Hey, Coach!!!
World War II had just ended and many servicemen, after being honorably discharged, entered the teaching profession. Lt. Roy DeSelms was one of them. He had served as a pilot on B-17 bombers in the 487th Bomb Group and had been hired to teach math and social studies at Sargent High School. He was also assigned to coach all sports even though his training in athletics was somewhat limited. In 1946 he began coaching football with moderate success. In basketball he acquired a reasonably good core of players. Using good leadership skills acquired in the Air Force, he managed to qualify our team for the state tournament. As bad luck would have it, the teams choice of a pregame meal resulted in food poisoning. Keeping five players on the basketball floor became somewhat of a challenge. In 1948 we qualified for state again, only to lose our leading scorer to the hospital for an appendectomy just before the tournament. One and done again.
He also coached track. On our way to Bassett for districts in 1948, two of us, who should have qualified for state, were overcome by carbon monoxide in a borrowed car coach was driving. While I lay on the shoulder of the road, sandburs all over my soiled clothing, coach DeSelms was working feverishly, probably asking for divine assistance, trying to restart my lifeless body. After regaining consciousness, two people were assisting while walking me up and down the highway preventing me from going back to sleep. I can still see many people watching as a number of cars had stopped, along with a yellow road grader whose operator was directing traffic and lending his assistance. Fading in and out of consciousness, our trip was continued to Bassett in the same car, with all windows down, my head resting on the door, breathing the cool morning air. Instead of running track we rushed to the hospital. When first arriving at the hospital I felt so bad I wanted to die but after a few hours I began to feel better then I was afraid I would die. As I started to show some improvement, Coach went out shopping for clothes for me to wear as what I had worn when being admitted were soiled and full of burrs and stickers and had to be destroyed. He must have not had much money and whatever he paid for those ill-fitting clothes was too much. When we returned to Sargent, those clothes were also discarded.
Roy DeSelms, probably found some of his coaching experiences as harrowing or memorable as some of the combat missions he flew in his B-17 Flying Fortress, or maybe not. In the early part of World War II, sixty percent of the B-17s were lost during their missions as they flew over Germany without escorts.
By the end of the war, the air battles that involved thousands of bombers and fighters, claimed over 26,000 American lives. This accounted for 10% of all American deaths during the war. 18,000 airmen were wounded and over 28,000 were shot down and captured. I remember Roy DeSelms as always being very calm under pressure while coaching, never uttering a loud word. This was a trait probably acquired as a pilot that undoubtedly kept his crew members feeling safe while in harms way and a trait that maybe even saved my life. Thank You Coach, you will never be forgotten.