Rich Hamilton

Inducted: 2025

Sport: Softball

School: Red Mountain

Coach Hamilton coached throughout the past 40 years in multiple sports, coaching Softball since 1992. He had the opportunity to coach for the past 30 years at Red Mountain high school in Mesa, Arizona. Rich coached softball since 1998 with the last 20 years as the head varsity softball coach. During his coaching career his teams earned 10 state championships in 3 sports; Football, Softball and Boys Golf. Seven of those state championships as the head coach; 2 Boys Golf, and 5 Softball. The other 3 were as the assistant coach for football and softball. The Red Mountain’s 5 consecutive state championships are a current state record at the big school level. Hamilton’s teams earned 18 regional championships in 20 years and one national championship in 2013. Coach Hamilton received multiple region coach of the year honors as well as being named division coach of the year honors five times. He was also two time finalist for National Coach of the Year. He and his coaching staff were named Softball coaching staff of the year in 2013. The Mountain Lions overall softball record was 473-125-2 during Rich’s tenure.
Coach Hamilton was a founding member of the Arizona Softball Coaches Association (AzSCA), as well as the Arizona Golf Coaches Association (AGCA). In addition to those two organizations he has served on the Arizona Interscholastic Associations Softball Advisory Committee since 2019. Also served in the planning, administration and coaching of multiple All Star Games for softball. He has run one of the States Elite Softball Tournaments The Lion Country Classic since 2002
Most recently he became a member of the NFHS Coaches Advisory Committee.