By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
When Dixie Heights boys’ basketball coach Ken Chevalier found out he was going to be honored along with the six seniors on his roster at the team’s final home game, he didn’t want to draw attention away from the players.
“I wanted to defer everything away from me,” said Chevalier, who’s retiring from coaching after this season ends. “I told them a while back that I don’t want anything big (for me). I’m not that type of person. I’d rather the focus be where it needs to be, and that’s on the kids.”
The 51-year-old coach’s modesty is commendable, but he does deserve some recognition for what he has accomplished in 13 seasons with the Dixie Heights program before the mad rush of the post-season playoffs begins next week.
The Colonels are the No. 1 seed in the 34th District tournament bracket. That means they’re one win away from making it to the 9th Region tournament for the 13th consecutive year under Chevalier.
In the 12 previous regional tournament appearances, his teams made it to the semifinals six times and won the championship in 2011 to earn a berth in the “Sweet 16” state tournament for the first time in 54 years.
Chevalier will retire as the winningest coach in the history of the Dixie Heights boys’ basketball program with a 250-141 record that includes seven seasons with 20 or more wins. He also coached the all-time leading scorer in the history of 9th Region boys’ basketball, Brandon Hatton, who netted 3,045 points in six varsity seasons.
“I really have been blessed,” Chevalier said of his coaching career. “I’ve had good (school) administrators and the support of my assistant coaches. I’ve had good talent to coach and I’ve worked hard to try and put all the pieces together. It ‘s been a great opportunity and I’m certainly blessed to have had that opportunity.”
Chevalier played basketball at Lloyd High School and was a starting guard on the 1983 regional runner-up team. While he was attending college, he became a basketball official and worked high school varsity games for 12 years before two knee surgeries ended that career.
He returned to college to get a teaching degree and joined the coaching staff at Dixie Heights when he was 34 years old. Five years later, he became the head coach of the Colonels and his first team made it to the regional semifinals to cap off a 25-win season.
Three of his next five teams finished the season with a losing record before the Colonels won the 2011 9th Region championship game in a four-overtime thriller against Newport Central Catholic.
“Most people would say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to be most proud of that regional championship,’ but I think it was the other teams that weren’t expected to do well and we got the most out of their talent,” Chevalier said. “When you take a group of kids that’s got lower expectations and they do some neat things, that’s when you really feel good about yourself.”
The final chapter of Chevalier’s coaching career has been going well. With four senior starters leading the way, the Colonels set a team record for most wins in the regular season with a 25-5 record and their 49.8 defensive average is among the best in the state.
All five of Dixie Heights’ losses came against opponents ranked among the top 20 in the state. The most recent ones were to Covington Catholic and Cooper, the top two contenders for the 9th Region title going into the playoffs.
“I’ve been saying all season long that we’re Northern Kentucky’s other team,” Chevalier said. “It’s Cooper and CovCath, and then there’s us. We know it would be difficult to go through both of them so a lot of things have to fall in line for us. First, we have to take care of things in our district and then we’ll take our chances with the (regional) draw and see what happens.”
After his coaching career ends, Chevalier plans to get into school administration. He said it’s the right time for him to make a career move because he “needs to be re-energized and do something different.”
He just wants this basketball season to end on a positive note for the six senior players who shared the spotlight with him at the team’s last home game.
“We’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing and see how the season ends up,” Chevalier said. “I won’t say this is a team of destiny, but there’s just been a lot of neat things that have happened this year and I don’t want it to end right now.”