Penn's Hall of Fame boys basketball coach Al Rhodes announces his retirement

MISHAWAKA — Al Rhodes has decided to hang up his coaching whistle.

Rhodes, one of the all-time winningest Indiana high school boys basketball coaches, announced late Tuesday afternoon that his Hall of Fame career is over.

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Rhodes has spent the past 15 seasons at his alma mater Penn High School.

Rhodes has put together an amazing run in his illustrious 42-year prep career at Warsaw, Logansport, Fort Wayne Northrop and Penn. He went 693-320, including 239-128 the past 15 years at Penn.

Rhodes 693 career wins rank him 11^th all time in state history among boys coaches. He was also third among current coaches in wins at the end of the 2022-23 season.

Rhodes, who played at Penn and then at Tri-State University, spent his first 22 seasons from 1980-2002 at Warsaw. He was 405-132 there, including a state championship in 1984. He coached a pair of Mr. Basketballs in Jeff Grose (1985) and Kevin Ault (1996), along with Rick Fox, who went on to play at North Carolina and for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Rhodes final team at Penn went 28-2 overall and won its second straight NIC title during the 2022-23 campaign. The No. 2 Kingsmen won 22 in a row before a 58-57 loss to No. 5 Kokomo in the Class 4A North Semistate title game. Kokomo went on to lose to No. 1 and undefeated Indy Ben Davis in the Class 4A state title game.  Penn's only other loss this past season was to Ben Davis.

Penn's final team featured five senior starters, led by Notre Dame recruit and Mr. basketball frontrunner Markus Burton. The star guard led the state in scoring at 30 ppg. as Penn led the state as a team in scoring and average margin of victory.

The Penn boys basketball program had a combined overall record of 70-3 this past season.  The JV team went 20-1 with just a 46-45 overtime loss to Concord, while the freshman team was 22-0.

Coach Rhodes was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

“Having coached a Final Four team in each of five decades I’ve coached, I don’t think the game ever passed me by” Rhodes said in a statement released by Penn. “I have studied basketball all my life and am extremely proud of my past players and their successes on and off the court. I would also like to thank all my assistant coaches from all the schools I coached at. Also, I worked for great administrators and I appreciate all they did for our programs.

“Dr. Jerry Thacker here at Penn High School has been great to work for. His vision as an educator is tremendous and he brings out the best in all around him”

“It has been a great ride and I have done my best” Rhodes said.

Rhodes, a 1970 Penn High School graduate, had many to thank after his illustrious run.

"In 1967, I met the new Penn High School Coach, Jim Miller," said Rhodes. "Jim taught us about pursuit of excellence and that the Indiana State Championship was the ultimate goal that could be achieved. For the past 56 years, I have pursued that goal with all my heart. The byproduct of what Coach Miller taught me has been a wonderful life. I have tried my best to be the best husband, father, teacher and coach that I could be. I owe everything to my parents, my wife, and Coach Miller.

"I would like to thank my wife Kathy for all of her support through the years. She is a very special person, nurse, mother, and wife. It is not easy being a basketball coach’s wife in Indiana. She has been a great one.

"As a father, I am extremely proud of my two sons, Chris and Curtis. They both understand pursuit of excellence and are building great lives for themselves and their families. I am glad they never complained about all the time I spent coaching.

"My sister Sandi has also added great support through the years. I really appreciate her coming to games and being there for me win or lose.

"When I was a young coach, I was fortunate to learn from the best. Besides Coach Miller, my coach at Tri-State, Mark Peterman, was a great small college coach. From 1975 on I was trained by the best coaches Indiana has ever seen. My first year I worked for Basil Mawbey at Angola High School. Basil is the hardest working coach the state has ever known. I learned from competing against the best coaches in Indiana history: Bill Harrell, Sam Alford, Jim Hammel, Jack Edison, Bill Green to name a few. Finally, the greatest coach ever, John Wooden was a constant influence in our program. The Pyramid of Success always played a major role."

Also from the released statement, Penn Athletic Director Jeff Hart said that Rhodes established a standard of excellence at Penn and in Indiana.

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"Coach Rhodes' legendary career speaks for itself,” Hart said. “As an Indiana High School Basketball Coach for 42 years, he ranks among the all-time successful leaders of the sport in our great state. What can't be measured by wins and losses is the positive impact he's had on countless young people during his career.

“From students in his math classes to the players and coaches in the programs that he's led, he's educated and mentored consistently with a “teacher’s heart,” Hart continued. “I’ve been fortunate to watch his leadership with character approach close up for the last several years and I’m a better person because of it.”

“He believed in me more than anyone in Indiana,” said Burton in the release. "He believed in me as a freshman. I appreciate his strategy for the game, and his relationships with his players. Everyone can relate to him and trust him. He’s helped me be the best I can be every day and taught me to be a leader.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Al Rhodes, longtime Indiana basketball coach, will retire