Boys basketball: Coffey is the SVM Coach of the Year

RJ Coffey and Fulton boys basketball success go hand in hand.

The former player and current coach has been part of nine of the Steamers’ 30 seasons in program history with 20 wins or more – basically one-third of them – and four of those have been in the last six years under Coffey’s guidance.

He also was part of four 20-win seasons in his four-year playing career from 1999-2003, as Fulton went 96-19 in that span; the last time the Steamers advanced to the sectional final was his sophomore season in 2001.

That is, until this season. Led by junior Baylen Damhoff and senior Ethan Price, Fulton won 26 games and claimed its second regional title under Coffey. That makes two titles in the last four years, after not winning one in the previous 18. They then won their sectional semifinal to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1972-73 (the 2001 sectional final appearance was in the two-class system, when teams had to win a sectional title to make it to the Sweet 16).

For leading the Steamers to their fourth Sweet 16 appearance in school history, Coffey is the 2022-23 Sauk Valley Media Boys Basketball Coach of the Year.

Early on, it didn’t really look like Fulton would return to the same heights as last season, after losing several strong senior leaders to graduation off a school-record 29-win team. But the Steamers kept plugging away, and eventually got things rolling during a 15-game winning streak in the latter part of the season.

“What I really think sticks out to me about this season is we kind of started off really slow. We came out of football and we were kind of banged up, and we were kind of mixing and matching lineups. Then finally at Christmastime, things started to turn. Our guys really started to play good basketball,” Coffey said. “We went on that 15-game win streak, and just to see the difference of how things were changing with this group from the beginning to the end, I really enjoyed seeing the growth and how we kind of turned things around.

“Sometimes when you start out slow, it’s hard to get it back. But this group continued to work hard, they continued to grind, and then were able to not only play better basketball toward the end of the season, but then make a really good postseason run. For me this year, that was just something that really stands out.”

Ironically, as hot as the Steamers got between Erie’s Warkins Memorial Tournament at at the end of December until the first week in February, it was a 38-36 loss in Polo on Feb. 8 that might have set up the postseason run.

That loss snapped the long winning streak, and provided the Steamers with their only NUIC South loss in the last two seasons. But it also provided the motivation for the next few weeks.

“Sometimes you need a little wake-up call just to keep you going, and to understand that it’s not always going to be easy,” Coffey said. “In our area, there’s so many good programs and teams that no matter who you’re playing or what their record is, it’s never easy. So to have a little reminder to kind of check yourself and say, ‘Hey, we’ve still got to continue to get better and we can’t just rest on being on a streak, we’ve got to continue to elevate our game,’ especially as you head into the postseason, was good for us.

“You always learn a lot more from a loss, and I think those losses, that’s just kind of part of our story, and it kind of led us into the postseason hungry. We understood what happened last year, and we wanted to make sure that this year, we took care of business and continued to advance and go as far as we could.”

Last year, it was a regional semifinal upset loss to Aquin that broke the hearts of the Fulton faithful. So with that still on their minds, and the sting of the loss to the Marcos still fresh, the Steamers went into the postseason on a mission.

Hosting a regional on their home court, they won the quarterfinal by 13 points and the semifinal by 10 before a six-point victory in the title game. Fulton then played a nearly flawless game to top No. 1 seed Pecatonica by 11 in the sectional semifinal in Lanark, before falling to Scales Mound by four in a nip-and-tuck title game.

Damhoff has been part of the resurgence of the Fulton program as an all-state player each of the last two years.

“It feels great to be part of it, especially with all the fans coming to support us. It brings us a lot of confidence,” he said. “I’m a junior so I have another year, so going into next year, I’m going to have a lot of confidence and have the same expectations that I did this year – and maybe even go farther than that.”

Those expectations are crafted in part because of Coffey.

“He holds us to a high standard and he expects us to work hard, so we try to live up to him. He always pushes us to never be satisfied, so I feel like that has influenced us to work as hard as possible,” Damhoff said. “He always talks about just doing the little things, really. Just working hard every day, hustle, get every loose ball, every rebound we can. He pushes us hard and always tells us to be confident and never get down on ourselves, and it’s easy to keep working when you’re playing for Coach Coffey.”

“He really pushed all of us throughout the summer, all throughout the season, no matter how low we got,” Price said after the sectional final. “It’s just a lot of hard work, coming in mornings and late at night, just getting lots of shots up and practicing, that’s all. And Coach Coffey was there supporting us.”

Now in his 10th year coaching at his alma mater, Coffey deflects that credit right back to his players and assistant coaches.

When he took over before the 2013-14 season, he knew what Fulton basketball had been like when he was a player. He knew what was necessary to get it back to that level.

“It starts with the fact that we’ve had lots of really good athletes come through. A lot of guys that are willing to work hard and put in a lot of time. Because if you want to consistently be good, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, and I’ve been pretty lucky where I’ve had a lot of guys that are willing to give up their time and kind of buy into what we’ve been trying to preach here – and that’s equaled success,” Coffey said. “So I’m pretty lucky to have players and some assistant coaches that really are on the same page and really have the same goal in mind, and that’s just to make our program successful year in, year out.”

And to build that in his hometown is even more special and rewarding.

While it’s tough sometimes to look at the big picture during the grind of the season, Coffey always appreciates the chance he has to be back where it all started.

“It’s great coming home again. I absolutely love being a Steamer, and I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to come back and coach where I played,” he said. “So for me, that just adds a little extra to it, because I kind of get to come back and help kids from my community and my school. I’m getting to the age now where some of the guys that I’ve coached, I played with or went to school with their parents. So to kind of see everything come full circle, I’ve just been very lucky to have that opportunity.”

An athletic, scrappy player for the Steamers, Coffey coaches much the same way – “I kind of coach the way I played, in my eyes,” he said – and he preaches many of the same things Barry Bauer and Mike Ankrom instilled in him during his career.

Coffey credits a lot of the great coaches and teammates he had as a player with setting the tone for his coaching career.

“I was lucky enough to play with a lot of really good players in my day, and I had a lot of coaches that have really impacted me in so many different positive ways to help kind of understand the tradition and what it takes to be a successful program,” he said. “So being here when I was, I was able to learn a lot of the stuff that I can then bring back and hopefully teach these guys – and hopefully, we can just continue to keep things rolling.”