The loafers he wears to Warsaw's boys basketball games, assistant coach Hal Gunter said he's had them re-soled two or three times.
The elbows of his gray suit coat have worn thin, while his black slacks and black shirt have faded.Gunter has donned that same outfit for years, and he'll wear it again Saturday night when the Class 4A No. 6 Tigers (23-2) meet the third-ranked Indianpolis North Central Panthers (24-3) in the state championship game at approximately 8:30 p.m. at Conseco Fieldhouse.
"Clothes have never meant that much to me," said Gunter, a 1965 graduate of Claypool High School, where he played on some pretty good Knights teams with Kosciusko County legend and Indiana All-Star Charlie McKenzie. "It works, it's been good to me over the years. That outfit has seen a lot of wins."
Warsaw is making its first trip to Indianapolis since Kevin Ault and Co. led the Tigers to the Final Four in 1996 in the old one-class, four-team state finals format.
The Tigers are playing in the state championship game for the first time since they won the tournament in 1984 with standouts Jeff Grose and Marty Lehman.
Gunter has been an assistant coach for Warsaw for 29 years, and Saturday will be the fifth time he has been to Indianapolis with Tigers, who beat Carroll 58-53 in last week's semistate at Huntington North. Warsaw also won semistate championships in 1981, 1984, 1992 and 1996.
"I'm very happy for this group of young men," said Gunter, who is also known to reach into the left pocket of his suit coat and pass out mints. "I've encouraged them in practice this week to stay focused on our purpose so we prepare ourselves correctly."
Gunter joined the staff in the spring of 1980, accepting the junior varsity head coaching position the day Al Rhodes was hired to take over the varsity reins from Jim Miller.
Rhodes, who coached the Tigers for 22 years and who was indcuted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Wednesday evening, and Gunter played in an adult basketball league together.
They shared a love for the game game and a desire to win a state championship.
The night Rhodes was named the varsity coach of the Tigers, he called Gunter and asked him to be his junior varsity coach.
And the rest, they say, is history.
Quite a bit of history, in fact, as Gunter has been a part of 17 sectional championships, eight regional titles five semistate crowns and the 1984 state championship.
In his time at Warsaw Community High School, Gunter has seen two Mr. Basketballs and six Indiana All-Stars come through the program.
While Gunter has enjoyed all the wins and on-court successes of Tiger Basketball that he has been a part of, it's the success of the players off the court that he's the most interested in.
In Gunter's own words, "it's about the boys on the bus."
"You wanna know Hal Gunter," the assistant coach asks as he leans closer, "it's about the boys on the bus. In the end, the win-loss record won't really matter. There won't be any time on the clock, they'll close the scorebook and the game will be over. And what really matters then are the boys on the bus. I've been blessed to coach here a long time and be around some great players and some great teams, but in the end, what matters are these young men. They'll go to college, if that's what they choose to do. They'll have families and careers, and hopefully give back to the community. That's what really matters, it's about the boys on the bus."
