Brandon Schroeder
Staff Writer

Since 2005, R.J. Reynolds High School basketball has had Billy Martin as their head coach. Through tough early years trying to get to a level of playing for state championships to a few playoff runs, Martin has been the coach leading the team and helping Reynolds basketball improve off the year before. Now after forty-plus years of coaching at the high school and collegiate level, Martin is retiring.

“I’ve had so many years coaching,” Martin said. “You know forty-plus years involved in coaching so the thing was I just felt that it was time. There were no major factors, nothing that was wrong but it was just time.”

Martin played basketball in high school and ultimately played at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He then began his career coaching at Montgomery County High School for twenty-one years as a JV and varsity coach and then became an assistant coach at the University of Delaware for five years. After a few years at Delaware, Martin ultimately decided to come back to coach at the high school level, leading him to RJR, where he has been ever since. Now that Martin’s retired, late fall with no basketball is going to feel a little different next season.

“My wife and I were just having a conversation the other day about come October, what are you going to do?” Martin said. “ I have no clue. You know, come October 31st or November 1st, I was in the gym.”

When Martin first came to RJR, he had pretty big shoes to fill. Howard West had been the coach before Martin and he had won multiple state championships with RJR. Martin knew that it would be tough to follow but he was excited for the challenge.

“Coming in, I knew there was going to be some pressure,” Martin said. “There were people here who were here to help me which was definitely a plus but there was definitely some pressure coming in and keeping this program where it was.”

During his career, Martin coached and put together many different teams as kids have gone through their years at RJR. However, that never stopped Martin from losing his passion and trying to help teach his players not just basketball lessons but real-life lessons as well.

“He’s a person who listens and always has something wise to say to give back to you,” two-year varsity senior Adrian Jones said. “He always established a sense of brotherhood and every time I’ve been on a team at Reynolds, there’s been a sense of brotherhood and family.”

For most coaches, a successful season is based on having a winning record. Many coaches want to have lots of wins and abilities to make a case for state championships. For Martin, a successful season isn’t necessarily about having the most wins or getting close to state championships, but how much you can see the team improve.

“You look at the win-loss record and it doesn’t say that we had a successful season but the way we grew as a team and went out to compete every night made it a successful year,” Martin said. “As you look at it from the coaching standpoint, we were able to get to what we wanted to accomplish so I think it was a successful year.”

Ultimately, Martin’s last season was unique, to say the least. It was a bittersweet ending, losing their final game to West Forsyth in the CPC tournament and being unable to make the playoffs. However, it was the end of Martin’s long and storied basketball coaching career.

“I’ve always wanted to coach and I got the opportunity to coach here at Reynolds,” Martin said. “It was a great place and great atmosphere with great kids and it has been wonderful.”