Boys basketball head coach Mr. Dave Witzig recorded his 500th career win Saturday, Dec. 30. The win came as the veteran coach earned an eighth State Farm Holiday Classic title for the boys program. Witzig is the winningest coach in Holiday Classic tournament history with 65 wins coming in the annual contest. Photo Courtesy of: Mr. Sean Kerr

Boys basketball head coach Mr. Dave Witzig netted his 500th career win Saturday, Dec. 30, when the Ironmen defeated the Matea Valley Mustangs 72-58 to win the 2023 State Farm Holiday Classic Title. 

The accomplishment comes in the middle of Witzig’s 25th season at the helm of the Iron, a tenure that is an achievement all its own. 

“You look at the history [of] Community basketball,” Witzig said, “and most coaches last four to eight years and then move on to something else.” 

Since Community’s inaugural basketball season in 1905, according to IHSA records, over 20 coaches have overseen the Ironmen. The program’s longest-tenured coach, before Witzig took over the boys basketball team, was Fran Somers who lead Community for 12 seasons from 1953-65. 

When Witzig inherited the head coaching position from Ron Rose in 1999, he brought consistency to the program. 

That consistency has been critical to the Ironmen’s success as Witzig didn’t eclipse 500 wins alone, it is anchievement his assistants and players all played a role in helping him earn.

“Coach [Ryan] Short has been with me the whole time as my sophomore coach,” Witzig said. “Coach [Nathan] Foster has been around for 20 years.”

Consistency is Mr. Matt Schweinberg, who, after playing for Witzig as a high schooler, has coached alongside him for 17 years. 

It is Mr. Derrick Schonauer who has coached the freshman squad for the last decade. 

“We have the same sophomore coach, the [same] freshman coach,” the same assistants, Witzig said, “so we’ve had a lot of consistency [with] what we’re trying to do.”

At all levels, the coaching staff understand Witzig’s coaching philosophy, what he wants to do on offense and defense, and they drill it over and over.

And what the Ironmen try to do, Witzig said, is “keep it simple.”

On defense, that means playing man-to-man.

“I think that’s been our identity. Everybody knows that we’re going to play man-to-man,” Witzig said.

Of course everyone knows, as the Ironmen’s scouting report holds no real secrets: watch Schonauer’s freshmen or Short’s sophomores, and you’ll see man d.

“We teach it at the freshman level,” Witzig said, and after four seasons of Ironmen “grinding away” at practice, the team has some seasoned defenders. 

On offense, Witzig said, the team tries to keep it simple, too. 

“We’ve changed depending on [the roster],” Witzig said, like this season’s towering talent, “but we try to really work on the fundamentals and nothing fancy or flashy or crazy or unique.”

They share the ball, the look for the high percentage shot, the mismatch.

A quarter of a century later, that consistency has Witzig as Community’s most successful coach by all measures–wins, win percentage, State appearances and finishes.

With a 500-233 record helming the Iron, Witzig has finished just four seasons with a losing record, including a 4-22 record his rookie year. 

That season, Witzig said, “was horrible.”

But under the coach, Ironmen seasons like that have been rare; the Community’s three other losing seasons in the last two decades? 

A 14-16 finish in 2006, a 12-17 record in 2007 and a 14-17 campaign (and a Regional Title) in ’08. 

In the team’s worst span under the Hall of Fame head coach, the Iron still went 40-50, boasting a .444 win percentage.

But that is history, as it’s been over 15 seasons since the Ironmen posted a losing record.

A string of 20-plus win seasons later, including two 33-2 seasons, and Witzig boasts a .682 winning percentage in his time coaching the orange and black. 

Witzig’s 22 predecessors combined for a 1201-989 record, a program win percentage of .548.   

Factor Witzig’s success into the mix, and all-time, the program sits at 1701-1122, a win percentage slotted at .602.

Witzig’s winning recipe, assistant coach Mr. Nathan Foster said, starts with his attention to detail and preaching the “Ironmen Way.”

“From day one,” Foster said, “he gets the guys doing things a certain way. There [are] things that we are doing today that we did day one, 20-plus years ago,” Foster said. “We do the same basic fundamental things over and over and over.”

Four seasons of repetition, of shots from the free throw line, of boxing out defenders, of set plays, shape the Iron, Foster said, into a “pretty consistent team night in and night out.”

The focus on the fundamentals, Mr. Matt Schweinberg said, is with improvement in mind.

“Our goal is to get better every day, so every day we show up to practice or a game we’re trying to play to standards that we’ve set,” Schweinberg said, “trying to improve every day.”

“Hopefully, doing that,” Schweinberg said, “will lead to some big wins.”

Historically, it has. 

For Foster, one notable “big win” during Witzig’s reign was the team’s upset over nationally-ranked Chicago Simeon in the 2015 Super Sectionals.

“That was a big one,” Foster said, “because people assumed that it wasn’t going to happen. [That] there was no way that was doable.”

“We didn’t change anything about who we were or what we did,” Foster said. “It was the same thing that we’ve been doing, just doing it at a very high level.”

While the Ironmen coaching philosophy hasn’t changed much in 25 seasons, the talent on the Ironmen’s roster has. 

Schematically, Foster said, Witzig thrives on being able to get the most out of each and every athlete every season.

“I think one of the things that I’ve really been impressed with is how he’s adapted and changed based on his personnel,” Foster said. “Some of our most successful teams were very unathletic, very slow, very methodical. And then, as the roster has changed, and we’ve had teams with a lot of talent, a lot of athleticism.”

While the core tenets of Ironmen basketball remain the same, Foster said, Witzig has made adjustments “to best utilize those players.”

“He’s always about what’s best for the team,” Foster said, “and at the same time, what’s best for individuals.” 

Schweinberg echoed that idea. 

“I think he does a great job of making everybody feel involved and part of the whole process,” Schweinberg said.

This year’s uniquely talented squad has yet again forced the head coach to show his ability to alter the game plan while staying true to the team’s core philosophy. 

“We have a lot of different guys that can score, and we can get a score in a hurry,” Witzig said. “It’s fun because, in the past, we’ve had to really work the ball around getting to the right guy at the right time, but these guys can create off the dribble.”

“Braylon, Nico, Jaheem, Noah and Kobe are forces in the paint,” Witzig said. “Teams have to worry about them.”

Despite the 2023-24 roster’s explosiveness on offense, you won’t see the Ironmen blowing up the strategies that have proven successful time and time again. 

Take a look at a practice plan this season, and you won’t see the Ironmen skimping on passing drills because Ironmen basketball means “shar[ing] the ball on offense,” Witzig said. 

An extra pass, the team’s “hard-nosed” man-to-man defense, those fundamentals might mean the difference in a game come late February when the wins are more than mere milestones. 

“We have a good chance to have a really nice season,” Witzig said. “But as everybody knows, March is crazy. They call it March Madness for a reason. Anything can happen on any night.”

Success is not about chances; it’s about execution. Success is about what a team does on the floor at the end of four quarters, 48 minutes. 

Right now, Witzig is measuring success by looking forward, not back.  

Witzig is focused on the next win rather than the last. Five hundred wins are in the past.

“Our goal is to keep getting better, [to] get stronger…,[to] keep working on our skill,” Witzig said, “so in March, we’re playing our best basketball.” 

Witzig looks for win 501 when the 12-1 Ironmen host the Champaign Central Maroons (8-8) on Friday, Jan. 5th at 7:30 p.m.