You have to wear many hats while coaching a junior college hoops. Chasing down burglars usually isn’t one of them.
But that just show the versatility of Hutchinson (Kan.) coach Steve Eck.
Eck and an off-duty firefighter tackled a man suspected of burglarizing the dorm room where Eck sometimes stays in order to keep an eye on his players. (As Rick Chandler notes, the guy’s dedication is off the charts.)
So when Eck, 55, spotted a Daniel T. Flamma-Sherman taking his stuff around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, it got interesting. From the Hutchinson News:Flamma-Sherman reportedly fled from the college dorm when Eck tried to stop him, and the basketball coach gave chase.
An off-duty firefighter on his way home from work saw the two men running, and the firefighter “helped capture the suspect,” Pickard said. The firefighter didn’t need medical attention for the injuries he received amid the scuffle, according to Pickard.
Hutchison police Detective Thad Pickard wasn’t entirely psyched about Eck’s choice, though. He doesn’t want the coach injured. Neither does Hutch. Eck, who took over the program in 2009, is 222-52 as a junior college head coach.
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