LOGAN, W.Va. — Kyle Garretson, a legendary high school coach in the Southern Coalfields, died Friday at 82.
Family members posted on the passing of Garretson, who had been in declining health for a number of years.
It was Garretson who first made the creek rise at the former Harts High School, taking the Lions to their first state title in 1969 at the final state tournament ever played at the Huntington Memorial Field House.
Garretson’s team qualified for several more state tournaments in the early 70s.
After turning over the program to his protégé, Harry Kirk in the mid 1970s, Garretson was able to watch his son, Reggie win a championship with Guyan Valley in 1979. Reggie Garretson would then go on to play football at Marshall.
Garretson was not as successful in Lincoln County politics as he was in basketball. He ran for several offices in his native county without success.
Service will be at 2 p.m. on Sunday at McGhee Handley Funeral Home in West Hamlin.