Katharyn Richt, wife of Coach Mark Richt, said she would change nothing about her life. She and Coach Richt have four children, three boys and one girl, ages 14 to 7. (Catherine Coe - The Red & Black)
She spends her days running her children from school to softball practice, football practice and piano lessons.
Yet Katharyn Richt must also manage the responsibilities of being the wife of Georgia's head football coach Mark Richt -- and she does it all with a smile on her face.
"She's a special lady," senior defensive end David Pollack said. "She's always polite, always congenial. She's always in a good mood, never seems down."
Her upbeat personality stems from her ability to find a positive in any situation and her love of life, especially her life.
"I enjoy the atmosphere that's around here, around football," Katharyn Richt said. "My favorite part about Mark's job is that we can be involved. Mark works very hard, but on Saturdays we get to be involved in the outcome of all that hard work."
Senior quarterback David Greene notices that involvement.
"What's so fun is that she gets more fired up for the games than the average fan does," he said. "You're liable to see her in the Dawg Walk, barking her head off, cheering."
While Mark Richt appreciates her support for him and his job, he knows their family is her top priority.
"The bottom line is taking care of the family," he said. "If she's got any extra time to be the head coach's wife, good. But nothing comes ahead of being able to take care of the family."
Katharyn Richt obviously takes pride in that responsibility. Her face lit up when she started talking about her children.
Jon, the oldest at age 14, is the quarterback of the junior varsity football team at Prince Avenue Christian School.
"Jon loves football; it is his dream to play football," she said. "But I don't know that I'd want him playing for his dad. They'd crucify him."
David, 9, enjoys sports, but his main passion is playing the piano. The youngest son, Zach, is a typical 8-year-old boy.
"Zach likes bugs, and he likes being a boy," Richt said. "He's perfectly content just playing."
Seven-year-old Anya is the youngest and an athlete like her two oldest brothers. She loves softball and loves Pollack almost as much.
"Anya was devastated when Mark told her he wouldn't be back next year," Richt said.
Growing up in Tallahassee, the daughter of a YMCA director and a stay-at-home mother, Richt and her two brothers and one sister had a happy, carefree childhood.
"We just had fun," she said. "We didn't have to worry so much back then."
She went to college for two years at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina, where she was part of the honor society and the clogging team.
"I was trying to get my calves bigger," she confessed. "But it didn't work."
She then transferred to Florida State to finish her degree in economics, where she met her future husband, a graduate assistant for the football team at the time.
A friend of Richt's set her up on a blind date with Mark Richt after he said he "wanted to meet a nice girl."
"Mark and I became best friends, and we were best friends for a year," she said. "Then he told me he loved me, and we got married three months later."
The two remain very close and try to find as much time to spend together as possible in between their busy schedules.
"Mark is very good about what time he does have, he gives it to the family," Katharyn Richt said. "Although he spends time away, he wants any time he can get (with the family), so we try to be creative and make it happen."
Although she said it is difficult to see her husband during games, she likes to bring the children to practice and has become one of the water girls for the team during away games.
"I would rather be busy during the games than just sitting there watching the game, and it involves me in what they're doing, so I love it," she said of her water duties.
Mark Richt also enjoys the few extra moments he gets to see his wife on the field.
"It's nice to have her there," he said. "I'll wink at her once in a while."
The Richts find the best family time comes in the morning.
"We get up early, get them ready for school," Mark Richt said. "We have a nice little family devotional every morning. Then we get in the car and I take them to school. We do spelling words and goof off a little bit. That's the best time for sure."
The importance the Richts place on family has carried over into the football program as well. Richt has implemented family nights on Mondays, where coaches, their families and the players all eat together.
"I think it's nice for our players to see our coaches being a husband and father, and I think it's good for the coaches' children to hang around the players and get to know them and like them," Richt said
Although Katharyn Richt is busy with family and football responsibilities, she makes sure to devote part of her time to singing in the choir at Prince Avenue Baptist Church.
"She's very dedicated," said Reg Gattie, the music minister at Prince Avenue Baptist Church. "She's always here. She and Mark are here no matter what game they had or where it was. She's one of our enthusiastic encouragers, always smiling. She is a spark of enthusiasm wherever she is."
Richt carries that spark with her in everything she does.
From cheering on her husband at football games, to making sure her children are at the right after-school activity at the right time, to singing in the choir every Sunday, Richt said she enjoys every aspect of her life.
"I wouldn't change a thing," she said. "I just keep winning."