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West Aurora does it right for Kerkman

Go figure. Gordie Kerkman couldn't remember a thing about his first win, but he had no trouble remembering his first loss.

Proviso West, 1976, back at Batavia's season-opening Thanksgiving tournament.

“At the buzzer,” Kerkman recalled.

Isn't that typical of a coach?

For the record, Kerkman's first win came in the next game of that tournament against Wheeling. And they have kept coming and coming ever since, now at 700 following a 46-41 win over Naperville North Friday night.

“Seven hundred wins, that is pretty incredible and coach Kerkman is a class act,” Naperville North coach Jeff Powers said. “I just wish he would have got the milestone against someone else. He's a friend, and that is a milestone. Those are legend numbers.”

The 700th win looked a lot like many of the 699 before it, other than a few more turnovers by his team than usual and a few more photographers snapping photos of Kerkman in the huddle during timeouts.

A milestone like this doesn't come around every day. And with longtime St. Charles coach Ron Johnson and his 710 wins, our little area of the state is now lucky enough to call home to two of only 14 coaches ever to win that many games.

In a well-done postgame ceremony, players presented Kerkman a huge framed West Aurora white home jersey with the No. 700 on it.

Before that, the voice of the Blackhawks Neal Ormond read a letter from Illinois coach Bruce Weber.

“Congratulations on a Hall of Fame career and the 700th win, your dedication to basketball and student-athletes is very admirable. Again, congratulations on the 700th win and good luck the remainder of the season,” wrote Weber.

One of those former players on hand, Kenny Battle, certainly spoke to that dedication.

“You can tell by all the former players who came out,” Battle said. “He had all the respect from his former players and all of them who played for him have nothing but good words to say about him.”

What's changed through the years? Ask Battle and he says his former coach has mellowed.

“I told Kenny Jr. ‘You have the milder coach Kerkman,” Battle said of his son who is a junior on this year's West Aurora team. “I had the fierce coach Kerkman. He's older, he's wiser, he's smarter so he's calmed down a lot.”

Battle told a story about his senior year in 1984.

“I can remember once and it was bad outside and he told the whole team we had to be in film session at 5:30,” Battle said. “Everybody showed up at 5:35 and he just went off. He didn't coach us. He said, ‘You guys think you are so smart and so good you coach yourselves.' We was up 14-0 before he called a timeout and took over. We were like ‘Coach, Why did you call a timeout?'

“He was great. Nothing but total respect for him and the West Aurora program and all the kids come through. You go to the gym today and players that graduated two or three years ago and they pride themselves on West Aurora defense and the way West Aurora plays as a team. It shows all the respect all the players still have for him today.”

It was an awfully impressive job by West Aurora with its celebration Friday, which only made me wonder how they are going to top this for No. 800.

Turns out Kerkman is only worried about Wheaton North next Friday.

“I'm not thinking 800 at all,” Kerkman said. “I'm thinking No. 3 (DVC wins). Get the next one.”

Spoken like a typical coach even if Kerkman is anything but.

jlemon@dailyherald.com