His 540 wins and 42 years as a coach both rank near the top of the list for South Dakota coaches, but Claremont native Frank Cutler will be recognized this week for something more important – his impact and influence on his athletes and community.
Cutler, who has served as the head basketball coach at Platte since 1989, will be presented with the Larry Luitjens Coach of Influence Award during halftime of the second semifinal game at the Class A state basketball tournament in Sioux Falls on Friday. The award is presented to one active boys’ basketball coach and one active girls basketball coach each year.
Luitjens, a Britton native, is the all-time wins leader in South Dakota basketball history. In describing the late coaching legend, family members said he understood the power of positive words and spoke life into his players, often going the extra mile to ensure his players and their families had all they needed to be truly successful not just on the floor, but in life.
“Any time your name gets associated with the Luitjens family and Larry Luitjens it’s pretty neat,” said Cutler. “I’m very honored to be a recipient of the award.”
Allen Weier, who served as an assistant coach under Cutler for 24 years, said that Luitjens actually helped kick-start Cutler’s success in Platte during his first year in 1989.
“We had a fairly young team that year but ended up sneaking into the state tournament, playing Luitjens’ undefeated Custer team in the first game. We led them in the fourth quarter before they ended up winning and won the state title. But once you have some success, people see that and start to believe a little bit, and it carries over from there.”
Cutler, a 1978 Langford High School graduate, grew up in a sports-oriented family and the coaching bug bit him pretty early in life.
Started Coaching Little League Baseball
“I was always interested in sports and my first experience was helping my older brother, Steve, with Little League baseball. That was kind of the start of it.
Then my main coach in high school, Calvin Aas, was a big role model for me, and I coached Teener baseball in Groton for three years when I was in college and playing baseball at South Dakota State University.”
Cutler graduated from SDSU with a degree in physical education and health in 1983 and when he got his first job as a physical education teacher at Watertown he knew he wanted to coach, serving as a junior varsity and sophomore coach in Watertown for six years before taking the basketball job at Platte.
Now, 39 years later, after compiling a 540-264 record, winning a Class A state basketball championship in 2008, earning Coach of the Year honors in 2008 and receiving SDSU’s Ralph Ginn Coaching Award, he is still making a difference for his athletes and community.
Winning Doesn’t Just Happen
“There’s a lot of pressure that comes with having a winning program year after year,” said Jordan Johnson, who played for Cutler from 2005-2009. “It doesn’t just happen. There is a lot of discipline and sacrifice that goes into those teams. When you say it takes blood, sweat, and tears, that’s real life, and it’s the coach that creates that culture. He is a big reason that there is an expectation in Platte that we will have winning programs and the kids learn to be winners at life. I hope people don’t take for granted what he has meant to our community.”
Cutler is a stickler for detail, and he preaches the importance of doing the little things the right way.
“I think my players would first of all describe me as very competitive, and I’m kind of a stickler for trying to do things right. Sports, obviously, isn’t a perfect world, but we’re always trying to do things as well as we can. If you don’t do the fundamental things correctly they turn into big things and problems.”
Carter Kemnitz has seen Cutler in action both as a player (2006-10) and now as his assistant coach.
“Frank has always been kind of no-nonsense, intense, and just always on task, and he says that how you do anything is how you do everything. There’s never a second of wasted time and everything is an emphasis on skills and development. He holds each kid to a higher standard whether it’s in practice, school, or in their life, and that’s the same way he lives his life. He never expects anything more of the kids than what he is willing to do for you and leads by example. That’s how he coaches, teaches, and who he is in the community.”
Part of that process also involves Cutler’s emphasis on team-building and putting players in positions to help make a team the best it can be.
“I think it’s very important that everybody understand their role,” stressed Cutler. “Not everybody gets to be the guy that shoots more of the shots, and kids don’t always like the role they have to play, but that’s something we always promote that helps a team have more success along the way.”
Johnson, who now works for the Rapid City Fire Department, points to Cutler’s ability to create a team atmosphere as having a direct impact on his life.
“I have wanted to be part of a team essentially my whole life, and Frank was probably the coach that had the biggest influence,” said Johnson, who played college football at Sioux Falls College. “He has always advocated playing multiple sports and learning how to integrate into a team atmosphere because more than likely you will be part of a team at some point going forward in your life. I feel super blessed, and I’m raising my boys the same way.”
There are rules when you put the team first.
“A group of us were hanging out at the coach’s house on New Year’s Eve and we were there past midnight which was past our team curfew,” added Johnson. “At our next practice Coach Cutler said, ‘If you were at my house past midnight, you know the drill.’ And we had to run laps. There were rules and if you broke them you had to pay the penalty.”
Influence Goes Far Beyond Court
Cutler’s influence has spread much farther than just the basketball court. In addition to coaching junior high football, golf, and baseball and serving as athletic director his hand can be felt around the community.
“You can always go to Frank,” said Kemnitz. “It’s just the kind of person he is, and anybody who knows him would say the same thing. And it’s not just basketball. There is not a sport in our school that he hasn’t impacted in a positive way. If you go anywhere and tell someone you’re from Platte, they all say, ‘Say hi to Frank.”
After 42 years Cutler has some very simple advice to someone just beginning a coaching career.
“You just have to block out some of the outside influences and do what you think is right, both for the team and for the individual kids on the team,” concluded Cutler. “And you have to enjoy the competitiveness, love the game, and love trying to get the kids to see how good they can be.”
