A Good Coach

It sounds like a cliché, but a good sports coach can do a whole lot more than teach a kid to play ball. We have all heard one story or another — sometimes as part of family lore —about a coach who helped change the direction of a student’s life, from failure to success.

Rollan Melton is part of Nevada’s history and our local history as well. He was raised in various Western towns, always in poverty. He graduated from Churchill County High School in 1950, rescued from academic failure by an interest in football and journalism, in that order. He went on to graduate from the University of Nevada, Reno, and launch a career in journalism, writing for the “Reno Gazette Journal.” Then his lucky star became an entire galaxy. He was named editor of the paper at age 32, publisher at 35, and vice president of Speidel newspaper group at 37. Speidel merged with Gannett in 1976, and Melton’s fortune was made.

Melton never forgot his connection to Fallon and to the people who helped him turn a childhood full of failure into an adulthood full of success.

In his autobiographical book, “Sonny’s Story,” he describes the journey. Before he enrolled in CCHS, he had dropped out of school in Boise, Idaho, while living with his father, who bore no love for education. When he moved to Fallon to live with his mother, he told her, “Mom, I’m not cut out for school. I have gone through the eighth grade, and that’s enough. I won’t be going on to high school.”

I’ll compress his mother’s reply into four words: “Like hell, you’re quitting.”

Melton was at first a disgruntled student with a poor educational background. Then, he tried out for football and met Coach Wes Goodner. 

“The season was my first in any organized sport, and I did not play a single down in a varsity game—all of my playing was in practice scrimmages. However, I learned a great deal that later would be part of the foundation needed in leadership roles. I discovered that one-man shows and miracle plays don’t’ produce victories…. If you expect to do a thing right, you must practice, practice, practice.”

It took a while, but Goodner’s advice eventually sank into the academic part of Melton’s brain, and he joined Anne Gibbs’ journalism class, originally writing about sports. One day, he was called to Coach Goodner’s office to meet Ken Ingram of the “Fallon Standard.” Ingram offered him a job “that would change my life forever.” He became a part-time apprentice printer. 

However, the most telling story about Goodner as coach, administrator, and human being is narrated by Melton in these words:

Coach Wes Goodner had taken a personal interest in me. One weekend, he phoned me at the “Standard” and invited me to visit him and his wife, Helen, at their home. When I arrived, Mrs. Goodner had some men’s suits and shoes laid out in the living room. Coach Goodner explained ‘Rollan, I’ve bought some new things to wear.’ Pointing to the displayed wardrobe, he said, ‘My old clothes are a little bit worn, but we would like you to have them if you want them.’  …The three suits and the two pairs of shoes fit perfectly. …There was not a worn place to be seen.’”

Goodner’s interest in Melton did not end on graduation day. Melton finished college and was shortly thereafter awarded the first of many prized jobs, sports editor for the “Reno Gazette Journal.”  Many years later, he wrote in his memoir about achieving that early success: “Well-wishers called or wrote. Sports people pledged their support. My high school coach, Wes Goodner, drove in from Fallon to congratulate me.”

A kind high school coach had taken him seriously, and that made all the difference.  

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