‘The timing was right’: Bottorff takes over as Brown County boys basketball coach

MT. STERLING, Ill. — Retirement is coming at the perfect time for both Jeff Bottorff and the Brown County boys basketball program.

The vice president of quality and training at DOT Foods since 2006, Bottorff will step away as a full-time employee at the end of May. Although he intends to continue serving as a consultant, his scaled-back work schedule affords him the time to get back into coaching.

And the Hornets needed a coach.

Monday night, the Brown County School Board approved hiring Bottorff as the next head coach. He replaces Eric Jones, who compiled a 78-62 record in five seasons at the helm as the Hornets finished 6-21 last winter.

“When we decided the end of May would be the right time for me to retire, the right opportunities opened up,” Bottorff said. “The timing was right.”

He’s not a stranger to the program.

Bottorff coached the Brown County junior high boys basketball teams before his family moved to Quincy, where his son, Justin, starred on the Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball team and his youngest son, Jonny, excelled as a football and basketball player.

Justin has spent the last two seasons as an assistant men’s basketball coach at NCAA Division III Concordia University, and Jonny is entering his final season playing football at Northern Arizona University, where is an all-conference offensive lineman.

“Basketball has always been in my blood and throughout our family,” Jeff Bottorff said.

So has the willingness to serve. 

“There’s an element where I feel I have a lot to offer,” said Bottorff, whose oldest son, Jacob, served in the U.S. Navy. “For me, it was feeling I could contribute and make a difference, not only in basketball but in helping kids. One of the areas I’ve always been passionate about, even in terms of work, is helping people.”

That fits the Brown County mantra, where football coach Tom Little and baseball coach Jared Hoots have built highly successful programs because of their dedication and care for the student-athletes.

“For the kids, I hope it gives them the best of all worlds to build success in all of those programs,” Bottorff said.

The basketball program should get a boost from an influx of talent. The Brown County eighth grade boys won the IESA Class 2A state championship with a 28-1 record.

“I know they have really high expectations, which I love,” Bottorff said. “They’ve been successful in baseball. They’ve been successful in football. I want to get them back to being successful in basketball.”

How does he do it? Bottorff will tailor the Hornets’ style of play to the talent on the team.

“People have asked, ‘What are you going to do?’” Bottorff said. “I don’t know until I see the kids we have. I want to understand what their strengths and weaknesses are, then we will figure out how we want to play and what kind of system we want to run and all of that stuff.

“I go in with an open mind because I haven’t seen them play much.”

That will change along with his availability to be in the gym teaching the game he loves.

“I’m really looking forward to this opportunity,” Bottorff said.