Basketball community, Fallbrook coaches mourn Sandschulte

Long-time Fallbrook High School basketball coach Jack Sandschulte, who passed away October 15 at the age of 82, was not only a well-respected coach by his peers on campus but also by the rest of San Diego County’s basketball and sports communities.

“Vibrant personality. Great competitor. Good guy to have around as a friend. Just a good friend,” said Bill Waite, who taught and coached at Fallbrook High School from 1968 to 1996. “He was always a real good guy. I enjoyed his company.”

“He was a wonderful guy, just a real gentleman,” said Tom Pack, who joined the Fallbrook High School faculty in 1971 and served as the Warriors’ athletic director from 1973 to 1996.

“He taught me a lot as a coach myself,” said Garland Dunbar, who was Sandschulte’s junior varsity coach for 17 years.

“In my opinion Jack was one of the best basketball coaches ever at Fallbrook High. In my opinion he was the number one shooting coach ever,” Dunbar said. “He was just an outstanding basketball coach.

Sandschulte attended Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles and played two years on the varsity team. He then attended Pepperdine University on a basketball scholarship and played three years there. During his Army service he was a player-coach for Camp Zama while he was stationed in Japan and also played for the Fort Ord team.

Sandschulte began his high school basketball coaching career with Cathedral High School in Los Angeles. After obtaining his Master’s degree from the University of Southern California he came to Fallbrook as the Warriors’ varsity coach for the 1956-57 season.

When Sandschulte took over as the Warriors’ coach San Diego County was still part of the CIF’s Southern Section which also included Imperial, Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, Kern, Santa Barbara, Inyo, and San Luis Obispo Counties (a separate Los Angeles section exists for public schools in the City of Los Angeles). In 1959 Fallbrook joined a small-school league also including Banning, Beaumont, Hemet, and Perris rather than continue to play against larger-school San Diego County competition. The CIF San Diego Section came into existence on July 1, 1960, although Fallbrook was one of three San Diego County schools which remained in the Southern Section. The opening of new schools in San Diego County caused Fallbrook to join the San Diego Section for 1961-62, which would give the Warriors the distinction of reaching the CIF basketball finals in their first year in the San Diego Section.

Fallbrook’s 1961-62 basketball team faced Vista in the Class A finals and led 24-13 after the first quarter and 36-19 with 4:03 left in the first half, but Vista adjusted to the Warriors’ fast break and pressing defense to cut the Fallbrook lead to 40-38 at halftime. Vista had two 6’4” players who Panthers coach Ron Riedberger positioned under the basket for the second half (the Warriors’ tallest player, center Perry Fleming, was 6’2” while Fallbrook’s leading scorer, guard Bill Pankey, was 5’9”), and the Panthers won the championship by an 81-67 score. The loss to Vista gave Fallbrook a 15-3 season record.

Dunbar arrived at Fallbrook High School in 1966 and coached football but not basketball during his first year. After Sandschulte lost his junior varsity coach, Dunbar took over that role in 1967. “We had a pretty good run,” Dunbar said.

Before Fallbrook’s return to the CIF finals in 1982, the Warriors won back-to-back Avocado League titles in 1975-76 and 1976-77 while winning 26 consecutive home games over that two-season span. The 1976-77 Warriors won 25 games, and Sandschulte earned Avocado League coach of the year honors in 1973, 1976, and 1977.

“We always had a friendly rivalry going in the 70s to see who could win the most championships,” said Waite, who won three league titles while coaching the Warriors’ baseball team from 1971 through 1977.

The 1972-73 season included the Avocado League championship, a 17-1 league record, and a 21-4 regular-season record. A 74-64 loss to Hoover in the first round of the CIF playoffs February 26 ended Fallbrook’s season and a 14-game winning streak.

The 1972-73 school year also included a February 9 home game against Poway with league championship implications, as both teams entered the game with 12-1 league records. “It was one of the biggest games ever played at Fallbrook High School,” Pack said.

Fallbrook took a nine-game winning streak into the match. Poway, whose previous league loss was a 64-62 contest against Fallbrook in the Titans’ gym, had won its ensuing eight games and took that winning streak into the game in Fallbrook. The Warrior players included Jody Schmitz, who led the county in scoring that season, while Poway’s squad included the previous season’s Avocado League player of the year, Chuck Zinky.

“The gym was packed,” Pack said. “We had an overflow crowd.”

Some fans had to watch the game on closed-circuit television. “We were running cables out the door to the cafeteria,” Pack said.

Poway led by a 20-8 score before the Warriors scored the final basket of the first period. The Titans led 39-32 at halftime, and Fallbrook didn’t take the lead until a basket with seven seconds left in the third quarter gave the Warriors a 50-49 margin. The Warriors were successful on 55 percent of their second-half field shots and ended the 71-64 game on the favorable end of the score.

“He could change the pace of the game,” Dunbar said. “He was excellent at making adjustments during the course of the game.”

“Jack would wear a tie every game,” Pack said. “Yet he didn’t finish with the tie and jacket on.”

Fallbrook moved up to the large-school 2A classification in 1966-67, and in 1979-80 the San Diego Section split the 2A classification into a 3A and 2A format to separate large and medium schools. Fallbrook had a regular-season record of 19-3 in 1981-82, although two of those losses were in Avocado League competition against Vista. The Panthers won the league championship with a perfect 12-0 record while Fallbrook’s 10-2 league mark gave the Warriors runner-up status and a first-round playoff game on February 24, 1982, at Sweetwater.

