PENINSULA COLLEGE: Rick Ross led school’s athletic success for quarter century

Published 4:45 pm Monday, May 11, 2026

PORT ANGELES — The success of Peninsula College’s athletic program is unmatched in the Northwest Athletic Conference.

Since 2010, the Pirates have won an astounding 15 NWAC championships — seven in men’s soccer, six in women’s soccer, one in men’s basketball and one in women’s basketball. And that’s not including the countless North Region championships and Final Four appearances.

The one person who has overseen it all? Dean of athletics and student activities Rick Ross.

And Ross’ tenure at Peninsula College started as a part-time job running intermural sports programs and teaching some PE classes.

Ross is retiring June 20 after 32 years at the school — 24 as the athletic director. A new athletic director, James Williamson, has been hired from Northwest Nazarene. Their tenures will overlap for about a month.

“James is going to do a great job. He brings such a positive spirit,” Ross said. “He’ll do well. He’s right for our college.”

Despite all the athletic success the school has experienced under Ross, he said that’s not what he will miss most about the job.

“It’s not the rings, it’s all the people,” he said. “The student-athletes here are so fun to be around. We have a great relationship with our coaches. We’re a big family. It’s neat to be a part of it.”

Ross said he felt it was time to move on to new things. He said a few health-related issues have told him it’s time to slow down and retire.

Ross said he plans to play a lot of golf in retirement, but that he does have a major project planned that will keep him very busy for the next several months.

One of the first things Ross plans to do in retirement is to head to the library and go through microfiche to research, write and self-publish a book on the history of Pirates athletics dating back to the school’s founding in 1961. He’s had to do some of this kind of painstaking research for the Peninsula College Hall of Fame. He said that trove of 65 years of history has never been put into a book form.

“I’m worried that history will go away with me. I want to put in a book and get on a shelf so it lives somewhere,” Ross said.

Ross was the sports editor at the Peninsula Daily News from 1982 to 1991, then worked for a few years at the Northwest Cable News channel before taking a part-time job at Peninsula College.

That part-time job became full-time, then he became the assistant AD. He was promoted to athletic director in 2002, taking over for Jim Lunt. He later took on other duties heading the student life department, as his job title grew to Dean of Athletics and Student Activities. He described his job as two-thirds athletics and one-third student life.

“I didn’t mind. I liked both jobs,” he said.

His job will be split between two positions after he retires with Williamson taking on the athletics and Amanda Anderson will become director of student life.

While much of the success for the soccer program lies with coaches such as Kanyon Anderson, Jake Hughes and before them Andrew Chapman and Cale Rodriguez, Ross said he made a conscious decision to try and bolster the school’s soccer programs back in 2000.

“Soccer was kind of second fiddle to basketball. The athletics all deserve the same experience. I didn’t want to treat soccer as a minor sport,” he said.

One of Peninsula’s secrets to success is that the coaches are all full-time employees of the college. They are often times instructors in addition to their coaching duties. Many other schools rely on part-time coaches hired from high school or elite soccer programs to coach their soccer programs.

“We’re a notch above when it comes to coaches. Once it got going with good coaches in place, people want to come here and play for that,” Ross said. “Our success is based on hiring good coaches and giving them the resources they need to do their jobs.”

And the Pirates have remarkable stability with their coaches with Anderson, Hughes and Alison Rose (women’s basketball) at the school for at least eight years.

“I think I’ve been Allie’s only boss,” Ross said.

“We have three people who have found a place here (Rose, Hughes and Anderson). They enjoy living here. They enjoy their jobs and they’re good at it. Sometimes the grass isn’t always greener somewhere else,” Ross said.

The Pirates just hired A.J. DeMond last year as their new men’s basketball coach and Ross is confident he will bring the level of success and stability to the men’s program that the other three sports enjoy.

“I really believe A.J. will get us back to where we once were,” Ross said.

Ross has been counting down the end of the road on social media, with posts such as “this is my final basketball game,” and “this is my final soccer game.” But he said people can still expect to see him at games and Peninsula College fundraisers.

“It’s going to be different but I will remain involved in some ways,” he said.