The all-time winningest coach in Maryland high school basketball history plans to step down at the end of this season — but not completely step away.
Butch Waller, 85, announced he will retire from coaching the Wicomico High School basketball team after 60 seasons. He started coaching the team in 1966 at age 26.
Wicomico’s 29 state tournament appearances are the most in Maryland public school history — one more than Annapolis High School. Waller has just one state title, but it was a special one.
He led the program to a 28-0 season in 2002, capped by winning the Class 2A state title. Wicomico beat opponents by an average of 37.4 points that season, and the team is considered among the best in Maryland public school history.
Waller might be as well respected as he is accomplished. Edmondson coach Darnell Dantzler, whose Red Storm squad beat Wicomico in the 2013 Class 2A state title game at the buzzer, 56-54, called Waller “a very classy guy” even in defeat.
“He told me congratulations and he was proud that I was able to win the first state championship. After, we’ve developed a real good friendship,” Dantzler said. “He runs a real professional program and his teams are well disciplined, well coached and I’ve learned a lot from him on how poised he is and how he approaches the details of the game.”
As of Wednesday night, Waller has 951 career wins — the most for a public school boys basketball coach. Wi-Hi beat local rival Parkside High School 65-63 in overtime, earning a season sweep and clinching the Bayside South title. They’ll play Bennett High School on Thursday, then head to Colonel Richardson next Tuesday for a conference championship match.
Asked about his decision to step down now, Waller said, “I knew I had to do it at some point.”
Waller said he had planned on “staying until I dropped,” but felt it was time to give one of his assistant coaches, Doug King, a shot after holding that position for 24 years.
“He wanted his shot, and we’ve been co-coaching anyway for the last two or three years,” Waller said. “I just felt, even though I could go on and on and on, I probably need to get out of the way and let him have his shot of being the head dog.”
Waller, several years ago, said he planned to hit 60 years and then pass the ball.
“This year is the 60th and, of course, I wish I had never said that — but I did,” he said. “It’s just another case of a closed mouth gathers no foot and I should have kept my mouth shut.”
Starting out
Waller said he played on Salisbury’s first Little League and Pony League teams. He played a little football and then baseball, football and basketball while attending Wicomico High School.
“Nobody else in my family loved sports, but I just loved it. It was the thing I wanted to do. And getting up on Saturday morning, and it’s the first thing we did. We got a group and played played something, and it just it just grew and grew and grew.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from East Tennessee State University in 1965 and a master’s degree in 1966.
“I had a partial scholarship to go to East Tennessee State University for football as a running back, got all beat up, broke damn near every bone in my body, and I said, ‘You know, there’s got to be an easier way,’” Waller said.
Waller played college basketball instead and came back to Salisbury at the request of Charles Berry, at that time the athletics supervisor for Wicomico. Waller called him “the closest person I’ve ever known to be Vince Lombardi.”
“He was just kind of guy that you respected so much,” Waller said. “And he kept writing me these letters, come on back, come on back,’ and, ‘we got a job for you.’”
Waller said he planned to coach in Salisbury for a year and then head to Florida. But he got married, had a son, bought a car and bills started coming in.
“I said, ‘Well, maybe I’ll stay two years.’ And here I talk to you today, 60 years later,” Waller said. “So, I stayed and have no regrets.
“People in education, you’ll never get rich, but you make a living,” he continued. “About the biggest thrill I get ever it now is no matter where I go, a grocery store, dentist, a landfill, to recycle, somebody always, ‘Hey, Coach, how you doing?’ And we started a conversation. That’s nice when you see most of the people you’ve associated with turned out to be successful people. That’s a real good feeling.”
What happens next?
Waller said he doesn’t plan on retiring from coaching completely, and he’s now weighing options on what to do next. At 86, he said he still has plenty of energy.
“I’ll still be around. I’m just closing that chapter, and I’ll open another one,” he said. “I just don’t know where. I wouldn’t do anything in the Bayside Conference, ‘cause I wouldn’t want to coach against Wi-Hi.”
Waller said he’s been in touch with Wor-Wic Community College in Salisbury, which plans to add baseball, softball, volleyball and basketball starting in 2030.
“You never know what’s going to happen. I might be involved with that,” he said.
“I just don’t want to just, you know, shut the book on all the things that I’ve learned over the years. I like passing them on — that’s why I coach,” Waller continued. “I like taking a group of kids that think they know a lot, and probably know nothing. And just being if you can take them and mold them into a team atmosphere.”
Asked about his legacy, Waller replied, “I hope as pretty friendly guy and a halfway decent coach.”
He also mentioned working with Morgan Wootten, the legendary basketball coach from DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville. In 1981, they organized a tournament at the Civic Center in Salisbury that would evolve into the Governor’s Challenge — today among the biggest high school basketball tournaments in the country.
“I’m still involved with it and I still help run it,” Waller said. “Did I ever think it was gonna turn into as big as it is? Lord, no. But I’ve met so many great people and so many great coaches.”
Asked about winning more than 950 games, Waller said, “if you do anything long enough, you’re gonna accumulate numbers.”
“Everybody that ever played for me, all the assistant coaches, all the student managers and trainers and principals, they all got a piece of that,” he said. “But it also keeps me very humble when I always bring up the number of 1,274 — and that’s how many wins it that Morgan Wootten had.”
Wootten coached private school teams that could play more games each year — and Waller still might not be done.
“This April I’ll be 86. I have no idea how I got there, but health is not an issue, that’s for sure,” he said. “To me, life is sort of like riding a bicycle. If you want to keep your balance, you got to keep moving. Once you stop you’re down.
“Everybody says, ‘happy retirement’ And I say, ‘Well the word retirement just doesn’t resonate with me too well.’ Because that means you’re just shutting everything down. You get up in the morning, you got no purpose,” he continued. “I can’t do that. That’s not my style. I’ve been around sports all my life. And I’ll close this chapter and open another one somewhere someplace else.”
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