Seneca coach Russ Witte on retirement: ‘It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do’

Russ Witte surprised the local boys basketball scene late last week with the announcement of his retirement as Seneca’s varsity head boys basketball coach. He also surprised the players in his program when he told them Wednesday.

“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” Witte said. “Lot of tears shed on both sides.”

Witte has been Seneca’s head coach since taking over for hall of fame coach Doug Evans in 2009. He compiled a 284-188 record and won three Class 2A regional championships over 16 seasons.

But the decision didn’t come as a surprise to Witte, who said the idea has crept into his mind more and more frequently as his children – a freshman and a seventh-grader – have grown.

“Sixteen years at Seneca and 27 years overall, that’s a long time,” Witte said. “I’ve been coaching basketball ever since I started teaching back in 1999, and one of the biggest reasons [for retiring now] is I’ve been, in my mind, so selfish for the past 27 years chasing what I like to do.

“It’s probably time for me to be a little bit selfish for my own family.”

On Thursday, Seneca began advertising the coaching vacancy along with available teaching positions. Witte, who has more than 300 career varsity wins, intends to remain a teacher at Seneca but is hanging up his whistle for the foreseeable future.

“Am I saying I’ll never get back into it? I don’t know,” he said. “I’m not going to keep the door shut ... but it’s probably time for me to be a dad and a husband and not have my kids on pins and needles every day from the months of November through March. ...

“It’s sad. It’s something I thought I was going to do the rest of my life. I really did.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say every time I read an article with a coach saying he’s getting out for family reasons, you roll your eyes and say, ‘Oh, you’re copping out.’ But when you’ve been doing it this long, you would be amazed at what kind of a toll it takes on your family.”

Witte started his coaching career in Montana in 1999, a state which at that time didn’t schedule the girls and boys basketball seasons opposite each other. That meant he was able to coach both, an opportunity he not only enjoyed but used to get more experience.

He relocated to the Illinois Valley in 2003 and took over the Hall boys basketball program in Spring Valley from Eric Bryant Sr. In two seasons, Witte guided the Red Devils to a 34-26 record with a Class A regional championship back in the days of the two-class system.

He went on to coach at Illinois Valley Community College before the opportunity presented itself to become Evans’ heir apparent at Seneca. Evans’ retirement neared after more than a quarter century leading the Fighting Irish.

Seneca went 10-20 and then 14-15 in Witte’s first two seasons after taking over from Evans. Since then, it’s been 11 winning seasons [including the last eight] over 14 school years, including last winter’s 25-9 season that saw the Fighting Irish win their first outright regular-season championship as members of the Tri-County Conference.

Like Coach Evans’ retirement in 2009 with his son, Seth, graduating after a record-breaking career, Witte’s leaving coincides with the graduation of one of the top players in the storied annals of Seneca athletics, three-time Times Boys Basketball Player of the Year Paxton Giertz.

Witte believes, however, that whoever takes over the Fighting Irish boys basketball program will be just fine.

“I think the kids we have coming back can be very successful,” he said. “I think we have a good program moving forward, I really do, and we have some things in place to keep going.

“Seneca’s a special place. It’s always going to have a special place for me, and I’m going to teach here until I retire, but it’s also not the easiest place to coach because there are expectations. And those expectations are a good thing. They are. That’s what drives you.”