Commentary: Remembering Coaching Great Paul Hatcher

By Hubert F. Grim III
Special to City-CountySports.com and VirginiaPreps.com

The final horn has sounded on Paul Hatcher's life, but the legacy he created will live on for generations.

Hatcher, who made the boys basketball program at Staunton's Robert E. Lee High School synonymous with excellence, died Friday morning - August 25, 2023 - at age 80 after an extended illness. He left behind memories and numbers for the ages.

The numbers speak for themselves during his 43 years of stalking the sideline:

· Career record of 897-174, which translates into a mind-numbing .838 winning percentage.

· Four State Championships (1984, 1990, 2004, 2005)

· Five State Runner-up (1970, 1971, 1987, 1991, 2006)

· Winning seasons: All 43

· Elected to five Halls of Fame: National High School Athletic Coaches Association, Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, Virginia High School League, Bridgewater College, Robert E. Lee/Booker T. Washington

Those are just a few of the numbers. There are simply too many to list.

The memories will vary widely from each person that had the opportunity to meet the man. I am going to take a few minutes to share my memories from a little kid through my time covering him and the Leemen for The News Leader.

Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s as the son of the sports editor at The News Leader, I was able to tag along with my father, Hubert F. Grim Jr., to the games he was covering. Of course I could only attend the Friday night games because there was no school the next day.

I remember sitting in the stands with my mother at University Hall watching the Leemen absolutely crush Northside 88-58 for the state 1-B championship in 1967 as a wide-eyed 7-year-old. At that time Lee was coached by Milnes Austin, who left after the season. I guess that was the time I grew to become a follower of Lee basketball.

After Delmer Botkin coached the 1967-68 team, Botkin moved into the school's administration and the Paul Hatcher Era was born. No one in there wildest dreams could envision what unfolded over the next 43 years.

Of course as a little kid I had no clue who Paul Hatcher was nor did I care. I just wanted to watch basketball.

That perception all changed when I suffered a horrific eye injury on our family farm in January 1970. I lost my right eye and was laid up for a few weeks.

When my parents finally agreed I could start going back out with my father to basketball games, naturally we went to Lee. Unbeknownst to me, there was a reason that night.

Back then my father didn't allow me to follow him into the locker room after games while he interviewed the coaches. I had to wait in the bleachers and I better not move a muscle out there if I ever wanted to go to any more games.

On this particular night as my mother and I waited, the locker room door swung open and I was suddenly summoned into the locker room by my father. He escorted me into the team room (known as the Blue Room) where all the players, Hatcher and his coaching staff were assembled. The players presented me a ball that read '1969-70 Fighting Leemen' and had been signed by each player and coach. That ball is still displayed in my bedroom today.

That night was the beginning of a long and memorable relationship with Hatcher. Now I cared.

I begged my father to cover more Lee games to some success, especially since Lee made the State Finals in 1970 and 1971 only to come up short. Needless to say, I was devastated.

Those were the years Lee played in Group AAA against teams from the Roanoke area. Let me tell you those were the days of fierce, high-level and high-emotion basketball. I vividly remember Jefferson Senior, which to a small boy looked like overgrown men. The Magicians had that swagger, beating Lee three times, but then came the fourth time in the regional championship in University Hall.

That swagger suddenly burst when Tom 'Mouse' Patterson hit two free throws with 27 seconds left to break a 48-all tie and send Lee to the state tournament and mighty Jefferson Senior home.

When I started college in 1977, I went from spectator to covering games. Now I was doing the interviewing after games instead of just saying “Hello.” That could have been a dicey transition, but Hatcher made it seamless at least with me.

Hatcher wasn't overly friendly with outside media. He kept most at arm's length, giving the basic coachspeak in interviews after games. He never was that way with my father or me. We spent more time shooting the breeze after games than talking about the game itself. Not so much after those rare losses.

Hatcher was also notorious for disappearing after games. On the road, it was like playing 'Where's Waldo.' I would go on the hunt at the road schools until I finally tracked him down, which was usually in a secluded, dimly lit area. The other reporters would be waiting outside the locker room for his exit. He was never going be coming out of there. That simply wasn't going to happen.

