Guest Author - Lori A Larson

Richard Steinmetz was born in Chicago Illinois on February 16. His father was a policeman on the southside. He graduated from high school in Seattle, Washington and played pro-soccer for the Portland Timbers. The acting bug bit him and he left for San Francisco and then New York, where he worked on stage for nearly ten years. In addition to acting, Steinmetz coaches high school football. His team, the Venice Gondoliers, made it to the City Championships last year where they played in front of 40,000 people. He is single, resides in Los Angeles and is the foster father of two sons, Trevor and Troy. He has a long list of theater credits both in New York and Los Angeles and is well Known for his role as Jeff Hartman on "Loving" and Jimmy Stanley on "Melrose Place." His feature film credits include "The One" with Jet Lee, "Crazy Beautiful" and "S.W.A.T." He has guest-starred on the television series "Crossing Jordan," "Law and Order," "The Commish," "War Stories" and "Sports Night." After leaving the New York based Loving in 1989, He relocated to L.A. and segued into primetime TV and movies. Along the way, he also became a real-life football coach -- first at Hollywood High, then at Venice High. He volunteered to raise three foster sons. In Crazy/Beautiful he choreographed all the football scenes in the movie. He also took the lead actor, Jay Hernandez, under his wing to sharpen his football skills. He took him to practice with the team at Hollywood High School, and put him through hell week, but they taught him football. Plus, he got to take all his old players from Hollywood High and put them in the movie. It was wonderful. They all got a nice paycheck, which they needed, and they got to put on the uniform and play football again. Richard even got to put a uniform on and play the kicker. They couldn't find a guy that could kick the ball deep to the end zone so he volunteered. When asked what he got out of coaching he said” I understand their generation a whole lot better, that's for sure. Coaching is really people management, how to manage personalities. On my team, we have such a mix of kids from black to Armenian to Mexican, to you name it. You have to learn to work within the cultures of all these kids. It's been quite an eye-opener for me in a lot of ways, but they're all wonderful kids. The most important thing for these boys is letting them know that you care. If you show these kids that you care about them as people, not just as football players, they will go to the end for you on the field -- they really will -- and in life actually. Those kids on my first Hollywood High team; there was such a close bond between us. Those kids would do anything in the world for me, as I would do for them, even to this day. I've kept up with a lot of them, just to see where they're going with their lives. They call me up for advice.
He got involved with the foster parent program in L.A. with the very first Pop Warner football team that I coached. Trevor was eight years old at the time. I coached him on the team, and then I started taking Trevor and his brother Troy out on the weekends, doing stuff, just like fathers and their kids. Right now Trevor is playing football on scholarship at the University of Nevada at Reno. For Richard, the experience has been outstanding.
Him and the kids do everything together.