She’s got the family, the chores and everything else, the long road trips and number of vacations postponed. Without her, it’d be pretty crazy.”
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