Published: December 19, 2006 10:24 am      

Bethany coach Buller near 300-win plateau

Fans of the Bethany Christian High School boys basketball team had reason to celebrate on “Alumni Night” Saturday when the Bruins defeated Prairie Heights, 48-47, on a buzzer-beater by senior David Plaster.

They have another justification for commemorating the occasion since the victory was the 297th of veteran coach Jim Buller’s 27-year career at the school.

The leaves him just three wins shy of joining the cherished 300-win club.

It also moves Buller into second place on the all-time winningest Elkhart County Coaches list. Buller passed Les McCuen who amassed 296 victories in four years at Bristol and 19 at Concord.

John Longfellow heads the list with 364 wins in four campaigns at Nappanee and 19 at Elkhart.

Buller is 43rd in wins among active Indiana coaches.

Pat Rady (currently at Cloverdale) and Jim Jones (currently at Terre Haute North) share the top spot with 658. Jack Edison of Plymouth is ninth at 526, Dan Gunn of NorthWood 15th at 439, former Warsaw coach Al Rhodes now at Logansport 16th at 435 and Dean Foster of Penn 20th at 395.

Everingham Update

Former Goshen assistant coach Jon Everingham has a 4-1 record in his first season coaching the Argos Dragons.

Argos defeated Bremen 44-27, River Forest 51-27, LaVille 45-37 and Marquette Catholic 67-52. The Dragons’ only loss was to Marquette Catholic 43-33 in the Northland Conference tournament.

Among other coaches around the state with ties to the local area, former Concord assistant Rodney Klein is off to a 6-1 start at Connersville, former Bethel College assistant Scott LaPlace 3-2 at Fremont, former Goshen coach Marty Gaff is 1-5 at Kouts, former Prairie Heights coach Tom Wells is 4-2 at LaPorte and former Wawasee coach Gary Goshert 2-5 at Manchester. Also, former Wawasee coach Robb Berger is 1-5 at Mishawaka, former Concord coach Ron Dietz 1-4 at Mishawaka Marian, former Fairfield coach Scott Miller 2-4 at Seymour, former Westview player Adam Bontreger is 1-5 at Southern Wells and former East Noble coach Marty Johnson 0-4 at Whiteland.

West Noble was a 66-51 Northeast Corner Conference winner at Central Noble Saturday. The Chargers led by seven after three periods before outscoring their hosts 21-13 in the fourth.

Junior Jeff Wysong scored 18 points, senior Drew Preston 14 and class Chris Smith 13 for the winners.

Respond: (574) 533-2151, ext. 326

greg.keim@goshennews.com