For all Dan McKendrick’s experience as Deerfield’s boys basketball coach, he couldn’t have diagrammed this play.
Just three days after the Warriors’ first-ever appearance in a state championship game, McKendrick announced Tuesday that he’s stepping down.
“Sure, it would have been great if we had won the state final, but it was like I drew up a coach’s fairy tale ending,” he said. “These last few weeks, it felt like we were small-town America and the basketball gods rose up and gave us a big hug.”
But McKendrick said his decision was about his family, not wins and losses.
“My family has sacrificed so much for me and my coaching career, and I just felt it was time for me to be there for them as much as they’ve been there for me,” he said. “My oldest daughter will be a senior in high school next year, and I didn’t want to look back and regret that I missed more than I’ve already missed.”
McKendrick, who will continue to teach at Deerfield, built consistent winners. In his 14 years as head coach, which followed nine years in the lower levels, the Warriors went 261-155 and won five regional titles.
McKendrick’s last regional title came during his most successful season. On March 6, the Warriors won their first sectional title since they went back to back in 1996 and 1997 under Steve Pappas, and they kept rolling.
Deerfield played in the state semifinals for the first time on March 13 and edged previously unbeaten Kaneland 49-48 in overtime. The run ended the next day in the Class 3A state championship game, which East St. Louis won 52-46.
“It’s a surreal experience because most of the time in my coaching career, you never know when the last game is going to be,” McKendrick said after the state final. “Knowing that today, no matter what, would be the last game of the season is pretty incredible.
“The last month has been one of the best months of my coaching career, and I’m always going to look back at this as a blessed moment.”
That moment is a high-profile example of McKendrick’s impact at Deerfield. But his reach extends even further behind the scenes.
“He has served as an event supervisor during the fall season, and he has taken the lead on coordinating the winter practice calendar with our other winter coaches,” Deerfield athletic director Nate Flannery said. “Those things may not always be seen publicly, but they matter a great deal and speak to how much he has cared about the athletic department as a whole.”
In another example of McKendrick’s commitment, he and his staff visited each player’s home every preseason to answer any questions, relay expectations and offer insight into how the student-athlete could best contribute to the team.
Deerfield assistant Jack DiMatteo is the only person who has experienced that brand of outreach as both a player and a coach. He was a senior on McKendrick’s first team in 2012-13 and joined the staff full time in 2024.
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“Everyone who knows basketball can see how masterful he is at X’s and O’s, and the speed of adjustments he makes in real time is unbelievable,” DiMatteo said. “What people don’t see as much is the care factor and the level of investment he made and how he poured everything into the program. I couldn’t have more respect for him than I do.”
McKendrick’s players, especially the seniors, feel the same way.
“The big thing for me is that coach has trusted me since the first day of summer camp until my last game,” senior forward Jake Pollack said. “He could draw up great plays for me, but how he treated me as an equal, that helped me a ton, and that’s why we won games. There’s no one I would have rather done it for.”
Publicly, McKendrick didn’t disclose his decision to step down until this week. But he told his staff and school administrators before the season that he was leaning that way, and he was sure by early February, which led to a unique emotional dynamic as the Warriors were peaking down the stretch.
“Everything carried a little more significance, going through my last conference game, the last regular-season game, the last game in Warriors’ gym,” McKendrick said. “There were definitely a lot of bittersweet moments that I kept to myself that were powerful reminders of how fortunate I’ve been.
“It was quite a way to end, like a dream come true.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.