SPECIAL REPORT: Honors continue for Coach Bill

By Stephen Guilfoyle
Editor

One of Chester County's ball fields will be named for Coach Bill Watts.
Chester County Council on Wednesday voted to name one of its fields at the Dawson Drive sports complex for the longtime coach.
Watts is the coach who integrated Chester's Dixie League baseball, as The N&R remembered in a story last month.
There were a few tears in the eyes of Watts' family as they accepted the resolution.
It's not the only honor for Watts. After his death, the Chester County Gamecock Club chose to name a scholarship for him.
He was a huge fan of the Gamecocks, his brother Jim has told his fellow employees at The N&R. For decades, the brothers rode to Columbia with their season tickets. They not only never missed a home game for decades, they made it to most of the away games, until Bill's sickness and their age made it just a little too tough.
Bill's sickness was handled the way such things are in small towns. He went to see his doctor, but this deacon at First Baptist was put on a prayer list or two or six, or possibly every prayer list in the county.
For a brief moment - a few weeks - there was a thought of a miracle for Coach Bill. A test had been ordered to see if the worst was true. And the test came back negative. But at a followup after that moment of relief, he got a positive test.
A few months later, Coach Bill was gone.
Sometimes death is the only thing that makes people stop to think about who is among us. Loss can be the only thing that makes us appreciate those who deserve it.
But the honors for Bill Watts do not just come after his death.
A man reviled by some for daring to let black boys play with white boys, Bill Watts was also honored for doing what he did for all his young men, no matter what their color.
When he was out on the field, coaching his boys up into young men, setting an example by his quiet dignity, by never, ever, yelling at a boy, by telling them to "bow their necks" in the face of the occasional defeat or scorn from those afraid of change, Bill Watts also was appreciated by many here, in his day.
This column from the The Chester Reporter, reprinted by The N&R days after Watts' death, is just one example of when Coach Bill got to smell the roses.
Bill Watts' wife and a couple of other members of the family were at Chester County Council Wednesday to receive the resolution naming the ballfield for Coach.
It isn't actually the ballfield where his young teams played, but it's an honor deserved and, County Supervisor Carlisle Roddey said, long overdue.
Before handing the resolution to Martha Watts, delivered with a hug to all with her, Roddey, along with other members of the council, recalled Watts and his sports career. It wasn't just coaching young men. As a young man, Coach Bill played semi-pro ball for a Chester team.
Roddey said he was sick last week. Perhaps that was why his voice was hoarse when he talked about about Watts, about coaching boys, teaching young men, about setting a life example.
A guy like deserves the honors, no doubt.
But perhaps Roddey was choking back for other reasons as well.
"He was my friend."

Bill Watts