CHESTERLAND, Ohio — Not bad, for someone who had no designs whatsoever on being a girls basketball coach.
Long-time coach Bob Beutel reached a milestone on Dec. 29 that only two others have achieved in the history of Ohio high school girls basketball. When his West Geauga team upset Independence in a Chagrin Valley Conference crossover game, 71-61, it was the 700th victory in Beutel's storied career.
“It was special,” Beutel said. “It was a lot of fun. We were not even supposed to be in that game. My daughter, Britt, didn’t even come to the game. She told me afterwards, ‘I feel bad that I didn’t come, but you were supposed to lose by 25.’ We never had even talked about it with the team. It was not even an issue around here.”
According to a list on the website for the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association, the landmark victory puts Beutel third on the all-time girls victory list behind Ed Zink (770) of Beavercreek and Dave Butcher (747), who retired from Pickerington North, but for many years was at Pickerington High School.
Beutel was first a head coach in the 1980-81 school year, when he took over the girls program at Eastlake North, his alma mater. He won 461 games while at North, with 12 regional appearances and two trips to the state Final Four. In 2005 he then moved on to Gilmour, where in 12 years he won 233 games and made four regional appearances and two trips to the Final Four, culminating in winning the Division III state title in 2017. In his 39-year career, he had only two losing seasons, both at 9-13.
While all of that is impressive, Beutel might be doing his best coaching this year, his first at West Geauga. He took over a program that had not had a winning record in more than a decade and suffered through a 1-22 season last year. After handing Independence just its second loss of the season, the Wolverines are 6-3 and hungry for more.
Beutel said he and his staff, which includes his wife Claudia, have been pushing the team aspect of the game at every opportunity. After being away from success for so long, the team is eating it up.
“The kids have been put into a situation where they’ve been able to be successful, and they’ve bought in big-time,” Beutel said. “They’re working really hard in practice. It’s not that they didn’t work hard in the past, but they’re starting to see it pay off. It’s hard to put into words, but there is a feeling around here now that competitive basketball is fun.”
Beutel was a football and basketball star at North, Class of 1968, opting to play football at Northwestern. When he returned to North he knew he wanted to teach and coach, but there were no positions available on the boys basketball staff under coach Tom Crowe, whom Beutel refers to as his mentor. Beutel even volunteered to be an unpaid coach, but Crowe wouldn’t let him, saying it was too much work to go unpaid.
Finally, after two years of being an assistant in football and the head girls track coach, Beutel became the boys JV basketball coach, a position he held for five years. But soon the desire to be a head basketball coach took over.
“(Crowe) was going to retire in another four years, but I was ready to be a head coach,” Beutel said. “Being a girls coach was never a goal of mine, but then the girls job opened up. It just seemed the time was right to be a head coach. Also, I have two daughters, so I took the girls job. It raised some eyebrows, because everyone thought I would wait for the boys job to open up. But I took the girls job, and when he did retire, I didn’t switch, and I’ve been with the girls ever since.”
When asked to what he attributes his sustained success, Beutel did not hesitate.
“Number one, and I say this so many times, you win with people,” he said. “You know, that Woody Hayes thing. And it goes well beyond the players. Obviously, we’ve had oh-my players. But I’ve had oh-my assistants, for the most part I’ve had oh-my administrations, I’ve had oh-my managers, I’ve had oh-my fans. Our program has been surrounded by so many outstanding people.”
Claudia Beutel, who played for Bob in the early 80s before playing at Cleveland State, has been at his side on the sideline for a majority of the victories. In fact, if such records were kept, she probably has some sort of record for most wins by an assistant.
“Claudia has been such a big part of this,” Beutel said. “Amidst all this, I finally figured out that she had a hand in 560 victories. Think about that, to be around for 560 victories as an assistant.”
While the success was immediate, it wasn’t always easy. Even back in the early 1980s, when girls high school athletics were in their infancy, expectations were high.
“That first year we went 19-4 and I remember being semi-called in and being told it wasn’t a real good year,” Beutel said. “The program had been strong, but everybody but one had graduated. We played a lot of young kids, and the next year we went 25-1, and I got called in and I was told it was disappointing because we were three points away from going to the Final Four. That was my introduction to girls basketball.”
With 39 years of memories stashed away, Beutel said it was impossible to single out a favorite, although reaching the Final Four with his daughters Britt and Brooke on the team certainly ranks near the top. Winning his lone state title was rewarding as well. But don’t expect him to come up with a favorite.
“That’s almost impossible,” he said. “Through all those years there were a lot of huge wins, a lot of great, outstanding people, as you can imagine. To pick out any one, or even 10, is impossible.”
So, the question now is, where does it end?
“I’ve never put a timetable on it, when I started, through the whole thing,” Beutel said. “I don’t have any thoughts about when it will end. When it’s time, I guess.”
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