By RICHIE HALL
Hamilton Southeastern girls basketball coach Chris Huppenthal is retiring.
The longtime Royals coach announced his decision earlier this week during the Royals’ girls basketball season-ending banquet. With that, Huppenthal took his final bow in a remarkable, highly successful career that has seen him win numerous championships – including a state title for Southeastern – and coach several Indiana All-Stars – including a Miss Basketball.
Huppenthal has been a basketball coach for 31 years, including 25 years as a head coach. He called his decision to retire “a family decision,” and acknowledged that a basketball coach puts in many hours, noting that some people would say it’s a second job. Huppenthal also teaches math at Hamilton Southeastern; he will continue to teach at the school.
Chris Huppenthal’s daughter Kalee played basketball for the Royals. She lives in Denver now. His son Cody was a football player, he will be a senior at Indiana University next year.
“I’ve been coaching since they were born, so they really don’t know this life or my life any different,” said Huppenthal. The coach said that when family members start to move away time becomes “a little bit more precious.”
Huppenthal just finished his 16th season as a coach for the Royals. He joined the team in the 2005-06 season after spending the 2004-05 season at Kokomo, where he supervised the Wildkats to a 19-6 record and a regional title. Prior to that, Huppenthal coached for eight seasons at his alma mater, Highland, leading it to four regional titles.
Once at Southeastern, Huppenthall had immediate success there as well. His first team compiled a 22-4 record and won a regional championship. The Royals would then win a sectional title in 2006-07, finishing 25-1 for the year.
That was just the beginning of a long run for HSE. In Huppenthal’s 16 seasons, the Royals never had a losing record. He also coached the 2018-19 team to a 27-1 record and the Class 4A state championship.
Huppenthall finished his career with a 282-86 record at Southeastern and was 457-124 overall.
“Coach Hupp is a leader in our athletic department, he is a Hall of Fame basketball coach, but more importantly he is a Hall of Fame educator and person,” said Southeastern athletic director Jim Self. “He will be a tremendous asset for our next head coach, he wants nothing more than to see our program succeed at the highest level.”
“I appreciate our athletic directors, our administration, the support from the community for our girls basketball program,” said Huppenthal. “And if anybody asks me if this is a good job, or a good situation, it would be an emphatic ‘yes.’ I say that on many levels. The kids are awesome. I can say that one of the things that made the decision hard is to walk away from the kids we were coaching.”
Southeastern has had some incredible players come through its program over the years. Huppenthal coached four Indiana All-Stars: Courtney Osborn, Taya Reimer, Amaya Hamilton and Sydney Parrish, who won Miss Basketball for 2020 and is having a standout freshman season at the University of Oregon.
“When you’re in the coaching world, if you’re not dealing with good kids and good families, it can make for a miserable situation. But I’ve been fortunate that in the 16 years I’ve been here, we’ve had some incredible kids with some very supportive families. As I look back on my career, I wouldn’t change one thing in that I got to move our family to this community and this school system,” said Huppenthal.
In addition to the four All-Stars at HSE, Huppenthal also coached an Indiana All-Star at Highland, Jenny DeMuth. She is now the athletic director at Shelbyville High School. Seeing his players succeed in life after high school has been one of the more gratifying experiences for Huppenthal.
“It’s one of the things that really, you look back on a career and makes you smile,” said Huppenthal. “A lot of people think coaches are in it for the wins and losses.” Instead, Huppenthal said that seeing his players come back and then seeing how successful they are is more exhilarating than any win or personal accomplishments.
“I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of my past players move on to bigger and better things than winning basketball games,” said Huppenthal. “And that’s exciting.”
Huppenthal will now be adjusting to a new schedule come the fall, one where the first day of Fall Break is, for him, no longer the first day of practice. No more Thanksgiving week swings where he coaches the Royals against Carmel on Friday afternoon after a tough game with Brownsburg on Tuesday. The coach acknowledged the Bulldogs, a fellow Hoosier Crossroads Conference team, making the Class 4A state finals. “Good luck to them Saturday,” he said.
But Huppenthal will always be a Royals fan, and would encourage anyone to apply for the Royals girls basketball coaching job. He noted three aspects that make Hamilton Southeastern a good place.
“The biggest advice I’d give to them is, it’s a great place to teach, it’s a great place to coach and it’s an awesome place to raise your family,” said Huppenthal.