Robert Anderson chosen for Virginia High School Hall of Fame

Robert Anderson wrote hundreds of stories on high school athletes for The Roanoke Times.

Now its his turn to be recognized.

The Virginia High School League announced Wednesday that Anderson has been chosen for the 2025 class of the VHSL Hall of Fame.

Anderson graduated from Martinsville High School in 1974.

The class 50th anniversary reunion was held earlier this year at the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville.

We were in there with all the old bones and dinosaurs.

It wasnt until we left that I looked up and saw that the name of the room we had it in was called the hall of ancient life, Anderson, 68, cracked Wednesday in a phone interview.

I guess this is what happens when you become a dinosaur, these kind of awards.

Anderson was a sports writer for The Bristol Herald Courier from 1978 to 2001, covering high school sports, NASCAR, and Virginia Tech football and basketball.

He was hired by the Roanoke Times in 2001 to oversee its high school sports coverage.

He informed and dazzled readers of The Roanoke Times with his writing until he retired in June 2022.

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I think I could find unusual stories that lay a little bit below the surface, he said.

Telling some stories a little bit different than your ballgame scores.

The Roanoke County resident is part of an eight-person class that will be inducted in April at a Charlottesville hotel.

Anderson learned a few months ago that he was chosen for the media category.

He was nominated by former Salem High School athletic director Sandy Hadaway for consideration for the hall.

Anderson played basketball and tennis for Martinsville.

Im obviously not getting inducted for that, he cracked.

Anderson is embarrassed that he will be the first Martinsville graduate to enter the Virginia High School Hall of Fame.

Ridiculous, he said.

The reason is, mostly people dont nominate their athletes or their coaches.

Good Lord, (Martinsville has worthy candidates such as) Shawn Moore, Jeff Adkins, ...

Lou Whitaker, Carl Hairston, Sonny Wade, Dennis Mahan.

People, I dont think they know the history of their schools.

...

People are busy in their day-to-day life, and I dont think its on a lot of peoples radar.

I wish people would really make an effort to get your folks nominated.

Anderson loved being a sports writer.

A lot of jobs, youre looking at the clock and youre wondering when its ever going to get to 5 oclock, he said.

I never looked at it that way.

I was the opposite.

I always looked up and wished there were a little more time left in the day to get done what I needed to do.

It was exciting in a lot of ways.

Andersons favorite high school team to cover was the Cave Spring boys basketball squad that won the 2002 Group AAA state title.

The star of that squad was former Duke and NBA guard, and current Los Angeles Lakers coach, J.J.

Redick.

Redick missed six games that season with a foot injury.

The team was just 9-9 when he rejoined the lineup in February 2002.

After losing Redicks first game back, the Knights won their final nine games, including the title games of the district, regional, and state tournaments.

I ranked them No.

1 in Timesland with a 9-10 record when he came back and some guy from somewhere called and just raised hell about it, Anderson said.

And then of course they won the whole thing that year.

The guy didnt call me back.

Anderson considers his most memorable high school sports article to be the one he wrote in 2007, 10 years after Pulaski Countys Lee Cook collapsed on the ground following a routine on-field collision with William Flemings Jamie Penn in a football game at Victory Stadium.

Cook died of cardiac arrest triggered by a blow to the front part of his body.

Penn was shot to death in 2005 at the age of 23.

Its a sad story, Anderson said.

Theres just something about that story and talking to (the late football coaches) Joel Hicks and Kila Miller about their memories of that and (talking to) the families of both those young guys and how that whole thing intertwined.

Anderson also remembers the article he wrote for The Roanoke Times in 2005 on the late Surry County boys basketball coach Joseph Ellis, who guided his team to a state title while battling cancer.

Ellis died two months after the article was published.

Anderson is also proud of the All-Timesland special sections he put out at the end of each school year, saluting standouts in every sport.

He said his favorite high school athlete to cover was Calvin Talford, who was a multi-sport star at Castlewood High in Russell County before playing basketball at East Tennessee State and minor-league baseball in Martinsville.

Anderson enjoyed covering VHSL state championship games, meets, and matches.

Probably the most intense event in high school to cover is that packed state wrestling tournament at Salem Civic Center, he said.

He especially loved covering the state high school track and field championships.

Ive always liked track and field, he said.

Anderson was named the winner of the sports-writing portfolio category by the Virginia Press Association in 2018 and 2022, finishing second in that category three other times.

The former Emory & Henry tennis standout was named a top-10 finalist in the sports feature category by the Associated Press Sports Editors for a 2017 story on the late Roanoke tennis legend Carnis Poindexter.

He was given the E.B.

Whitmore Award by the Southwest Virginia Coaches Association and the 2006 Marshall Johnson Award by the Virginia High School Coaches Association.

Anderson still writes about once or twice a month for The Cardinal News website.

He also writes occasionally for VirginiaPreps.com.

The new VHSL Hall class also includes former Fluvanna County football, basketball, and track and field standout Luther Bates, former Petersburg football and track and field standout Jerome Mathis, Heritage-Leesburg gymnastics coach and former Broad Run gymnastics coach Jennifer Aubel, former Mills Godwin tennis and basketball coach and former Douglas Freeman tennis coach Mark Seidenberg, Tabb field hockey coach Wendy Wilson, the late Tabb athletic director Willard Hunt, Virginia Beach City Public Schools athletic administrator David Rhodes, and VHSL state debate director Bob Seabolt.

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