Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 14, 1995 TAG: 9506140076
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The wait is over for Troy Wells. He is the new boys' basketball coach at Martinsville High School.
Wells served a 16-year apprenticeship as an assistant to the legendary Husky Hall, then was kept waiting through a lengthy search process to choose a successor for the state's winningest public school basketball coach. Hall won 605 games and seven Group AA championships before retiring at the end of the 1994-95 season.
Wells, 47, has been the assistant coach for 16 of Hall's 34 years as the Bulldogs' head coach.
``How do you follow a legend? It's an awesome task to try to undertake, but no one will ever take the place of Husky,'' said Wells, 47, after the Martinsville City school board made its decision Tuesday. ``He's a legend. He's done so much for the school, the community and the young people whose lives he's touched. I just hope we can somehow carry on the tradition that he and Coach [Mel] Cartwright established over the years synonymous with Martinsville basketball.'' Cartwright was a co-head coach with Hall for several years.
Wells is one of those longtime assistant coaches finally getting a chance at the limelight after serving so diligently in the trenches. He was the head coach for three years at Christiansburg in the early 1970s, after serving as an assistant at William Fleming under Charlie Van Lear.
When Van Lear moved into administration, new Fleming coach Eddie Burke asked Wells to stay as an aide, but Wells opted to take the Christiansburg job before moving to Martinsville.
Wells, who grew up in Arkansas after moving there from Los Angeles, played basketball at Oral Roberts University, where he met his future wife, Patricia Blankenship, a Roanoke native.
Wells also has been an assistant girls' basketball coach at Martinsville for the past 10 years, helping Carla Giles with a program that has been a state and Timesland power. He will give up those duties.
Three of Wells' sons played for Hall. His youngest son, Jason, was a member of the junior varsity during the past season and may play for his father.
by CNB