Rochester boys coach Malchow to retire after 17 seasons

Took Zebras to state in 2009, broke school record for wins in February

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Rob Malchow, the all-time winningest boys basketball coach in Rochester history, is retiring after 17 seasons, RTC learned Wednesday.

Malchow told the team at its awards banquet Wednesday.

Malchow finished with a record of 234-147. He coached the team from 2002-11 and returned for a second stint in 2017. He also coached the Rochester girls team in the 1990s for eight seasons.

Clyde Lyle, who coached from 1932-43 and again from 1946-49, held the previous school record of 230 wins.

Malchow tied Lyle’s record Feb. 11 in a 70-57 win over Plymouth and broke his record with a 62-44 win over Wabash Feb. 14.

Rochester would go on to finish 17-6 in 2024-25. Malchow’s final game was a 71-46 loss to eventual state champion Manchester in a Class 2A, Sectional 38 semifinal March 7.

RTC learned that after the season ended, Malchow told administrators that he needed more time to consider whether he would come back.

Malchow won six sectional titles as Zebra coach – 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2020 and 2021.

The 2004 team broke a 26-year sectional drought for the school, and the 2021 team’s claim to fame might have been its 9-0 Three Rivers Conference record as much as it was its sectional title.

But it is likely that Malchow’s most famous team was the 2009 team that was the Class 3A state runner-up. That team won the school’s first regional title since 1943 and the first semistate title since 1937.

Featuring Mr. Basketball Runner-Up Bruce Grimm Jr., state mental attitude award winner Brody Schoen and other stars like Austin Lowe, Colt Meadows, Evan Hoff, Collin Harris and Marc Bowers, Rochester went 23-4.

That team upended Plymouth on Plymouth’s home court in the sectional final, Griffith and Gary Roosevelt in the regional and Delta in the semistate before losing 81-79 in two overtimes to undefeated Princeton in the state championship game.

He stepped down two years later to follow his daughters Abbie and Becky, both of whom played softball at Indiana State. Becky (Malchow) Lee later coached the Rochester softball team for two years.

Jim Metcalfe coached the team in 2011-12, and former Malchow assistant Rex Reinholt coached from 2012-17 before Malchow returned.

Rochester went from five wins the year before he returned to 12 wins in 2017-18. Two years later, a Zebra team that went 10-10 during the regular season won the sectional title with a double-overtime win over Rensselaer.

A scheduled regional semifinal meeting with Blackford was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Rochester repeated as sectional champions in 2020-21 with a senior-oriented roster featuring Grant McCarter, Kyle Reinartz, Quin Stesiak and Blake Hughes and sophomore point guard Tarick McGlothin. That team finished 18-2, avenging a regular season loss to Lewis Cass in the sectional final before losing to Rossville in the regional semifinal.

The team went 30-35 over the next three seasons before bouncing back in 2024-25 with RTC Player of the Year Drew Bowers and fellow seniors Bryce Baugher, Owen Prater, Tanner Reinartz and Xavier Vance.

Malchow’s successor will inherit a roster that is expected to include seniors-to-be Jonas Kiser, Grant Clark, Carson Paulik and Jack Reffett as well as guards Brady Coleman and Mitchell Clark.

Malchow is a 1984 Winamac grad who played collegiately at St. Xavier University. He has been a Rochester faculty member since 1988. His first coaching job at Rochester was as a boys basketball assistant coach on then-head coach Bill Titus’ staff.

His first head coaching job was with the Rochester girls, and he guided the Sheila McMillen-led Lady Zs to a sectional crown in 1995.