Honoring the Life and Legacy of Dave and Kathy Dutton

The fall of 2021 marked twenty years since we lost Dave and Kathy Dutton, and it felt like exactly the right moment to formally establish The Dutton Family Foundation in their memory. What started as a way to keep their names close to home has grown, year after year, into something bigger than we ever expected.

Dave and Kathy were the kind of people who showed up for their kids, for their players and dancers, and for anyone in the Winchester community who needed a hand. They worked hard, they cared harder, and they never made a big deal out of either one. All of our fundraising is built around honoring that same spirit, by supporting local student-athletes who carry themselves the same way.

Six tournaments later, we're still humbled by how many people turn out each year to help us keep that legacy going. Every gift, every round of golf, and every sponsorship brings us one step closer to making sure Dave and Kathy's impact on this community outlives all of us.

Early on, we knew we wanted any support we raised to actually last, not just cover one scholarship check and disappear. That's why we partnered with The Community Foundation of the Northern Shenandoah Valley (CFNSV), a trusted local nonprofit that manages endowed funds for organizations just like ours.

Through that partnership, we've built endowed scholarships at both John Handley High School and Shenandoah University, the same two places where Dave coached and Kathy cheered on the sidelines for years. Because the funds are endowed, they're built to keep growing and keep giving, tournament after tournament, well beyond any single year.

Every donation made directly through CFNSV goes 100% toward that endowment, with nothing held back for overhead. It's a simple structure, and it means the number, size, and scope of the scholarships we're able to award keep expanding each year, exactly the kind of steady, long-term impact Dave and Kathy would have wanted to see.

On Saturday, February 10, 2018, following a ribbon-cutting for the James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center at Shenandoah University, the Dave and Kathy Dutton Court was dedicated in memory of Dave, Shenandoah's former athletics director and head men's basketball coach, and his wife, Kathy, who coached the dance team, the Sensations. The facility recognizes those who influenced the development of Shenandoah's athletic programs — an idea Dave could only dream of when he began at SU in 1988.

For our family, that day meant more than a ribbon-cutting. It was Shenandoah's way of saying that Dave and Kathy's years there mattered, and that the community they poured themselves into hadn't forgotten them. Their names are painted right there on the hardwood today, in the building where Dave once paced the sideline and Kathy cheered on the Sensations just a few feet away.

About 300 people turned out for the ceremony, including roughly 15 of Dave's former players and all four Dutton children — Ryan, Adam, Aimee Dutton Phillips, and David. Dave and Kathy married in 1980 and came to Shenandoah in 1988, when Dave was hired as head men's basketball coach and athletic director; Kathy went on to found the Shenandoah Sensations dance team, which qualified for national competition twice under her leadership. Kathy died of cancer in 2001 at age 42; Dave died of a heart attack a month later at 45.

During his 12 years leading Shenandoah's program, Dave took the Hornets to the NCAA Division III tournament three times, got every game broadcast on the radio, and helped grow the athletic department from eight varsity teams to sixteen.

"It's a great honor, and it's very humbling to accept this award on their behalf. To see the kind of impact they had in such a short time on so many people pushes me to want to be better, to want to do more and to want to be part of something bigger every day." David Dutton, at the 2018 court dedication