As the season for this year’s Decatur High School boys’ lacrosse team approaches, the locker room is losing personnel. After saying goodbye to eight seniors, the team must let another member go: Don Rigger.

Rigger grew up in Monkton, Md., just outside Baltimore. He started playing lacrosse as a kid, and continued to through high school and all four years while he attended Washington and Lee University. After marrying his wife, Mary Rigger, he moved into Decatur in 1986.

Rigger started coaching lacrosse in 2002 at the Decatur Recreation Center (DRC).

“They didn’t have a program, and I wanted to start a program. So, of course the first thing you need is a coach, and that was me.”

After having coffee with the director of the DRC, Greg White, Rigger received the heads up to go ahead with forming a lacrosse team.

“I started it because I wanted my kids to have a chance to play and I thought it would be a game people in Decatur would like.”

And Decatur sure has shown they liked it. 35 kids signed up for the first year at the Rec and Rigger himself has coached about 200-250 kids through the high school.

Rigger coached at the DRC for two years until he finally decided to start a school team in 2004. He talked to Carter Wilson, the athletic director at Decatur High School. Wilson had a few requirements, such as there must be a boys and girls team, and they must be JV for at least a year. Decatur had a JV team for two years before starting a varsity program.

Since there had to be a girls and boys team, Rigger coached both the girls and boys JV teams along with head coach Tom Barefoot. The head coach must be a certified teacher, so Rigger could not be the head coach.

Since starting the boys varsity team in 2006, Decatur has never missed the playoffs. As much as every coach wants to win, Rigger cared more about the improvement of the players.

“I liked that there was never pressure on us to win, but we put the pressure on ourselves because we wanted to win. I also liked practices. I loved to practice. Some days were better than others,” he laughed. “But when they were good, it was like our feet didn’t touch the ground. Everything is quick, everything is working, and everyone is having fun.”

In 2010, a new head coach was put on the job. Wesley Hatfield, now assistant principal at Decatur High School (DHS), filled in Tom Barefoot’s position to be alongside Rigger. He was more than just the head coach to Rigger. Hatfield is his son-in-law.

“Well, when I first started this I didn’t really know Don at all and fortunately for us we get along very well,” Hatfield said. “But we do not have the same personality.”

Hatfield coached alongside with Rigger for six years, becoming closer with each season. He then married Rigger’s daughter in August of 2013, three years after he started coaching.

“I think the personal relationship has complemented the professional relationship because we enjoy one another’s company,” said Hatfield. “We are perfectly happy to just sit across the table from one another for two hours on a Sunday afternoon talking lacrosse.”

The reason for Rigger retiring from Decatur isn’t because he’s done coaching lacrosse. He plans to coach the Decatur middle school team, the “Tomatoes”, in hopes of progressing those players to the high school level.

Rigger is a manager at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He supervises a bunch of people that clean up toxic waste. This year Rigger took on more responsibility with his day job, causing him to travel more, and work longer hours.

“I could have kept going, but I felt that I wouldn’t be able to give it all that it needed. So the right thing to do was step away from lacrosse,” said Rigger.

Alessio Griffin, a sophomore midfielder for the DHS varsity team, first met Rigger at at lacrosse camp during the summer for middle schoolers. He finds it challenging to let Rigger go.

“He taught me mostly everything I know about lacrosse,” Griffin said. “I’m going to miss him. He was like a father figure to me on the field.”

“Even if you hired a bunch of people, you can’t replace the stuff he did and knowledge he had,” Hatfield added. “Not just lacrosse, but for program.”

Even with the departure of the eight graduated seniors and Rigger, both Griffin and Hatfield are certain it won’t undermine the team’s success.

“Yeah he was a big factor on the team, but just because he is leaving doesn’t mean we won’t stop doing what he taught us to do,” Griffin said. “Everything he taught us, it’s going to make us win, and keep winning, and teach the younger ones.”

“I don’t want us to slip because of this,” Hatfield remarked. “In a lot of ways, Don has kind of been the soul of the program, and what the players need to understand that it’s not about one person. It’s about the spirit that that’s been created and at the end of the day it’s about the players on the field. I don’t want anyone to view Don leaving as an excuse.”

Last season may not have been the last time you’ll see Rigger coaching at Decatur. He feels that in the future, if things go well at his job and that there is a place somewhere on the coaching staff, he would love to come back to DHS.

“I am at peace with my decision to step away, but at some point later in my life,” he says, “if my health is good and I’m up for it, I would like to return.”

In the meantime, Coach Rigger will be coaching the Tomatoes and cleaning toxic waste.

Decatur’s first Varsity game is at home versus Lakeside Evans at 7:45 on Feb. 25.