Retiring coach has had impact beyond Fork Union

East Carolina athletic director Terry Holland, the former Virginia coach, was there. So were former Wake Forest coach Dave Odom, Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage, American coach Jeff Jones, former University of Richmond coach Bill Dooley, former VCU coach Mack McCarthy, former William and Mary coach Charlie Woollum, some current and past college assistants, and a group of Fork Union Military Academy basketball alumni.

They gathered at a packed bandbox of a gym in this hamlet 55 miles west of Richmond on Monday night to salute Fletcher Arritt, retiring following this season as the coach of FUMA's postgraduate basketball team, which he has directed since 1970.

"We came in love," Odom said.

In a ceremony before FUMA met Fishburne Military Academy in the coach's final home game, Arritt was referred to as a "living legend." Arritt doesn't see it that way, though he coached more than 200 players who went on to Division I, and a handful who made the NBA.

"You come to work each day. You do your job, and then you go home, and you come back the next day, and the first thing you know, it's been 42 years," said Arritt, 70, who teaches biology. "That's about as easy as I can explain it."

FUMA's postgraduate program has been a destination for players who weren't quite ready for Division I basketball, or the DI tier they wished to reach. Guard Harold Deane, for instance, played his senior year at Matoaca High and wasn't satisfied with offers he received from mid-major programs. Deane spent the 1992-93 school year at FUMA, played for Arritt, and became a standout at U.Va.

"It's only right for us to come back and show coach appreciation for everything he's done for people over the years," Deane said.

Ted Jeffries, another former U.Va. standout who played at FUMA, recognized the offense that FUMA was running Monday night in an 80-68 loss because it's the same one he was part of during the 1988-89 season. Arritt, who played at FUMA and Virginia, consistently emphasized discipline, toughness, passing and man-to-man defense. He hates shortcuts.

College coaches knew what they were inviting when offering a scholarship to a player who spent a year with Arritt.

"His kids got it," said Dooley, UR's coach from 1993 to 1997 and a Spiders assistant before that. "Fletcher did a fabulous job preparing them on the floor, obviously, but they also knew how to treat teammates, how to treat people."

Arritt's teams have gone 888-281. Others will talk about his legacy. Arritt sidestepped the opportunity. He characterized his tenure as "a good run," and then added, "Your body tells you when it's over, OK?"

Earlier this season, he was diagnosed with Stage 3 lymphoma, though Arritt said after Monday's game that he's in better shape than some former FUMA players who were waiting to embrace him at a reception.

Each fall, a parade of Division I coaches entered FUMA's gym to watch Arritt's demanding practices. With rosters and notepads, they sat in folding chairs along the baseline. Betty Jean Arritt, Fletcher's wife, served iced tea. At the workouts' conclusions, Arritt had his players form a line and introduce themselves to each coach.

And that was part of the Arritt routine for 42 years. "If you like what you're doing, you keep doing it," he said.

Brooks Berry, a former FUMA player and Arritt's son-in-law, will be promoted from assistant coach to head coach of the postgraduate program. So FUMA basketball remains in the family, though its beloved father figure leaves the tiny gym.

Gary Hines played for Arritt during 1977-78. He returned to FUMA to be an assistant coach, figuring he could use that position as a steppingstone to a college job.

"I enjoyed it so much that I've stuck around the last 22 years to help (Arritt), basically just to be around him," Hines said. "He's as good a person as you could ever hope to be around."