Former Pickerington girls basketball coach Dave Butcher calls it a career after 45 years
One of Ohio’s winningest girls basketball coaches is retiring — and this time, he thinks it’s for good.
Dave Butcher, who won 747 games in 35 seasons at Pickerington and Pickerington North, led the district’s original high school to six state championships and was part of a seventh title in 2022 at Reynoldsburg, said he’s stepping away from the game after a 45-year coaching career.
Butcher had been an assistant to longtime friend Jack Purtell at Reynoldsburg since 2018, the same year he retired from both coaching and teaching at North.
“(Purtell) had asked me (after the season) and I said 45 years was probably enough,” Butcher said. “I never thought I’d end up at Reynoldsburg nor did I think I would be a varsity assistant, but it was a lot of fun. I could just coach. Jack gave me a lot of freedom in practice and during the games. I did almost all the scouting preparation and breakdown on tapes.”
Butcher and his wife, Linda, have three grandchildren age 4 or younger and another on the way.
Butcher went 747-146 as a head coach, with 477 of those wins coming from 1983-2003 at Pickerington, which is now Pickerington Central. His teams won 23 consecutive district championships — 15 at Pickerington and eight at North — and state titles in 1985, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1998 and 1999.
Central also was state runner-up in 1994 and 2000. The Tigers won 74 consecutive games from 1991-94 and had a 181-game winning streak in league play from 1987-2001.
North got to state in 2007 and 2011, losing in semifinals both years.
Dispatch All-Metro: 2022-23 girls basketball honorees
In May 2019, Butcher was recommended as Westerville South’s head coach but withdrew his name from consideration two weeks later.
At the time of Butcher’s retirement from head coaching, he was the second-winningest girls basketball coach in state history behind Beavercreek’s Ed Zink. Zink retired in 2021 with 810 wins.
Longtime Cincinnati Mother of Mercy and Oxford Talawanda coach Mary Jo Huismann since has passed Butcher into second place. She finished this past season with 759 victories.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Former Pickerington girls basketball coach Dave Butcher retires
