Stevens will retire as Bearcats coach

By Barry Byers - bbyers@heraldonline.com

Bobby Stevens, who has coached the varsity boys basketball team at Rock Hill High School for the past 11 years, is retiring from coaching.

Stevens, 58, has been involved with sports since he was 6 years old, and will stay on as a fill-in until the Rock Hill High School administration hires his replacement.

“Four years ago people were calling me after we won the state and asking me if I was walking away,” Stevens said. “I told them that when the time came I'd know it, that I'd know when the passion was no longer there.

“I realized it last Monday when I got up around 2 in the morning and didn't go back to bed until around 4. I was already restless because the New York Yankees beat my Phillies in the World Series (Sunday) night, and noticed what it was.”

It was the lack of butterflies he usually gets the first day of practice, which started Monday afternoon. When Stevens got to school, he met with Judy Mobley, Rock Hill High's principal, and informed her he was retiring from his coaching job.

Stevens is keeping his teaching position, physical science, and has agreed to stick around at least through the first two weeks and help the Bearcats' three assistants make their roster cuts.

Rock Hill has posted the job, and athletics director Billy Parker said the goal is to fill it as soon as possible. That will be a hard task because there are no open teaching positions at the school.

“We really appreciate the job Bobby has done heading our basketball program,” Parker said. “He's put in a lot of hard work and took the team to the highest level.”

Stevens' best season came in 2006, when the Bearcats won the Class AAAA state championship, the school's first in boys basketball, while running up a 22-5 record.

The stars of that team were Tori (Childers) Gurley, now a wide receiver at South Carolina, Phillip Adams, a defensive back at S.C. State, and Victor Street, a guard at Erskine.

“I've been fortunate through 32 years in basketball to have been associated with good coaches and good players,” Stevens said. “I'm not walking away leaving the cupboard bare. We have some good talent returning, had a strong ninth-grade team last year and have a strong freshman class that has good speed and size.”

Stevens was an outstanding high school and college player. His senior year at Norfolk (Va.) Catholic High School, the team had a 33-4 record. He moved on to Ferrum Junior College and the team there also was 33-4 his sophomore season.

Four-year colleges took notice of Stevens and he accepted a scholarship from Virginia Tech. His junior year, Stevens hit the game-winning shot in the 1973 National Invitational Tournament for a 92-91 Hokies victory over Notre Dame.

Stevens coached high school basketball in Virginia for four seasons. He was an assistant at Florida for a season, four years at Tennessee, six at Virginia Tech and eight at Winthrop before moving on to Rock Hill High.

“As I said, I don't have that passion right now, but in a year or two, who knows?” Stevens said. “I know I'll miss coaching kids. Wins are what people tend to measure a program by, but I think it's more than that. It's watching a kid develop as a player and as a person. And I can honestly say that our program has integrity and we were adamant about doing things the right way.”