A staple of the Oakland County prep hoops landscape over the past three decades is no longer.

Denny Butcher has left the Walled Lake Central boys basketball sidelines to accept the head coaching job at Hartland High School out in Washtenaw County.

Butcher, 43, had been on the bench at Walled Lake Central for nine years. This past winter, he led the Vikings to a Class A district championship and won his 200^th career game.

Back in the 1980s, Butcher was a high-octane guard at Lakeland High School, graduating as the Eagles' all-time leading scorer. He entered the local prep coaching ranks in the early 1990s, as sideline general at Catholic League power Orchard Lake St. Marys. In 1994, Butchers' Eaglets' cage crew advanced all the way into the state finals before losing a heartbreaker at the buzzer.

Before assuming the reins in VIKINGLAND, he was on the bench up in the northern part of the county at Ortonville Brandon of the Flint Metro League.

Even though he's moving teams for the upcoming campaign, Butcher will be coaching in the same conference since both Walled Lake Central and Hartland each compete in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association.

Expect to see Butcher's top assistants, Harry Glanz (Berkley) and Jay Levine (Oak Park) follow him to his new job.

The undertaking won't be an easy one. Hartland only won a single game last season. That said, success isn't all together foreign to the H-Town Hoop Regime, having won KLAA and district crowns as recent as three years ago.

Early leading candidates for the vacant Walled Lake Central job appear to be Butcher's JV coach Chuck Spolsky (Novi Detroit CC/Adrian) and possibly current North Farmington coach Todd Negoshian, a former all-state point guard with the Vikings in the late 1990s, who went 14-8 last season in his first year patrolling the sidelines with the Raiders of the rough and rugged OAA Red Division.