Utter hits 400 and keeps climbing
I saw Rincon/University boys basketball coach Rich Utter at Fred Enke Golf Course last week and asked him if he knew how many career victories he had.
I wasn’t sure I’d get an answer because Utter is a team-first, not a me-first coach, who has never pursued the spotlight.
“I got No. 400 when we played Nogales (Nov. 24),” he said. After beating Mountain View on Friday, Utter has 406.
I asked if he’d stay around long enough to get No. 500. He just smiled.
Utter was raised in upstate New York, went to school at Slippery Rock University and began his coaching career at tiny Valley Union near Douglas. He does not recruit players nor dabble in the AAU circuit; he takes what comes through the door at Rincon.
He is the best definition of an old-school coach and is No. 3 on the list of Tucson’s winningest high school boys basketball coaches. Sahuaro’s Dick McConnell is first at 774 and Salpointe-Ironwood Ridge-Green Fields’ Brian Peabody has won 442. Late last season, Utter passed Tucson High Hall of Famer Bud Doolen, who won 395. Former Santa Rita coach Jim Ferguson is fourth at 370.
Rincon is 7-3 this year and among a handful of Tucson teams vying to be the city’s best. Utter is doing a lot of it with 6-10 center Brendan Rumel who last week reached a milestone of his own: he scored his 1,000th career point and is up to 1,038. Rumel, who has signed to play at Portland State, has a long way to go to be Rincon’s career-scoring leader: Devon Eason scored 1,620 points for the Rangers in the mid-1990s.