At Lee, he eventually turned a storage room in a off-the-beaten-path hallway that led out to a backdoor into his office. He quickly retreated there after games. The door always locked and definitely no identifying name on the door. Again outside media seldom found his office although a few learned over time.

The entire arc of Hatcher's career was special, but to me there are a few times that stood out above all else.

The honestly don't remember a great deal of details about the 1970 and 1971 teams that made state championship games. Blame it on age.

The Big Mike Madden-Ralph Sampson Era starts it all off for me in the late 1970s. That was the infant stages of a glorious time for basketball up and down the Shenandoah Valley. In my opinion, the late 1970s into the middle 1980s were the heyday of high school hoops in the Valley region. The talent level back then has been unsurpassed since.

Madden and Sampson set the table with two fantastic years of epic clashes. They played five times their junior seasons, including a special playoff that was moved to University Hall and sold the place out.

The next Madden up, Kevin, who became a McDonald's All-American, brought Hatcher his first championship in 1984 with an undefeated season in Group AA. Everyone clamored to see Madden play. I remember Long Island Lutheran, which had All-American Marco Baldi, who played his college ball at St. John's, and future Davidson College head coach Bob McKillop as the head coach, coming to town in 1985 and the line to get into the game stretched all the way from the gym doors passed the front of the entire school and around the south side of the building.

Lee and Long Island Lutheran played twice in a span of a few days, and the Leemen won both games as part of a 52-game winning streak.

Then came the 1990 unbeaten State Group AA Championship squad. I will argue to my final breath that this team was the best Hatcher ever had. It completely overwhelmed every opponent. Just once did a team come within single-digits. From the opening tip to the final horn, it was all business for those guys.

The next 13 years didn't bring any championships, but then the mid-2000s rolled around and history was about to unfold before our shocked eyes.

On a late December night in 2003, Lee lost to Culpeper, 66-63, in the semifinals of a holiday tournament being played at Monticello High School. The Leemen responded in the third-place game by routing Albemarle 86-55.

What seemed like nothing more than a routine victory, turned into the unthinkable. Lee didn't stop winning. It won the rest of the games that season for a state title.

The next season followed with all wins and a state title. The next year after that was all wins until the State Championship and a possible threepeat when Hatcher's kryptonite, Martinsville, ended history. The Bulldogs always had a way of ruining things for Hatcher in state play.

That 85-game winning streak was something to behold. I probably covered 75-80 of those games. I nor anyone else will ever get to witness something like that again.

Now that I write that statement, how can I forget Robert Casto's football dynasty at Riverheads, and the Gladiators' 50-plus game winning streak and seven straight state titles?

We aren't going to see anything like that again in basketball, football or any other high school sports in our lifetimes.

Since Hatcher announced his retirement on Oct. 11, 2011, change was inevitable.

Hatcher's oldest son, Jarrett, moved over one seat into the big chair. He added to the family legacy by winning the Class 2 State Championship in 2017.

Terrell Mickens, who was a hard-nosed defensive stalwart, a trademark Paul Hatcher adored in his players, has coached his alma mater since the 2017-18 season when he guided the Leemen into the state finals his inaugural year.

Also since Hatcher retired, the school has changed its name to Staunton.

Despite the new directions on different fronts, the Hatcher name will forever loom large over the school, and in particular the basketball program.

What amazed me most about Hatcher was his ability to produce a winning season for 43 straight years. That is a tremendous accomplishment because the talent level ebbs and flows through the years in high school. He had those years where the talent wasn't at its best, but he managed to make those teams into winners.

Hatcher was a fiery competitor as displayed by his famous foot stomps of disapproval that could easily be heard over the roar of the crowd. When you heard a foot stomp, you knew one of his players or a referee was about to get an earful.

It was that competitive drive and the pride each player had in wearing the Lee uniform which kept the program at its elite status.

I love sports because of its unpredictability. The intrigue as we worked to a finite outcome. Never knowing on a given night what you might witness from an individual or a team. Definitely beats sitting through mundane meetings listening to politicians.

Thank you Paul Hatcher for playing a role in helping a little kid affirm what turned into a career path.

RIP, my friend.

*** To contact Hubert, e-mail hgrimiii@yahoo.com ***