Coaches

Bill Roberts

Year Inducted: 2003

Category: Coaches

Schools / Organizations:
Perry Junior High School, Fisher Junior High School
Ashton Franklin Center High School, Argenta-Oreana High School, Maroa-Forsyth High School

Biography:

Bill Roberts retired after 39 years of coaching boys’ and girls’ basketball where he posted a 471-387 record. He was 110-133 in 10 years as a boys’ coach and 361-254 in 25 years as a girls’ coach. Roberts started his career at the junior high level in Perry. He spent two seasons there before going to Fisher for two more seasons in junior high.

Roberts was the head boys’ coach at Franklin Center High School for four years with a 53-43 record. He returned to his alma mater, Argenta-Oreana, to coach the boys for six years. He transitioned to becoming the girls’ coach at Argenta-Oreana before finishing his career with a six-year tenure at Maroa-Forsyth. His teams won eight IHSA Regionals and two IHSA Sectionals.  His 1981-82 Argenta-Oreana team went 28-1 and reached the IHSA Class A quarterfinals. His teams also won several conference championships, two Macon County titles and more than 10 invitational tournaments, including six straight University High School events. Roberts was named Decatur Herald & Review Macon County Coach of the Year in 1982, 1984 and 1999.

 The 1957 Argenta-Oreana graduate was a basketball and baseball star who had scored all 29 of his team’s points at halftime in one game. At McKendree College (now McKendree University), he was a Prairie College Conference all-star three times and made the Who’s Who in Small College Basketball in 1959 and 1960. He is a member of the McKendree Athletic Hall of Fame for basketball and baseball and was honored by the IHSA in 2001 for 45 years of service as an official.