CWU Alumnus Gets Inducted to NIAAA Hall of Fame

Central Washington University alumnus Steve Bridge recently joined exclusive company by being inducted into the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) Hall of Fame, becoming the third-ever inductee from Washington.

The NIAAA Hall of Fame honors retired athletic administrators who had exemplary careers in athletic administration, and Bridge’s impressive list of accomplishments earned him a well-deserved spot on the list of inductees.

Over the years, his accolades have included:

• Serving on the WIAA District 4 Board 

• Receiving the Citation Award from the NIAAA in 2001 

• Receiving his Certified Athletic Administrator (CAA) Certificate 

• Receiving his Certified Master Athletic Administrator (CMAA) Certificate, which he was only the second athletic director in the state to accomplish 

• Receiving the Distinguished Service Award 

• Serving on the Washington Secondary School Athletic Administrators Association (WSSAAA) for the past 18 years and presenting at the State Athletic Director Conference each of those years 


Amongst all of Bridge’s hard work, one accomplishment stands out to him.

“The NIAAA provides leadership training classes for ADs throughout the country,” said Bridge. “I was assisting a colleague in teaching LTI (Leadership Training Institute) 620, entitled Concussion Management, and helped write the course. In 2015, I finished work on LTI 715, Maintaining Professional Boundaries, and at that time it was the only LTI course written by someone from the State of Washington. In the past few years, my team of Wendy Malich (Franklin Pierce School District) and Jim Meyerhoff Jr (Puyallup School District) have taught this 4-hour training to approximately 1,000 ADs throughout the nation. This may be my proudest accomplishment.”

The NIAAA Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place in December 2022 in Nashville, TN, and Steve was accompanied by his wife, Lynne, his two children, and five of his seven grandchildren.

Looking back to where it all started, Steve and Lynne met during their time at Central and are both alumni of the university.

As they started their careers, they spent a few years teaching in Federal Way and Auburn before moving to Lynne’s hometown of Westport where they would spend the next 12 years teaching and Steve would act as head coach of the football team.

From there, Steve was offered the VP and AD position at Montesano School District and after serving five years in that position he was offered the athletic director job at Elma School District where he spent the remaining 21 years of his career.

As he reflects on his time at CWU, Steve says, “We had wonderful teachers and my desire for athletics was really enhanced watching the great basketball teams of Coach Nicholson during that era. I just want to say thank you to the wonderful staff members at CWU for the preparation they provided.”

To see a full list of inductees, or to see the video of the award ceremony, please visit the NIAAA website(link is external).

January 2023