After four seasons as head coach, Jason Sautter has resigned as head basketball coach at Seward. Sautter informed his team of his decision on Sunday night. Sautter’s Saints finished 8-10 on the floor in a Covid shortened 2021 season. They were 8-13 officially after they were forced to forfeit three games after players and Sautter left the bench area after Seward’s 95-94 double overtime loss February 17 against Dodge City. Seward suspended Sautter an additional three games.
Sautter returned to Seward to coach the 2017-18 Saints. The freshman oriented team was 18-14 and 13-13 in the Jayhawk. The 2018-19 Saints broke through winning the Jayhawk West and the Region 6 championships. That team was 28-6 and went 18-3 in the Jayhawk West. The Region 6 title was just the school’s sixth in their 52 year history. The Jayhawk West title was the 10th. The 2019-2020 Saints were again a young team and went 17-14 and 10-11 in the Jayhawk West.
Sautter was an assistant under Bryan Zollinger for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. The Saints won the Jayhawk West both seasons and claimed a Region 6 title in 2012 and finished third in the NJCAA Tournament. The Saints won 56 games during those two seasons.
After leaving Seward, Sautter joined UMKC’s coaching staff from 2013-15 before coaching the professional Rocherster Razorbacks to a title.
Before coming to Seward as an assistant, Sautter was head coach at West Texas in Snyder had a 55-30 record in three seasons. Sautter assisted Texas Tech head coach Mark Adams at Howard and had a 112-23 record during that time.
Seward’s men’s program reached unprecedented levels in the classroom under Sautter. The Saints held a 3.25 GPA in 2020.
Seward will begin a search for their next head coach. Sautter had been just Seward’s fourth coach the past 38 years. Dale Reed coached the Saints from 1983-1996. His assistant Dave Brown took the SCCC position and coached the Saints from 1996-2007. Former Saints player under Reed and Brown, Bryan Zollinger, coached Seward from 2007-2017. Sautter, Zollinger’s former assistant, coached the Saints from 2017 to 2021.