“We played one of the greatest high school basketball teams in the history of San Diego County,” Dunbar said.

Sweetwater entered that playoff game with a 23-1 record, and the Red Devils’ center and forwards were all at least 6’7”. Fallbrook’s tallest player during the 1981-82 season was 6’4” Brian Busch. During the third quarter the Red Devils had a 60-47 lead, but Fallbrook came back and Busch’s shot with 11 seconds remaining gave the Warriors an 84-83 lead. Sweetwater called a time out but had none remaining, resulting in a technical foul. Although Dominic Johnson missed the free throw, he was fouled on the ensuing possession and made those two free throws to give Fallbrook an 86-83 victory.

Hilltop had finished second to Sweetwater in the Mesa League, losing in league play only to the Red Devils. The Lancers defeated Vista in the first round of the playoffs and took a 21-5 record into their February 27 match with Fallbrook at the neutral site of Serra High School. The Warriors held a 45-41 lead after three quarters before prevailing by a 71-51 score. The win set up a March 6 championship game against 22-3 Patrick Henry, giving the Warriors the distinction of playoff matches against every 3A team other then themselves which won at least 20 games during the season.

The championship game played at the San Diego Sports Arena was tied after the first quarter and at halftime. Patrick Henry had a 57-52 lead entering the fourth quarter, but the Warriors tied the game. A foul with six seconds left gave Patrick Henry’s Troy Thrower two free throw shots, and he made the first one to give the Patriots a 67-66 lead. Thrower missed the second shot and Busch obtained the rebound before passing to Johnson. Johnson tried to pass to Jeff Adams, but Patrick Henry’s Fred Williams deflected the pass under the Fallbrook basket with one second left to preserve the Patriots’ victory. Johnson scored 35 points in the losing effort, and Johnson and Patrick Henry’s Billy Washington shared CIF player of the year honors for 1981-82.

“That team was maybe his best team,” Pack said.

Patrick Henry’s coach was Fritz Ziegenfuss, who was the winningest basketball coach in San Diego Section history when he retired in 1995. Ziegenfuss moved to Fallbrook in 1997. When Sandschulte retired in 1984, he was the county’s all-time winningest basketball coach.

“It was a basketball school for a long time because of his success,” Pack said.

That didn’t translate to Sandschulte being cutthroat about other programs. “He was very supportive of me,” Pack said.

Dunbar added that Sandschulte’s success didn’t alienate opposing coaches. “They were friends before the game and after the game,” Dunbar said.

Sandschulte actually retired from coaching twice. Dunbar took over the varsity team for three years before Sandschulte returned as the varsity coach and Dunbar returned as his assistant and junior varsity coach.

Sandschulte had a basketball class at the high school during the summer. “Jack taught me a lot on how to shoot and how to prepare kids to shoot,” Dunbar said.

“A hell of a basketball coach and a heck of a competitor,” Pack said. “I know what kind of competitor he was because I played basketball against him.”

“There weren’t many people who could play with him,” Dunbar said.

Sandschulte retired from teaching in 1986. When he was not coaching basketball he also served as the school’s junior class counselor, the director of the work experience program, and a world history teacher.

“Jack was really an outstanding individual, and I’m privileged to have coached along with him and under him,” Dunbar said. “He was an amazing person.”

“He was a great coach, had a wonderful career, and he was such an upbeat fun person,” said Kathy Waite, who taught and coached at Fallbrook High School from 1977 to 2011. “Just a pleasure to be around.”

“We loved him here at the school. He was a great man, great coach. His nickname was ‘The Legend’. That pretty much says it all right there,” said Steve Jorde, who has coached at Fallbrook High School since 1985. “Everyone’s going to really miss him.”

“He was a class guy,” said Dennis Ackerman, who refereed high school basketball for 30 years before becoming the CIF San Diego Section commissioner in 2001.

“He was always just a classy guy,” Jorde said. “He loved people, loved being around people and kids.”

“Jack’s a legend around here. He’s unreal. Not many people can do what he did,” Dunbar said.

“Jack was well-liked by just about everybody I know,” Dunbar said. “He was just an outstanding coach.”

After he retired from teaching, Sandschulte spent nearly a decade as a volunteer coach for Potter Junior High School and Sullivan Middle School. He also occasionally helped out at Fallbrook High School.

“He used to come to the basketball games every time for the alumni game,” said Fallbrook athletic secretary Shar Larsen. “He did a lot for the community, and he did a lot for Fallbrook High School through the years.”

“Jack was always coming to games through the years. He was one of those guys who supported Fallbrook basketball,” Pack said.

“Jack was the kind of guy that he knew how to enjoy life,” Pack said. “He took care of himself.”

The San Diego Hall of Champions initiated the Coaching Legends program in 1999. Sandschulte was inducted in 2004 (along with former Fallbrook water polo coach Joe Goss), and during his induction speech he noted that he didn’t coach for the honor. “I did it because I love basketball and working with young people,” he said. “If I had to do it again, I’d do it the same way.”

“He just was a guy who really represented Fallbrook High School in an exceptional way,” Pack said. “He just loved it so much he continued to be a part of it.”

“He was an outstanding individual, outstanding coach, and I was privileged to coach along with him,” Dunbar said. “More than that, he was just an outstanding friend.”

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