GUY — Guy-Perkins senior Tre Minton is simply “the best of the best,” Thunderbirds coach John Hutchcraft said.
Minton, a 5-10, 155-pound guard who helped the Thunderbirds win back-to-back boys Class 1A state championships, including the 2018 barn burner against Izard County, is the River Valley & Ozark Edition Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
“Getting two rings is my favorite memory,” Minton said, “and trying to get to Hot Springs and play in [the championship]. … We were losing by 18 in the final four this year when we played Western Grove. We came back and won to get to the championship.”
Minton said he scored 20 points in the comeback game.
He scored only 10 points in the 71-66 championship victory March 10 — Hutchcraft’s 65th birthday — at Bank of the Ozarks Arena in Hot Springs, where the team came out ahead, 71-66.
“I had an off night,” Minton said.
That’s rare for the basketball standout, whom Hutchcraft praised.
“He has a great attitude; he is a very, very, hard worker — at practice and during the games. He works hard all the time,” Hutchcraft said. “He is an absolute pleasure to coach. He is a true competitor; he will get after it when that game gets going.”
Hutchcraft said Minton averaged about 20 points a game.
“He’s an outstanding shooter. He shoots a 3-point shot very well,” the coach said.
Minton said his highest-scoring game ever was 58 points against Midland before
Christmas break in 2017 in the Pangburn Classic.
“We didn’t even have all our starters. There was one other guard; he was in foul trouble,” Minton said. “Four players from the bench were playing, and it was me. I had to do everything.
“We were losing by like 17 at the most by halftime, the third quarter, trying to work our way up, trying to get going,” he said. “The fourth quarter, something just hit me. I scored I think 31 straight points without anybody else scoring. It was crazy.”
Hutchcraft said another of Minton’s strengths is he’s “really physically tough.”
Minton agreed with that assessment.
“I’m strong; I have muscles, so I use that. I use my body frame. I know how to draw a foul. I know how to get the basket or draw a foul,” he said. “If the defender is too far away, I can shoot it. If people are helping on defense, double teaming, that’s when there are other players on the court I can pass it to. Everybody on that team can score, so it’s not just me.
“Coach, he has been there with me since day 1; he has meant a lot. I really love playing under him, and it meant a lot to win these last two years for him. I know he wanted to have his record more wins than his losses in the championship; he had 11 state championships and 10 runners-up.”
The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame coach was named the Arkansas All-Preps Boys Basketball Coach of the Year, and he also received the Morgan Wooten Lifetime Achievement Award by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia. Hutchcraft is retiring this year after a 42-year tenure, 40 of them at Guy-Perkins.
“I’ve had a storybook ending to my career. I just can’t believe it,” he said.
Minton’s mother, Jessie McVay, played for Hutchcraft in the early ’90s. Minton was attending the Conway School District before wanting to move to Guy-Perkins in the seventh grade.
“I prayed and prayed about it,” she said. “I felt like my kids would be more successful at a smaller school.”
McVay said that when Minton was in the seventh grade, he asked her if he could go to Guy-Perkins, where two of his cousins played basketball.
When Minton was in the eighth grade, he and his brother, Justin Bryant, started attending Guy-Perkins.
“It is an amazing situation that came about,” McVay said, adding that she never dreamed her son would also play for Hutchcraft.
McVay said two of her Guy-Perkins teams made it to state-championship games but didn’t win a title. However, she was on a 35-0 national championship team at Westark Community College, now the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. She then finished at Southwest Missouri State University, where she was a Division 1 All-American.
It’s her son that she would rather talk about, though.
“I’m definitely proud of him. I said, ‘I made it to state twice, and I never could get it. I want you to get it,’” she said.
And Minton was able to achieve not one, but two championships.
“That’s unbelievable; you couldn’t even imagine that was going to happen, but it did,” she said. “It took a lot of faith and belief, and it just took God right there beside him.”
Last year’s championship team included his cousin Jachoree Ealy.
“It’s a family team; that’s basically what Guy-Perkins is,” McVay said. “Coach Hutchcraft bent over backward for you.”
Minton credits his mother with instilling the love of the game in him.
“She just had me have a ball in my hand, everywhere I went. I dribbled on the sidelines,” he said.
McVay said she has been a basketball referee for 10 years, and at halftime, she always told Minton to “grab a ball.” If he went to the gym, or even at home, she encouraged him to practice.
“By him doing that, I said, ‘Your brother is five years younger than you; be a role model for him,’” she said.
Sometimes, McVay even used the sport as punishment.
“I’d make him dribble it a thousand times to make his arms tired. That’s a punishment, but that’s helping him,” she said.
Minton said that in second grade, he played Upward Bound basketball, and starting in fourth grade, he played on an Amateur Athletic Union traveling basketball team in the summers.
“I’ve gotten better every year, so I kept playing it,” he said.
He also plays baseball and runs track, but it was basketball that lifted his spirit.
Minton said Hutchcraft is a major influence on him as a player “and as a person, really — life lessons. He tells us to work hard and stay in school, not do anything that can ruin your career.”
The student has taken that advice to heart. He has had a few basketball-team tryouts at colleges. He wants to play basketball, but he also plans to earn his degree to become a physical therapist.
When Hutchcraft retires in June, he will take memories of many games and players, including Minton and McVay.
“I feel blessed to be able to coach him and his mother,” Hutchcraft said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.