Bob Lutz: Garden Plain can’t turn loose of basketball coach it relishes (+video)

Every year, it seems like, Ken Diskin decides he’s finally finished coaching basketball and some Garden Plain Middle School parent changes his mind.

“He’s the best guy in the world to my kids and my husband and I,” said Joan Pauly, whose third son, Matt, is on Diskin’s eighth-grade team. “We think very highly of him, as do most people in Garden Plain.”

Here’s the kicker: Diskin is 84. He’s been coaching for 53 years. He was the basketball coach at Wichita West from 1969-73 and he still loves coaching the way he did the first time he put a team on the floor.

“It was a calling,” he said. “When I was a little kid, I wanted to be involved in sports.”

He started coaching middle school boys at Garden Plain 11 years ago, as a favor to a friend who was then a school administrator and couldn’t find a coach.

“And here I still am,” Diskin said.

For now, at least. Diskin said his own adult children think it’s time for him to actually invest in the retirement thing. He understands what they’re saying.

“So I think this year will probably be it,” he said.

Time will tell. His Garden Plain team is 12-1 and he’s become such an integral part of the school system and the community that folks can’t imagine being without him.

Even if he and his wife of 37 years, Jimmie Ruth — some call her J.R. — live in Cheney, Garden Plain’s biggest rival and a place he was principal and high school basketball coach after he left West.

“People say, ‘How can you go from Cheney to Garden Plain?’ ” Diskin said. “That’s no problem. I’ve always had friends and people I liked in Garden Plain.”

Diskin, who grew up around Girard, went to high school at St. Paul, got his undergraduate degree from Wichita State and his master’s from Pittsburg State. He has also coached at Tonganoxie and Clearwater, and was an assistant for a while at St. Thomas Aquinas in Overland Park.

“I just like being around kids,” he said. “My wife is the same way and this is something we enjoy.”

Diskin has always been a tough coach and that’s no different now, although his wife said he has mellowed “some.”

Still, he has high demands and expects his players to be respectful and to dress up on game days.

“He has an old-school style and we love it,” Joan Pauly said. “He talks to the players about their manners, respect and having good attitudes. He has a meeting before the season and tells them to be top notch, to play as a team and to not have arguments on the court or off the court. He wants them to work to get along.”

Diskin said he had his first undefeated season two years ago and his teams are consistent winners.

“These kids become a part of our family,” Jimmie Ruth Diskin said. “We enjoy this experience very much.”

The Diskins have even found a way to make Saturday practices enjoyable. And nobody likes Saturday practices.

“But these kids know that I’m going to show up with donuts, white and chocolate milk and orange juice and they can hardly wait,” J.R. said. “We’ve been doing that for years, even with high school kids. They’ve always been so happy to see me because they knew practice was finally going to be over.”

Diskin still wears a suit — or at least a sport coat and tie — to every game. He preaches basketball’s fundamentals from a bygone era and his players get to learn from a man who has been doing this since before their parents were born.

“When you’re coaching junior high kids, you’ve got a lot more to do,” Diskin said. “My wife and I take care of the uniforms, take care of this and that. Everywhere we’ve been we’ve always taken care of the uniforms. I’ve been a stickler — I think you play as you look.”

Diskin said he has somewhere over 600 wins as a basketball coach, although he hasn’t kept track. He’s coached Kirk Doll and Jerry Kill, both of whom became successful football coaches. He had a 51-28 record during his four seasons at West.

“For the past several years, he’s told me he thinks it’s probably time to go,” J.R. said. “And every time, parents come up to him and tell him he has to stay one more year because they have another son they want him to coach. He just loves doing this and teaching the fundamentals. So I don’t know.”

Diskin’s two sons live in Wichita and his daughter lives a block away in Cheney. He has grandchildren and other interests and things he can do.

But he loves kids and loves coaching basketball. He doesn’t talk about his age and is reluctant to divulge a number when asked. He doesn’t believe it’s relevant.

To the people of Garden Plain who want him to continue coaching their kids, it isn’t.

“The kids here look up to him as a father figure, maybe even a grandfather figure,” Pauly said. “He’s tough on them, but they respect that.”

Good luck with those retirement plans, Coach.

This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Garden Plain can’t turn loose of basketball coach it relishes (+video)."