Sautter Steps Down as Seward Coach

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.