Two years ago, Dick Kortokrax was ready to walk away from coaching with the most high school boys basketball victories in Ohio.

His wife was battling Alzheimer's disease, one of his sons had just died from leukemia and the coach was diagnosed with bladder cancer.

He agreed to stay on at Kalida High School for two seasons and then retire. Since then, his health has improved, his team made it to the state title game this year and his outlook has changed.

Kortokrax, 75, wants to continue coaching, but school leaders are interviewing other candidates and have hinted they would like him to retire, creating a rift in the northwest Ohio village where devotion to basketball is second only to the Roman Catholic Church.

A decision by the school board is expected within a few weeks.

Some of the coach's supporters think it's small town sports at its worst, fed by grudges over past decisions about who gets to play and frustration with his slowdown offense.

"It's very easy to be second guessed," said Rick Kortokrax, who is a volunteer coach with his father. "Basketball is very important. It's a cornerstone for our community."

The high school's gym seats 1,900 people, nearly twice the size of the town. And after every big tournament victory, a parade of fire trucks leads the team's bus into town.

"The two things that are the center of the community are the churches and the schools," said superintendent Don Horstman. Sports are "a large part of the entertainment," he said.

All that attention also means every decision on and off the court is magnified.

There are whispers that the game has passed Kortokrax by and that his practices are too long and demanding.

"There obviously is not a lot of factual evidence," his son said. "We just went through a tremendous time."

Kalida came within one shot of winning the Division IV state title in March, losing 48-43 in double-overtime to Oak Hill. It was their second runner-up finish under Kortokrax, who won a state title in 1981.

He has won 785 games during his 49-year coaching career.

And he has done it at three small Putnam County schools that are within 8 miles of each other.

Kortokrax's assistants and friends insist that his career has never been about victories — the running joke is that he loves teaching basketball so much he'd rather practice all year and skip the games.

"He prepares you for life," said Eric Rampe, a two-year starter at Kalida in the early '90s who now is an assistant coach. "He teaches you not everything is going to be handed to you."

Teenagers, Rampe said, don't always understand that.

"Even as coaches we might not agree when he wants to hold the ball for the last two minutes," he said. "He's not a players' coach. He doesn't sugarcoat anything. Coaching with him is so much easier than playing for him."

Kortokrax hasn't talked publicly about his job since the season ended, indicating he doesn't want to escalate the issue. Messages seeking comment were left at his home this week.

Still, the coach's fate, many say, has left the community divided.

Few, if any, people have been willing to speak out publicly against him.

"You don't hear the negative talk, but you know it's out there," Rampe said. "You can almost tell when people are against him."

Dozens of the coach's supporters crowded into a school board meeting a week ago. No one spoke out against him.

"I don't really know who's for him and against him," said John Remlinger, owner of a Kalida company that makes farm equipment. "He shouldn't be treated like he is. Not after what he's done."

Kortokrax has said he still has a passion for basketball. At first, he thought about coaching somewhere else if Kalida doesn't want him. He later backed away from that idea.

For now, he's watching film to prepare for the next season.