UNC Basketball: Roy Williams As A Young Baller

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A little mountain perspective on a younger Roy

I was born and raised in the city of Asheville, North Carolina. It’s funny because people who don’t know anything about the region think Asheville is Woodstock recreated: Tie dye litters the streets, bongo drum festivals occur every weekend, and we all eat granola bars three meals a day. Now, for about a four block by four block radius, Asheville epitomizes that description pretty well (except the tie dye and the fact there is a bongo drum circle every Friday night in Pritchard Park.)

Photo Credit: Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

Other than that, Asheville and the surrounding region is thoroughly country. Think about it. The closest surrounding large cities are Knoxville, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Charleston (WV.) That’s a huge square of backwoods.

Roy Williams spent his childhood in Asheville and I’ve never seen the man sporting some Tie Dye. He’s much like the region surrounding my hometown: country.

Roy was born in Marion, a small town in every since of the word, and moved to Asheville as a child. He lettered in basketball and baseball at T.C. Roberson high school.

Now, Roberson was our definite rival, and is definitely the rich kid part of town. It includes Biltmore Park area, AKA multimillion dollar homes near the Biltmore House. It was probably a tiny bit different in the late ‘60s.

Roy was an athlete though, don’t let get fooled on that. He lettered in basketball and baseball, was all-county (Buncombe County) for two years, all-conference for two years, and all Western North Carolina in 1968. Meaning, he beat up on my Alma mater, A.C. Reynolds, pretty regularly.

I can attest that tell you that in WNC, the NC Blue-White All-Star game is a big deal. Long before Coach Williams took Kansas or UNC to the big dance, he was actually captain of the White squad in the NC Blue-White All-Star game. It’s the March Madness of high school basketball for western NC. They take the best of the best from around the region and pair them up against one another for the region’s top basketball game of the year. And to be captain?

Roy could ball. Let’s just put it like that.
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