Coaching a sport while being a school administrator is usually a non-starter: you’re either an administrator or not.

As Bingham, 76, recalled this week, the middle school principal at the time, Karl Starr, told Bingham he’d have support if he wanted to go coach.

“If it hadn’t have been for that, I may not have ever been able to coach,” Bingham said.

More than two decades after hitting the dirt for the first time with the Bears, Bingham retired at the end of the 2023 season with 11 state championships, the most in Utah high school softball history for a coach.

MATT HERP, Standard-Examiner file photo

According to the UHSAA record book, Bingham accumulated the second-most wins by a softball coach with 506, behind 507 from Spanish Fork’s Don Andrews.

Bear River won state title No. 11 last month, dropping Game 1 of the best-of-three-game championship series against Ridgeline before beating the Riverhawks 8-4 and 12-3 to win the 4A championship at BYU.

Winning one last state title as a coach, at BYU specifically, was a feather in Bingham’s cap; it’s his college alma mater.

Long after the game and celebration had ended — long after he was doused with ice water by his players — Bingham was joined on the field for a group photo with family members. One could look no further to find a reason why Bingham is stepping away from coaching.

“I want to spend a little more time with my family and my wife. I just decided it was time. I’ve been blessed with great help, particularly from the Haramoto family,” Bingham said.

Bingham said some of his sons live in Utah County, so he plans to spend a lot of time there with his children and grandchildren, taking them to BYU football and basketball games and such.

The Bears won their first state softball title under Bingham in 2001 and came through the one-loss bracket, beating Tooele twice in the championship series.

They drew from that experience in 2021 when they had to beat Tooele twice to win the 4A state title, and then drew from the 2021 experience last month against Ridgeline to complete the year with a 26-6 record.

Bear River won five straight state titles from 2008-12 and constantly won region championships throughout Bingham’s tenure.

Former Bears players have played college softball all across the country, and also rank high among leaders in hits, runs, strikeouts and more in the UHSAA record book.

Bear River teams consistently had great pitchers — Jordan Theurer, Kapri Toone, Kate Dahle, among others — and would play small ball (bunting, stealing, trying to score one run each inning) in the state tournament.

Bingham credited consistency in coaching and strong youth softball programs as reasons why Bear River High has been so successful for so long.

Between wrestling and softball, Bingham coached sports at the scholastic level for around four decades. When Bear River softball starts its 2024 season next year, Bingham thinks he’ll miss coaching then, but he said he won’t miss the time commitment that softball requires.

“I love softball and I love the challenge of taking a group of young athletes and trying to mold them into a competitive team, but there were things about it that I didn’t enjoy,” he said. “I didn’t enjoy making cuts. The last 2-3 years, we’ve had to make cuts that were particularly difficult, and it was just a combination of a lot of things. I’m getting old.”

Bingham also cited some health issues for his retirement. He has a bad ankle in need of surgery and has survived two heart attacks, plus a bout with prostate cancer, all in the last two decades.

Bingham started playing softball while growing up, partly teaching himself how to pitch by throwing a softball against the wall of his grandfather’s garage.

He later helped run a popular men’s fastpitch softball league in Deweyville with Roy Haramoto for many years. Stan Haramoto, Roy’s younger brother, was a longtime assistant coach with Bingham at Bear River before his death in 2021.

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.