Basketball coach nearing 700 wins returns to play at small school where it all started

Pecatonica’s all-time winningest boys basketball coach returned to town Saturday. The school was not the same building he coached in 26 years ago, but many of the faces were the same.

“I wasn’t ever in this gym, but there is nothing better than seeing those guys over there,” Todd Sutton said, pointing to the crowded bleachers on the east side of the gym after coaching Class 4A power Naperville Neuqua Valley to a 79-59 win over Pecatonica, ranked No. 3 in 1A, the state’s smallest class.

“Look at that. Those are my guys over there. They are mine. And some of them flew in from California and Arizona just for this. There’s nothing more special. This is about relationships. Best people in the world right there.”

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This was a special game. Not just because 4A schools as good as Neuqua Valley (22-8) don’t travel 190 miles round trip to play a 1A school. And not just because of what Sutton did at Pecatonica in the 1990s, where his 162 wins are one more than Kevin Kunkel on Pec’s all-time list. But also because of what he has done since moving to a brand-new school in Naperville in 1998.

His 526 wins there give him 688 career victories (and counting), putting him 23rd on the all-time IHSA list. Next up is Auburn, Boylan and Keith Country Day coach Dolph Stanley at 705.

And no matter what Sutton has done since he left Pecatonica, the only coach in Neuqua Valley history continues to feel strong ties to the small town where he got his start as a head coach.

“These are the people who knew us when my kids were young,” Sutton said. “Drew was six days old when he was at his first game at Pecatonica. And they remember Drew as a baby. Nothing is more important than those years. Your own kids are being born and they helped raise them. I have a lot of ties here.”

This game — and next’s year game at Neuqua Valley — was set up when Sutton talked with Pec coach Bobby Heisler at Hunter Hoffman’s graduation ceremony two years ago. Hunter is the older brother of current Pec star Cooper Hoffman and the son of Durand/Pecatonica football coach Tyler Hoffman, who played for Sutton at Pec.

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And that’s just the start of Sutton’s ties to the Hoffmans.

“The Pecatonica point guard is Cooper Hoffman, the son of my point guard,” Sutton said. “And the grandson of my boss, our principal Tom Hoffman. And the grandson of Debbie, who babysat my children. You can’t get any more ties than I have to these people right here.”

Before the game, Cooper Hoffman and Jaxon Diedrich, whose dad also played for Sutton, presented him with a game ball with a Pecatonica logo on it. Pecatonica also sold Coach Sutton T-shirts in the lobby featuring a logo that was half Pecatonica and half Neuqua Valley.

“Giving him the ball was cool because I know it meant a lot to my dad,” said Diedrich, who scored 11 points in the loss. “It meant a lot to all of them that he (Sutton) came out today. Dad talks about him all the time. ‘This is what he does. This is how he runs things.’ ”

“It was special,” agreed Hoffman, tied Mason Peterson for Pec’s scoring lead in the loss with 14 points. “Having him back here and having everybody back who used to play for him was cool for us.”

This Pecatonica team (24-5) has now matched or exceeded the old school record for wins (24-4 under Sutton in 1995) four seasons in a row. Pecatonica is greater now than it has ever been before. Still, it took Todd Sutton returning to town for some former Pec greats to come out and see the current ones.

Vince Cimino, Sutton’s highest-scoring player at Pec, lives in nearby Winnebago and has been following Pec on the internet. But this was his first game back in person.

“It was awesome,” Cimino said. “It brought back flashbacks to when I was playing. It was great to see him (Sutton) coaching again. He meant the world to us. He was a great coach and mentor.”

Sutton wasn’t sure how many of his former players came out to see the game. Just that there were a lot.

“I don’t know because I couldn’t recognize a couple of them,” Sutton said. “They had to tell me who they were. I hadn’t seen some of these guys in 30 years.

He then went on to rave about Cimino. “The hero is Vince Cimino. There he is. My first year at Pecatonica, Vince Cimino, 21.3 points per game. I remember 21.3 points per game. And I didn’t even recognize him.”

Even Cimino didn’t remember his exact scoring average. But Sutton did.

And he’s going to remember everything about his latest visit to the place where he got his basketball head coaching start.

“It is the greatest pleasure to see these friendly faces,” Sutton said. “I cannot tell you how fun this is.”

Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Pecatonica honors former hoops coach Todd Sutton, nearing 700 wins