GUY — John Hutchcraft is ready to make it official.
Next year will be his last season of coaching.
Hutchcraft, 64, who won his 10th state championship last month in his 41st season at Guy-Perkins High School, should surpass the 2,000-win milestone before he retires.
The 2006 inductee into the University of Central Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame was head coach of the East girls team for the McDonald’s All-American Games in 2015.
For most of his career with the Thunderbirds, Hutchcraft coached junior and senior girls and boys. Girls state championships came in 1984, 2001, ’02, ’03 and ’05; boys titles came in 1997, 2005, ’06, ’09 and ’17.
“That’ll make 42 years [at Guy-Perkins], and when you think about it, I’ve been going to school since I was 6 or 7, so I’ve been hearing that school bell ring forever,” he said.
His daughter Charlotte Hutchcraft Sober played on three state runner-up teams. His son Jason McGinty hit the winning basket for the 1997 title. Daughter Ashley Hutchcraft Nance was named MVP on the championship teams in 2001, ’02 and ’03. His grandson Wyatt Spires was a junior post on the latest title squad, which finished 37-4.
That championship gave Hutchcraft a 10-9 all-time mark in state-title games.
He is this year’s River Valley & Ozark Edition Basketball Coach of the Year.
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Hutchcraft grew up in St. Charles in Arkansas County and hitchhiked to Conway to take advantage of a basketball scholarship to what was then Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas).
More than 40 years later, he still holds three UCA career records:
• Rebounds, 1,162;
• Defensive rebounds, 962; and
• Defensive rebound average, 8.8.
He also remains among the career leaders in 10 more categories:
• Second in rebound average, 10.7;
• Second in free throws attempted, 651;
• Third in scoring, 1,782;
• Third in field goals made, 679;
• Third in field goals attempted, 1,280;
• Third in free throws made, 424;
• Sixth in offensive rebounds, 200;
• Ninth in games played, 109; and
• 18th in field-goal percentage, .530.
After earning his degree, Hutchcraft coached one year at Hazen and one at Grubbs before finding his place at Guy-Perkins.
This year’s state championship erased a bit of the bad taste the T-Birds experienced last year, when they were 39-0 before falling to Bay in the state semifinals.
“We were just two games away from an undefeated season, and we’d beaten Bay pretty bad earlier, so that knocked us back,” Hutchcraft said of the motivation for 2016-17. “We played harder this year and didn’t let that happen again.”
In addition to Hutchcraft’s grandson, this year’s squad also included three players whose mothers had played for Hutchcraft at Guy.
“It’s kind of a full-circle thing,” said Nance, the seventh-
year Conway High coach who has won two state titles in her 10-year head-coaching career. “He gets really emotional about that kind of stuff. That’s huge. Not many coaches can say they’ve done that.”
How has Hutchcraft changed from when he was coaching the older generation?
“I think it’s pretty common, whatever occupation you’re in, that you get a little more mellowed out,” he said. “I don’t think I’m as hard on them as I used to be.”
Nance, who worked a year as her father’s assistant before being hired as head coach at Conway Christian, looks to her dad as a mentor.
“When you continue to coach, you always have different circumstances come up, so when I go through situations, I really turn to him,” she said. “I look at things like dealing with parents or really investing in a kid and, in a sense, maybe getting your heart broken by them.
“I look at him, and he’s coached all these kids. I know there have been times he’s really invested, and maybe the kid didn’t appreciate it. This job gives an enormous number of blessings, but you can feel really unappreciated at times. Sometimes I think, ‘How can I make it 40 years?’
“To me, that speaks volumes for him, to be able to be at the same place dealing with different families and their kids and their kids’ kids. That says a lot about his character. I don’t think I’ve appreciated what he did by coaching two teams, and even four, for so long. It takes a special person to do that.”
Hutchcraft has said many times that he never intended to spend more than 40 years with the Thunderbirds.
“But after many years, it becomes your home,” he said. “I’ve been there longer than anyplace in my life, so it really is like home now. The people at Guy are good to me. I coached all my kids, and now my grandkid. There was no reason for me to leave. I didn’t think there was anyplace I’d rather be than Guy.”
But with the end near, he looks forward to his next chapter.
For about 30 years, he has run Hutch Auctions in Damascus, which holds auctions every other Saturday and also conducts estate sales. Sober works as his auction manager. In retirement, Hutchcraft will spend more time there.
“We laugh and joke and put on a show,” he said.
He will also focus more on playing basketball. For years, he has played Senior Olympic and National Senior Basketball with the Arkansas Travelers, who have won multiple gold medals, national titles and World Game Championships.
Several of his Travelers teammates played college basketball together at UCA. They will be in Miami for a tournament in a few days and will go to Alabama for the 60-and-over national tournament. Hutchcraft is set to make his first trip abroad this summer when the Travelers go to Italy for a tournament.
“About all summer long, we’re playing somewhere,” he said. “It’s really fun to play with the boys you played college ball with. When we travel, we also turn it into a vacation, seeing things, seeing the country.”
After the high school season ended, he upped his training with pickup games with the offseason Thunderbirds.
“I play every day with the senior boys who aren’t playing baseball,” he said.
Nathan Morris, the former Lonoke girls coach who left for the superintendent’s job at Two Rivers last year, remembered that he faced Hutchcraft in his coaching debut.
“My first job was junior boys coach at Dardanelle, and our very first game was against him and Guy-Perkins at the Sacred Heart tournament,”
Morris said. “Anytime somebody’s been around that long and had that much success, he is one of those names that when you say ‘Hutchcraft,’ everybody knows who you’re talking about.
“There’s not a person or a coach in the state who doesn’t know the true success he’s had. And anytime you’ve been that successful, you’ve done some things in kids’ lives. Longtime coaches have made a big, big difference.”