50 After 50: After new coach arrives, No. 34 Saukees become first of many sectional champions

The Illinois High School Association created a second class for boys basketball for the 1971-72 school year. The 2020-21 season would have been the 50th year of the boys basketball small-school tournament. Muddy River Sports is celebrating 50 years of small-school boys basketball by ranking the 50 best teams in Adams, Brown, Pike and Hancock counties since 1972.

No. 34: 1978-79 Pittsfield

PITTSFIELD, Ill. — The boys basketball program at Pittsfield is one of the most successful in Illinois, as evidenced by the 39 regional championships and 16 sectional championships in program history. Only Pinckneyville (54 regional titles, 20 sectional titles) has more among Class A schools (or Class 1A or Class 2A).

However, during a 27-year stretch from the 1949-50 season to the 1975-76 season, the Saukees only won eight regional titles and one sectional.

Then Dave Bennett rolled into town after previous coaching stints at Proviso West and Alton.

“He made all the difference,” said Jeff Stauffer, a senior on the 1978-79 Pittsfield team. “He came in and gave us discipline. He coached us hard. He practiced hard. We literally practiced every day of the season, and that includes Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve New Year’s Day. It didn’t matter. Either we were playing, or we practiced. We were fine with that, because the thing we wanted to do most anyway was just to play.”

Bennett’s first two teams at Pittsfield had records of 20-6 and 18-12, and both won regional titles. With four starters — Stauffer, Grant Smith, Chuck Baker and Pat McCullough — returning for the 1978-79 season, the Saukees had their eyes on their first state tournament berth since the 1948-49 season.

“Several of us had played together since third grade, and when you play that much together, you end up kind of building a pretty good camaraderie,” Stauffer said. “With Bennett giving us the discipline we needed, and having had the opportunity to play together some of the guys, it was just a great time.”

Stauffer remembers Bennett being a positive influence off the court as well.

“He was like a father, like a third parent to a number of us,” he said. “There was a time when allegedly there was a case of beer on my lap in the back of Richie Allen’s car, and we ended up getting pulled over. Nothing really happened, but the police made us get rid of the beer, and we had to tell our parents. I got grounded for a month. I had to come home at nine o’clock every night. 

“But I’ll never forget there were many nights that I would come home at nine o’clock, and I looked down the street and saw Bennett’s car. He was checking up on me to see if I was coming home. He was just a very tough, caring person who was more than a coach to all of us. That’s why we played so hard.”

Pittsfield was ranked No. 11 in the final Class A regular season poll. It lost only twice during the regular season — a 75-67 setback at home to Quincy Notre Dame, and a 53-48 defeat to Southeastern in the semifinals of the Macomb Western Holiday Tournament. The Saukees’ average margin of victory was 18 points. Stauffer led the team at 16.8 points per game, while Smith was next at 14 ppg. Baker averaged 12 points, and McCullough contributed 10.5 points and four steals per game.

“We knew we were really good all year long,” Stauffer said. “We were very confident in our ability to outplay the other teams. Bennett made us do the full-court press every game all day long, and and the only way we could do that was to be in better shape than our competition.”

The Saukees defeated North Greene 56-49 to win the regional at White Hall. Stauffer scored 24 points in a 75-56 victory over Franklin in the sectional semifinal at Petersburg. The Saukees then won the sectional, avenging a loss to Piasa Southwestern in the 1978 sectional final by defeating the Birds 75-61. Stauffer led the way with 20 points, Smith had 18, and McCullough added 15 points and seven steals.

Pittsfield’s season ended with a 27-3 record after losing 65-55 to Havana in the Macomb Super-Sectional. The Ducks made 15 of their first 17 shots. Havana went on to lose to New Lenox Providence in Class A title game.

“(The Ducks) were really good, but I feel like we should have won that game,” Stauffer said. “I ended up getting injured in the second quarter, and I couldn’t really run very good. Bennett kept the full-court press on the whole game, and they’re just lobbing it over our heads. Roger King was (Havana’s 6-foot-7) center, and he was just going one on one on Baker, posting up and doing layups on on us during the first half.”

Bennett’s Pittsfield teams went on to win 17 regionals and 11 sectionals in 22 seasons. 

After playing football at Western Illinois University, Stauffer moved to Las Vegas for nine years. He has lived in San Diego since 1994 and works in commercial real estate.

He still remembers Bennett’s teachings today.

“He commanded respect. If you did something wrong, he could stare a hole through you,” Stauffer said. “He gave us the discipline we needed to kind of stay out of trouble and focus on basketball. Looking back on it, I know that’s what happened. At the time, I wanted to have a little more freedom here and there, but it was Coach Bennett and the combination of his coaching and my parents doing their job that kind of kept me in line.”