When Frank Nutt was appointed Valley Central boys’ basketball coach after the retirement of his predecessor Eric Bartle, one of the first calls he received was from Ed Rechtorovic.

“He congratulated me and gave me some wisdom that he had accumulated over 50-plus years,” Nutt said.

Rechtorovic already had had a long career as the Vikings’ head coach until 1999 and was Nutt’s modified basketball coach in 2001 when the current Vikings’ coach was in seventh grade.

His first memory of the legendary Valley Central coach was him cleaning out a janitor’s closet to give the team a locker room and putting lines on the floor of the cafeteria so they could practice their sets if the gym wasn’t available.

So, when the Valley Central High School gymnasium floor was replaced over the summer, Nutt got his hands on eight boards from the previous floor, the original gym floor from when Valley Central High School opened in 1961.

Those eight boards were turned into a plaque that Nutt and the 2023-24 Vikings presented to Rechtorovic before their January 2 game against the Cornwall Dragons.

“He means a lot to this program, and he will continue to mean a lot,” Nutt said. “You really can’t get him away. He’s a special person.”

Although he didn’t graduate from Valley Central – he graduated from Tappan Zee High School in 1965 – Rechtorovic did play on the original Valley Central floor. Nutt said championship games were played on the Valley Central floor when it was new.

He came to Valley Central in 1966 and coached every year in various sports until his 2005 retirement. But he’s best known for his tenure with the boys’ basketball program.

He’s coached the only Vikings’ Section 9 championship teams and is the Vikings’ wins leader and has coached nine Division I college basketball players.

Even now, 20 years after his retirement, he’s still on the Vikings’ bench serving as an assistant coach.

“He’s as into it as any coach I’ve ever coached with, and that’s saying something,” Nutt said. “The guy’s almost 80 years old.”
Nutt believes he should be in the state Basketball Hall of Fame.

“I don’t know where the disconnect has been,” Nutt said. “He’s not in the Hall of Fame and he’s been coaching in New York State longer than anyone else I can find.”