To get to that win number, he needed to reach 400, which came on Dec. 18 at Talawanda.
Before the game Monday, he was presented with a commemorative basketball and banner celebrating his achievement during his 22nd year at the helm of the Golden Eagles.
After the game, he was holding the ball and staring at it for a few moments at a time.
“It’s just all the memories of certain periods of time coming back,” Tincher said. “You think of 300, 200 and 100 and it’s just, wow. It’s time, the players, and it just reminds me of everyone you get to coach.”
Tincher’s teams have twice made the state final four in 2012 and 2018. His 26-1 team in 2015-16 only lost in a regional semifinal. The 2024-25 team also won a district title. The Golden Eagles have won 13 division titles in the Southwestern Buckeye League under Tincher, including five consecutive coming into this season.
Many of Tincher’s former players were in attendance Monday and he was happy to see them come back.
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
“Some of them I haven’t seen in a long time. They have their own families and kids now, and it makes you feel old,” he said. “But at the same time, it was just a blessing to be their coach and to be able to stick around this long and have those relationships. It’s a great feeling.”
Bellbrook athletic director Charlie O’Dell has been around Tincher for his run and said he and his wife, Stacy, are two of the best members of the Bellbrook community.
“Over the last two decades, coach Tincher has built a great program. The team competes for championships each year, but championships are just part of his legacy,” O’Dell said. “He and his assistant coaches have done a fantastic job of carrying out the educational mission of our school and providing an environment for kids to grow.”
Tincher has altered his team’s style of play over the years, most recently using a pressing attack to hound opponents up and down the floor to great effect.
What hasn’t changed is his demeanor toward having an impact on the individuals he gets to be around every day of the season.
“What we try to teach and stress is we’re in the teaching business,” he said. “I want them to grow up and when life hits them, they’ll be like, it’s alright because, just from a basketball point of view, they’ve suffered through losses and sprints and getting up early and being coached hard and I think it just helps them be better young people into adults.
“You get a chance to be a husband, a father, a teacher and I think just what sums it up is being able to teach for 21 years at the same school, my alma mater, and it being a blessing to be called coach. It’s a life where you’re constantly around people, helping them grow to be a version of their best self, trying to make them better human beings, make them better at basketball. I just think I strive to try and play a little part in their lives. Hopefully they take some lessons from that.”
His current players faithfully listen to the messages Tincher provides. Some of them have been waiting for the chance to hear them for years.
“I’ve been watching Tincher coach since I was in seventh grade,” current junior Lauren Fabrick said. “He’s super inspirational and has coached a lot of the great girls and I think he has a really good thing with out program. He just coaches the best.
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
“It was so special to get part of his 400th win. I think I might have been in third grade and we went and watched the state final four and that was probably my best moment being able to watch him coach. From that moment, I knew I wanted to play for him.”
Tincher looked at the ball one more time that read “400″ on it before the night ended. He said he had no plans to cross that out now that 401 had been achieved.
Is 500 in the cards? He has no plans to call it quits as long as he’s having fun. That’s something that he’s doing every day when he’s out on the floor and has been doing during his time at Bellbrook.
“I look back and I’ve been truly blessed with some awesome players, great parents, a great community, and the fact that I could it all at one school, my school that I went to, I think that’s pretty special,” he said. “I’m a Golden Eagle and I’ll always be a Golden Eagle.”
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