‘What a magical ride it’s been’: Matt Winkler closes in on the end of amazing 30-year run leading Fieldcrest

Ask most 7- or 8-year-old boys what they want to be when they grow up, and you may get a different answer every day.

If you had asked Matt Winkler that question when he was a third grader, however, his answer would have remained constant.

“I had two older brothers, Mickey and Steve, and they played sports,” said Winkler, who has been the only head coach of the Fieldcrest boys basketball program since the high school’s formation in 1992-93. “As a kid, I watched a lot of sports on television and watched them play.

“I just knew from that early age that I wanted to coach.”

Over the past three decades, Winkler’s teams have won 612 games against only 218 losses, along the way winning 19 holiday tournaments (including 12 Colmone Classics), eight conference tournaments, 14 regular-season league titles, 14 regional championships (six of those in the two-class system), a pair of sectional titles and making two IHSA Elite Eight appearances.

“We always break huddles and the end of practices by saying, ‘Family!’ and that’s how I want them to feel about being in this program. The Fieldcrest boys basketball program has always felt like my baby, and it’s bittersweet to have to give it up and retire.”

—  IBCA Hall of Fame coach Matt Winkler

“I just always try to put the kids in the best position for them to be successful,” said Winkler, whose teams have won 20 or more games in a season 18 times against only two losing seasons. “I always want them to feel like they are a part of something special.

“We always break huddles and the end of practices by saying, ‘Family!’ and that’s how I want them to feel about being in this program. The Fieldcrest boys basketball program has always felt like my baby, and it’s bittersweet to have to give it up and retire.

“But that said, it’s time for me to hand the reins to the next guy.”

Winkler grew up in Lacon. Playing sports with his friends was an everyday routine.

“Matt was always a very good athlete and really good in every sport he played,” classmate and lifelong friend Roger Boswell said. “We were always playing some kind of game all the time, whether it was basketball, whiffle ball or you name it.”

Boswell and Winkler were both part of Mid-County High School hoops teams that went 30-0 combined as freshmen and sophomores. Their senior year in 1980, the team – under coach Ralph Hallam – won the Tri-County Conference Tournament (first time in 28 years) and a regional championship (first in 24 years).

“Ralph Hallam was an old-school coach who had high expectations for all of us,” Boswell said. “You came to practice ready to practice. He was a role model for all of us.

“I’m so proud to have been Matt’s friend most of my life and so proud of all the accomplishments he’s made as a coach. He deserves all the praise and respect he receives.”

“Ralph Hallam came into my life at the exact right time,” Winkler said. “My dad died when I was in eighth grade, and Ralph moved next door that summer. He was more than a coach to me. He was a father figure when I needed one. He stepped right in.

“I’ve been blessed with really good timing through my life, that’s for sure.”

After graduating from Illinois State University in 1988, Winkler’s first teaching/coaching positions were leading the girls softball and basketball programs as well as boys baseball at Tonica High School. He spent the next two years as the boys basketball junior varsity coach at Woodland School, with his first team finishing the season 22-2 with three tournament titles.

“The biggest thing he taught us was respect, that it wasn’t given, but it was earned,” said Kevin Derossett, a sophomore that first season. “I really don’t think his style of coaching now is any different than it was then. Up-tempo, tough full-court defense and outworking the opponent in any way possible.

“We were fortunate to have him as our coach, even if was for a short time. I still talk to many of the guys that were on that team, and we all talk about still using some of the life lessons he taught us way back then.

“He expected a lot out of you, and you wanted to reach those expectations. We’d have run through a brick wall for him.”

Heading into the 1992-93 school year, the new Fieldcrest school district, coming about from the consolidation of the Minonk-Dana-Rutland, Toluca and Wenona high schools, was looking for a coach to start the program.

Winkler was that coach.

“Looking back on that first year as Fieldcrest, and now being a coach for a number of years, that was an amazing feat to navigate that process,” said Kurt Barth, a junior on that first FHS team who has been the head coach for the Eureka College football team the past 13 years. “We really had nearly 15 guys that had been starters, a handful more that had been sixth men and a ton of talented players that were now all on one team.

“But he made it work and really got the program started in the right direction from Day 1.”

That first season the Knights finished a solid 18-7, and the following season 22-3 with a pair of titles.

“The success he has had over a 30-year career is truly unbelievable. ...” Barth said. “With all the wins and championships he has been a part of, I think it’s the footprint on so many lives he’s had, and to me that’s the most important thing when talking about coach Winkler. He’s made a positive impact on so many people through his coaching. He just had the ability to bring the best out of you.”

Along his coaching journey, Winkler has matched wits many times with Hall of Fame coaches Rodney Kellar (Ridgeview), Tim Meiss (Eureka) as well as Hallam – those three have combined for more than 1,800 coaching wins. Winkler also has had to game plan for Tim’s son Nathaniel’s teams, first at Lexington and for the past 13 years at archrival El Paso-Gridley.

“I think when you are game planning against a team like Fieldcrest and a coach whose seen about everything there is to see in a basketball game, you first are trying to get your own team ready,” said Nathaniel Meiss, who played for his father at Eureka during Winkler’s first two seasons at Fieldcrest. “But after that, I at least think about what the other coach’s tendencies are.

“With coach Winkler, you knew they were going to come out and defend the heck out of you ... and keep coming after you, make the game physical, maybe even super muddy, but they were going to compete from start to finish. He is always that guy that would help you without question – maybe not for the 32 minutes you’re playing his team, but any other time.

“He is such an enjoyable guy to be around, and it’s going to be strange for him not to be in this league anymore.”

Fieldcrest, which has only a handful of regular-season games plus regionals left on the schedule, will hold a celebration of Winkler’s 30 years of educating and coaching Fieldcrest students Friday, when the Knights host Heyworth.

Winkler said he would like to thank everyone who has helped him along the way, but especially those truly close to him.

“I owe everything to my wife, Julie,” Winkler said in a cracked voice. “She has been with me through the ups and downs of life. I probably wouldn’t have gotten through college, or life for that matter, without her. We wouldn’t be talking about the past 30-some years of me coaching if it wasn’t for her. She’s my rock.

“My kids, Michael and Megan, it hasn’t always been been easy to be ‘the coach’s kid,’ but I thank them for going along on this ride with me.

“There have also been so many assistant coaches that have been there for me, and of course, so, so many players that have made this program what it is. I can’t thank them all individually, but I do thank them all for their efforts and anyone else who has helped me along the way.

“What a magical ride it’s been.”