Roy Williams opted to return to his roots in western N.C.

Picking up on the story about Roy Williams, the University of North Carolina men’s legendary basketball coach who retired in 2021, his resume showed that he graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill 50 years ago, in 1972.

Williams majored in education and then earned a master’s degree in 1973. Later that year, he and his high school sweetheart, Wanda Jones, were married. 

Williams was hired as the new 23-year-old boys’ basketball coach at Charles D. Owen High School in Black Mountain, N.C., about 10 miles east of Asheville. He wasn’t much older than some of the upperclassmen he was assigned to coach.

 

Roy Williams had never coached a lick. However, he came “highly recommended” by Carolina’s men’s basketball coach at the time – Dean Smith. 

Years later, a Sports Illustrated staff writer interviewed the school’s principal Charles Lytle on the subject of “the Roy Williams hire.” 

“I was laughed at when I hired him,” Lytle said. “Everybody told me, ‘Roy Williams is nothing but a statistician at North Carolina!’ But I’ve never known anybody who could motivate kids like he could.” 

“One of the best decisions I ever made was my first year as a coach in high school,” Williams said. Principal Lytle came up and said, ‘Roy, I hate to do this, but I really do need you to coach a spring sport, too, because we’re short on coaches. I’ll give you a choice, baseball or golf.’” 

Williams said to himself: “I played baseball from the time I was 11 years old, and I remember the coaches lining the field, dragging the field and picking up pebbles, but I’ve never seen a golf coach mow a green.” 

“So, I told the principal, ‘I’d like to coach the golf team.’”

 

During Roy Williams’ five years (1973-78) at Charles D. Owen, he tried to instill in his players a “sense of self-worth.” 

“If you’ve built a team of character, they can handle moments that others cannot, and they accept coaching on how to manage pressure,” Williams said. 

He told his players: “We’ve got to know that the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back.” 

He once said that when his coaching days were over: “I’ll remember the hugs (from the players) long after I’ve forgotten cutting down the nets.”

 

William Nack of Sports Illustrated said Coach Williams took his high school players “on steak cookouts, had them over to his house to watch television and fed them milk and doughnuts during off-season shootarounds.” Wanda Williams would pack ham-and-cheese sandwiches and drinks for road trips. 

In 1977, Williams was rewarded additional responsibilities at Charles D. Owen, becoming the school’s athletic director. 

John Le of WLOS-TV in Asheville spoke to a former Charles D. Owen varsity athlete – Tim Raines, who recently retired from the faculty at his alma mater, where he taught and coached. 

“Coach Williams had a lot of energy, a lot of fire,” Raines said. “He was wonderful; he cared about and loved his players.” 

“Some of my best memories from high school are from those golf teams,” Raines said. “Coach had an infectious smile and great laugh.” 

Raines added that four of the players from that golf team went on to coach later in life, “a testament to the coaching acumen of Roy Williams.” 

“It says a lot about him that so many of us would want to go into his chosen profession because of his leadership,” Raines said.