PLATTE – A South Dakota coaching legend is calling it a career.

Claremont native Frank Cutler, the state’s sixth all-time winningest coach, is stepping down after 42 years of coaching, the past 36 at Platte and also for the Platte-Geddes cooperative.

Cutler finished with a career coaching record of 546-264.

“I’ll just say to the wins, we had a lot of great players go through here, and I was able to coach for a long time,” Cutler said. “Those two things lead you to getting a bunch of wins.”

Cutler’s teams qualified for 13 state tournaments, where they finished third three times, runner-up once, and won a state championship in 2008.

“I guess we just tried to do things right all the time, at least what I thought was right and the best for the kids in the program,” Cutler said, “and it worked out for the most part for a lot of years.”

Cutler deflects a lot of credit directed his way, instead choosing to focus on his players.

“It comes back to we just had a lot of good kids that were dedicated to the program, wanted to get better, and willing to work hard for us,” Cutler said.

He said having early success in his coaching career helped to motivate the players in the program to want to replicate getting to the state tournament.

“That gives everybody a little bit of encouragement,” Cutler said. “You know what, I want to do that, so that was motivation also for the kids coming up through the program, and we were able to get there a number of times.”

When asked about his most satisfying season in coaching, Cutler said it was difficult to single out just one year.

“Obviously, people will look at our state championship that we won,” Cutler said, “and obviously that’s pretty satisfying, but I think every season had its own good things about it.”

Cutler had made up his mind that this past season would be his last before the school year started, but only told his family members about it. The Black Panthers ended up having a winning record and playing their best when it mattered most.

“Even this last season, we really had no idea how successful we were going to be, but we actually played pretty good basketball at the end of the year, in my last year here,” Cutler said, “which made that feel very enjoyable. We played some pretty good teams, pretty well.”

Cutler said one of the reasons he didn’t inform others that this past year would be his final one is because he wanted the attention to be on the players and not on him.

“I wanted the season to be about the kids, because it was about them and their season,” Cutler said. “They only get four. I’ve had a lot of them.”

By the end of year, Cutler had let his assistant coach know of his retirement plans.

Cutler coached his final game against Cheyenne-Eagle Butte, and following that contest, his assistant sat with him on the bench and casually asked, “What do you think right now?, and I said I’m still OK,” Cutler said.

While the Black Panthers did not reach the state tournament, Cutler was still honored at the state tourney after winning the Larry Luitjens Coach of Influence Award, named after the winningest coach in state history.

“Anytime that you can be associated with Larry’s Luitjens’ name in any regard is pretty neat,” Cutler said.

The two legendary coaches, both from Marshall County, went head-to-head on the sidelines just one time over the years.

“I got to coach against him one time,” Cutler said. It happened to be in the first round of a state tournament in Cutler’s first year as a head coach. “They actually went undefeated that year.”

Cutler, who graduated from Langford High School, got to face his alma mater four times, winning three of those games, including once in the State B tourney when the seventh-seeded Black Panthers knocked off the Lions in the opening round.

Cutler said those meetings were always memorable because they featured standout teams from both schools.

“The games that we had were pretty good when we played each other,” Cutler said.

Other notable games during Cutler’s career featured a four-overtime marathon against Andes Central-Dakota Christian, a three-quarter court shot to beat Gregory, and a win over standout Louie Krogman during his White River days.

When asked what will fill that coaching void in the future, Cutler isn’t quite sure and has had others inquire about it.

“We’ll see. They ask me if I’m still OK with not being the coach,” Cutler said. “At this point, I’m still OK with not being the coach, and I’ll finish with, we’ll see how I feel come late November or early December.”

Cutler said what will stand out the most during his time as a head coach are his players.

“To see the kids get done and go on and be successful in whatever they choose to do is pretty neat,” Cutler said.

Again, Cutler downplayed his role in any success that his past players have experienced in life.

“I think in the whole scope of it, it’s a small part of their life and I certainly won’t take credit for somebody being real successful in life,” Cutler said, “but I hope that there’s maybe a little speck in there that I helped them in this or that.”