Roy Chester - one of Oak Hill's best

By: Roy Waters | Morganton News Herald
Published: November 17, 2009

In every profession there are competitors we wish were on our side. This was especially true in my coaching days.
One such opponent was Roy Chester. I'll never forget the first time I saw him play. He was an eighth grader my first year at Salem. Along with the high school varsity and junior varsity, I also coached the eighth graders.
Roy's Oak Hill team came across town to play our youngsters. My team's Jack Carswell was already 6-foot-4 and a future Burke County all-star. I also had a future all-Burke County Tournament player in Larry Fleming.
In looking back, I'm sure I thought we may be the best eighth grade team in the county. However, I hadn't met up with Roy. He was too quick and good for us and led his team to victory.
The Oak Hill eighth-grade coach was Tommy Anderson, a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate from Morganton that I had known a long time as a neighbor of my cousin, Ray Waters. To say that Tommy was excited is an understatement. He ran off the floor with his players and never though of speaking to me.
Tommy had never considered becoming a coach and he knew of my great love for sports. It was my first lesson that identifying and developing talent was the most important aspect of high school coaching.
Things were different my last meeting with Roy during his senior year in 1960. By that time I had added lower classmen Felix Smith, Ronny Wilson and Johnny Ross to our team of 1956 eighth graders and we beat Oak Hill.
Roy later became an outstanding softball player. I was saddened last week to hear that he had passed away. Usually, old coaches go first and its a shock when it's the other way around.
When I started writing this, a number of former Oak Hill athletes came to mind. The first was Bill Carswell. Bill was the star of the very first Bulldog football team in 1948 and went on to become a good boxer. He died in a tragic auto accident a few short years later.
Colon Nifong and Dick Rhyne were 1951 graduates who made their mark not only at Oak Hill but also with other teams. Colon was a very good starting end at Appalachian State and later became a successful high school coach in Forsyth County. Dick became one of the best fast-pitch softball catchers around and also a fine golfer.
In the mid 1950s, Danny Puckett and Raymond Hildebran gave Oak Hill a very potent one-two punch on the basketball court.
After Roy in 1960, the next Bulldog athlete I remember is Steve Carlisle in the mid 60s. He beat one our best ever Salem basketball teams almost single-handedly in 1964 with more than 20 points and a last-second shot for the victory.
I know I'm leaving a number of past Oak Hill standouts but space is my enemy. I always said the last western Burke County high school graduates before Freedom High opened in 1973 would have been an outstanding team together. Oak Hill's contributions to that basketball team would have been point guard Ricky Stephens, one our best ever.
Our area suffered the loss of another outstanding Oak Hill man last week with the passing of Ricky's father, Albert Stephens Jr. He built many Burke County homes and churches over the years.
Roy Waters is a sports columnist for The News Herald. Waters was baseball and basketball coach at Salem High School from 1955-66, where his teams won 18 championships. In 2007, he was inducted into the Burke County Sports Hall of Fame.

Roy Chester - one of Oak Hill's best

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