Reno coach Sellers to be inducted in national prep hall

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 | 8:28 a.m.

RENO, Nev. AP) - Joe Sellers, who has won eight state titles in a 25 years of coaching high school football in Reno, will become only the second Nevadan to be inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Sellers coached football for 23 seasons at Wooster High (1976 (1998)- and will start his third year at Bishop Manogue in the fall. He'll be inducted in late July into the 8-year-old Hall of Fame in Tulsa, Okla.

"This is not all about me. I've had the support of so many people," Sellers said.

"It's all about the players, your coaching staff and also all of the support I've gotten from my wife and my kids as well as all of the parents," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Bill Bobier, who won 604 games in a 30-year career as boys basketball coach at Las Vegas Valley High School, is the only other Nevadan in the hall. He was inducted in 1998.

Sellers, who also serves as Bishop Manogue's athletic director, has won 231 games and eight state titles in his 25-year career.

The Miners beat Truckee, 37-0, in November to win the Class 3A state title, capping an 11-0 season. Wooster's football field -- Joe Mac Sellers Stadium -- is also named in his honor.

"Usually these deals are for guys after they are 6-feet under," Sellers joked.

The NHSACA convention will be in Tulsa from July 27 to Aug. 1. The Hall of Fame luncheon will be July 30 with the awards presentation on July 31.

"Each member of the Hall of Fame receives a beautiful Irish crystal bowl with our logo on it, his name and the year," said Dick Galiette, the NHSACA executive director.

"We just thought eight years ago that we needed to do this for the coaches. It's really become a great thing."

Galiette said the Hall of Fame now boasts about 250 members. There will be 30 other coaches inducted in July along with Sellers. Coaches are nominated for the Hall of Fame by their states respective coaching associations.

Each state can nominate no more than two coaches for the Hall of Fame each year. All coaches who are nominated, Galiette said, are inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Sellers, who grew up in Bakersfield, Calif., played football for two seasons at the University of Nevada under head coach Dick Trachok in 1967 and 1968.

"This is quite an honor," Sellers said. "You don't really put something like this into perspective until you actually go down there and do it. There's no telling how you are going to feel until you get there. But it is very humbling."

Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal