For FUMA legend Fletcher Arritt, the end of an amazing ride

FORK UNION — The old coach sauntered down the timeworn, wooden floor with military precision, his seasoned eyes not missing a single motion by one of his players.

Visitors can’t help but notice that the coach, dressed in a simple T-shirt and sweat pants, runs the entire practice by himself. No whistle, no watch. Such instruments aren’t required by a coach who has been doing this for 42 years. The routine, which never changes, is all in his head.

Fletcher Arritt, Jr., who has served as Fork Union Military Academy’s post-graduate program’s head coach since 1970, runs an intense practice, but surprisingly to some, no different than the biology class he has taught for even longer. Intensity is a key word when inspecting Arritt’s style.

He believes that coaches are the best teachers because of the pressure to succeed and the expectations of conveying everything they know to their athletes and students.

Arritt, who grew up in West Virginia as a coach’s son and has the DNA to prove it, drills his players daily on the fundamentals, believes strongly in “the passing game,” and would shudder at the notion of playing anything but suffocating man-to-man defense.

No one can challenge the success of his simple formula. Heading into last night’s game against the U.S. Naval Academy’s junior varsity team, Arritt owned a career record at FUMA of 888 wins, 278 losses, staggering numbers that likely will never be matched in these parts again.

During that span, he has coached more than 500 players, hardened by the military lifestyle that goes with an extra year of hoops at the small school in Central Virginia. He has sent countless players on to Division I basketball and seven to the NBA, including Melvin Turpin, Kenny Williams, Chris Washburn and Shammond Williams.

A couple of years ago, Arritt, saluted all over campus and admired by practically every major college basketball coach in the country, said he knew the end was near, that you can’t coach forever.

Now, at age 70 and battling stage three lymphoma cancer, the white-haired dynamo knows his time has come to hang up his sneakers.

“My father coached [basketball] nearly 40 years (and taught biology) and he told me once, ‘You’ll know when it happens. You’ll know when it’s time to do something else,’” Arritt said. “Another thing he said, which I really believe is true is that the older you get, the more perfect you expect your team to play. Well, it just doesn’t work out that way and that’s what kills you the most.”

Arritt, who played at Fork Union before earning a basketball scholarship to the University of Virginia in the early ‘60s, will coach out the season and then turn over the reins of the Blue Devils’ program to his son-in-law, Brooks Berry, who played for Arritt, went on to play for Gale Catlett at West Virginia, then married into the Arritt family.

Monday night is the big farewell at Fork Union. It will be the last home game of Arritt’s fabled career. The entire Corps of Cadets will be there along with several alumni and former players such as Williams, who wore a Lakers uniform, and Harold Deane, who starred at nearby Virginia in the ‘90s.

“Should have picked an easier team to play against,” Arritt chuckled about his 6:45 p.m. date with visiting Fishburne Military School.

Later in the week, the Blue Devils will proudly wear their bright red and white in the Hargrave Military tournament and then finish the storied Arritt career in a doubleheader at Princeton next weekend.

In the meantime, the coach will be fighting his own battle with his condition.

“There’s only one thing worse than cancer and that’s coaching basketball and having cancer,” Arritt said. “But it’s just like anything else. You go out and play. You learn that in athletics. If you’re eight points down at the half, you still have to go out and play. You don’t change anything, you just do what you do.”

When it comes to that particular battle, Arritt listens to only two people: first, Mrs. Arritt; and second, his doctor.

“I’ve had two chemo treatments and I’ve got four coming up,” the coach said.

As one might expect, the outpouring of support has come from every corner of the country. He’s heard from 50 former players already, and of course, the coaches, many of whom have not yet heard the news about the retirement or the cancer.

“I have a stack of cards that I eventually will answer from my players,” Arritt said. “I got a letter today signed by three of them who all said they’re coming back this summer for my induction into the Fork Union Hall of Fame. What they don’t know is that I’m going to ask them for money.”

In recent days, Air Force Academy coach Jeff Reynolds called to offer his support. Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger wrote Arritt a heartfelt note as did Rick Barnes of Texas. Billy Donovan of Florida called the other day.

Fork Union played North Carolina’s JV team last Saturday before the UNC-Virginia game and so Arritt was able to spend some time with Tar Heels coach Roy Williams. The two go back to when Williams was Carolina’s junior varsity coach and he and Arritt used to have some humdingers of games.

“What did I do when you mentioned Fletcher Arritt’s name to me?” Williams questioned this writer. “I smiled. Anybody who knows Fletcher Arritt will do the same thing if you bring up his name because everyone loves and has the ultimate respect for him, not only as a coach, but as a person.”

Minnesota’s Tubby Smith, Barnes, Williams, Donovan, former coach Dave Odom, they all marveled at Arritt’s ability to coach at one institution for more than four decades and remain dedicated.

Even the coach himself could hardly believe it when he looked back at his record.

“That’s a lot of games,” Arritt said, shaking his head. “It’s hard to believe that a guy stood on the sideline and coached over 1,100 games. That would put anybody in the insane asylum.”

He has no regrets and is happy that his son-in-law will take over the program. Because Arritt lives essentially across the street from the Academy, if he misses basketball, he can simply drop by and take in a practice. But he vows to not look over Barry’s shoulder.

“I’m not the kind of person that will have him do the same stuff that I’ve done,” the coach laughed. “He can play a 2-3 zone if he wants and shoot the ball every time he comes up the floor. Doesn’t bother me.”

His current team entered last night’s action with a 16-8 record, and while winning is important it’s not the end all for the veteran coach. The most memorable games in his mind are the ones that got away, one in particular, when one of his teams blew a five-point lead when it had possession of the ball and only 19 seconds remaining on the clock.

That was in 1988.

After next week, Arritt will enjoy his relationship with the 200-year-old Fork Union Baptist Church and focus on his fight with cancer.

At first, he and his wife thought about keeping the news private but then decided to inform the public. The reasoning? Arritt’s upbringing in West Virginia in a time when such things were never mentioned publicly.

“When I was growing up in West Virginia, people would have trouble with their health and they wouldn’t tell anybody, and as a result, I don’t think they had much of a chance to get better,” Arritt explained. “They took it and swallowed it and when they did that, it sort of took them down rather than allowing other people to pick them up.”

There’s thousands now helping pick Arritt up, not that a resilient man of his fortitude would request such support. In fact, he’s hoping his courage will inspire others.

“What I think can happen, is if my players and others see that I can get through it with my attitude, then they’ll have more confidence,” Arritt said. “That’s what I believe in.”

All the while, the old coach will just do what he always does. He likes to say that you just pick up your canoe, go down the river and fish. Nothing exciting about it, you just do it.

Nobody has ever done it better.