Charlie Coles and his high-scoring senior season at Bryan High School in 1958-59

Local basketball legend Charlie Coles spent his whole life involved in the game.

He was a very good player at Miami University, averaging double figures in scoring during his career and earning second-team All-Mid-American Conference honors both his junior and senior seasons.

Coles was also a great coach, starting at Sycamore High School and working his way up to being the head coach at his alma mater, Miami University, for 16 years.

But before all that, Coles played for Bryan High School in Yellow Springs, and his senior season was one for the record books at 42.1 points per game, the best ever for a Dayton-area player.

Transfer issues

As Coles entered his high school years, he was living with his grandparents in Springfield and attended Springfield High School.

He was on the basketball team, but decided to transfer back to Bryan High School in Yellow Springs because he “wasn’t getting to play enough.”

Coles made an immediate impact at Bryan, finishing the season with a 25-point average, including a 38.5-point average in league competition.

The transfer caused Bryan some trouble because it wasn’t initially reported properly and cleared. Although he was playing, he was technically an ineligible player. For Coles’ junior year, it was ruled that Bryan was allowed to keep its regular season victories but had to forfeit a win in the county tournament.

Soon after, the transfer was officially approved.

A prolific high school scorer

Coles scored 40 points against Bellbrook to open what would be a magical senior season in 1958-59.

A 6-foot-1 forward, he averaged 42.06 points in 19 regular season games for Bryan during the 1958-59 season.

He scored a school record 55 points against Shawnee and 53 against Cedarville. He scored 40 or more points 12 times.

His season low was 23 points.

A one-handed jump shot was his favorite weapon, and he could hit from the top of the circle to deep in the corners.

“He doesn’t shoot all the time,” Bryan Coach Jim Cook said that season, “but he usually connects on half his shots. We try to give him 25 shots a game.”

Cook added that Coles was not just a shooter, also excelling at defense, blocking shots and rebounding.

“We pressed,” Coles once said. “We scored a lot of points on turnovers. I got a lot of what we call garbage points.”

In a 72-57 losing effort to Greeneview, Coles scored 44 points, only 13 less than his team’s total.

Coles scored a total of 799 points during the regular season that year and sat out the third game of the season due to illness. The next closest scorer in Ohio Class A was Emil Hartman, who scored a total of 710 points.

At the end of the season, Coles was named to the Associated Press’ All-Ohio Class A basketball team.

Bryan High School later became Yellow Springs High School. His No. 33 jersey was retired by that school in 2000.

Credit: JIM WITMER

Blisters didn’t hold him back

Coles was hampered at the start of his senior season by blisters on the bottom of his feet.

“The blisters didn’t bother him at all in pre-season practice,” Cook said, “but they popped out just before the opening game.”

He didn’t practice at all during the week for the team’s first 10 games.

Coles put Vaseline packs on his feet to get through those games, but he was usually hurting by the fourth quarter.

Home-court advantage

High school basketball courts can vary in size, with the standard being 84 feet long by 50 feet wide.

Bryan High School was in the building that now houses the John Bryan Community Center. The basketball court was only 66 feet long.

“I could get a rebound, go to half court, shoot a jump shot and score. The small court was a big factor. No way could I score like that today,” Coles said in a 1996 interview.

More about Charlie

Coles scored 1,096 points in three seasons at Miami, graduating in 1965. He led Miami to the MAC crown in 1965.