Sell receives Sonny Boyd Volunteer Assistant Volunteer Coach Award

The Roanoke Valley Wrestling Hall of Fame inducted four new members and handed thousands of dollars worth of scholarships at its banquet Monday evening. The event was held at the Holiday Inn at Tanglewood Mall.

Among the scholarship winners was Lord Botetourt senior Jake DuVall, who won a $1,000 Ken Shelton scholarship. Jake plans on attending Virginia Tech next year.

Other Shelton Scholarship winners were Lee Pritchard from Patrick Henry, Skylar Akers from Franklin County and Adam Catron from William Byrd, who also won the Roy Stanley Outstanding Achievement Award. Stan Parker Memorial Scholarships, also for $1,000, went to Jeremiah Anderson of Patrick County and Dylan Gusler of Bassett.

Randall Sell, who coached at Read Mountain Middle School and volunteered with the Lord Botetourt High School team, was presented the Sonny Boyd Assistant Volunteer Coach award.

Patrick Henry took home two of the top honors, as Theo Thaxton was named the “Wrestler of the Year” and PH coach Jesse Anderson was named the high school “Coach of the Year.”

The highlight of the night was the induction of four new Hall of Fame members, Barry Mason, Charlie Bandy, Daryl Drew and Jan Sessor.

Mason wrestled at Fieldale Collinsville High School where he was a three-time state placer. As a sophomore, Barry placed 5th in the AA State Tournament. As a junior, he had a record of 20-3 was the AA State Tournament runner up. Barry finished his senior year with a 22-1 record with the only loss coming in the AA State finals. He ended his high school career with a 60-18 record.

Barry continued his wrestling at Virginia Tech where he graduated in 1985. Barry was a four-year letter winner.  After college he served as an assistant coach for two years at Lafayette High School and another year at Dunbar High School in Lexington, Ky.

Barry joined the Roanoke Valley Wrestling Officials Association in 1993. During his 23-year career he has officiated 11 state tournaments, Super 32 Tournament, and numerous Ron Childress tournaments in addition to the regular season tournaments and dual matches. He has been an Executive Committee member for the Roanoke Valley Wrestling Officials.

Bandy wrestled for Coach Larry Hall at Northside High School where he graduated in 1978. As a sophomore, he had a record of 17-6-1, and placed fourth in the Roanoke Invitational Tournament. Charlie was the District champion and placed third in the Northwest Region. He was named to the Roanoke Metro Second Team. Charlie was the District champion again as a junior and placed third in the Northwest Region Tournament ending the year with a 16-2-2 record. As a senior, he won the District and was the Northwest Region champion. Charlie was the AAA State runner-up with his only loss of the year coming in the finals.

Charlie participated in the Hampton AAU Tournament where he was the runner-up. He also wrestled for the VA-USA All-Stars against the Polish Jr. National Team and against the Norwegian Jr. Olympic AAU Team.

Charlie continued wrestling at UNC Pembroke where he lettered two years. While there he placed second in the Braves Tournament and won the Southeast Conference. Unfortunately he was injured the other two years and could not wrestle.

For over 20 years, he has given back to the sport of wrestling through his work at tournaments. Charlie has helped at State, Region, District, and Conference Tournaments, as well as, most regular season tournaments as a scorekeeper or timer. He also has helped with the Ron Childress Tournament and the Hokie Open. Not only was he there during the tournament, he has helped put down the mats prior to the start of the event and stayed around to roll them up at the end. “Dog” has put together and hosted several reunions for Northside wrestlers.

Drew began his wrestling career while attending Ruffner Middle School in 1971. Since Ruffner had no wrestling program at the time, Daryl went over to William Fleming High School to wrestle. In 1973, he wrestled as a freshman for Fleming in the AAA classification and placed third in the District tournament at 167 pounds. The next year he moved up to the 185-pound weight class and placed second in the District tournament.

As a junior, Daryl won the District tournament, placed second in the Northwest Region tournament and fourth in the AAA State tournament in the Unlimited weight class. His senior year brought an undefeated regular season with first place finishes in both the District and Region tournaments along with a sixth place finish in the AAA State tournament in the 185-pound weight class. Daryl was named the Roanoke Valley Wrestler of the Year and was a three time Most Outstanding Wrestler in the Christmas tournament.

Daryl earned a four-year wrestling scholarship to North Carolina A&T State University where he continued his successful wrestling career. As a freshman, Daryl wrestled at 190 pounds and took first place in the Aggie Invitational and the Pembroke Invitational. He placed fourth in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The next year brought second place finishes in the Campbell College Invitational and Pembroke Invitational Open and a championship in the Aggie Invitational. He ended the season with a fourth place finish in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. As a junior, he took the championship in the Pembroke Open and was named the Outstanding Wrestler. Daryl finished the season placing third in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. He ended his college career with a second place finish in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

After college, Daryl coached wrestling at Hammond Middle School where they were four- time City Champs with a 32 consecutive win streak over three seasons. The team had a record of 40-4 under Coach Drew’s leadership. He also coached wrestling at Ruffner Middle School. For a time, Daryl coached girls basketball at Breckinridge Middle School, earning the longest winning streak of any middle school program in Roanoke City history. They were unbeaten for four years and were the 2007 and 2008 Girls Basketball City Champs.

Daryl has refereed for 20 years in wrestling, soccer, track and field, baseball, softball, football, and volleyball in Indiana, Illinois and Virginia. He is presently a member of the Roanoke Valley Wrestling Officials Association.

Sessor began wrestling in middle school, first at Breckenridge under Ron Childress and then at William Byrd Middle under Al Minter. He continued wrestling in high school at William Byrd under Barry Trent and Mike Gibson.

Jan was a two-time District Champion, two-time Region Champion, and placed twice in the State tournament and was a State runner-up.

Jan went to Mount Union College where he was a member of the wrestling team one year. Then he spent a year on the wrestling team at VA Tech.

Jan’s coaching career covers two years as an assistant at William Byrd. One year he worked with his former coach, Barry Trent, and the next year he worked with Adam Williams. He also spent a year at Byrd Middle coaching with his former middle school coach, and a year as an assistant at Radford High School with Buddy Shull.

Officiating wrestling was the next step in Jan’s wrestling involvement. He was a member of the Roanoke Valley Wrestling Officials Association from 1997-2009. During that time, he refereed numerous middle school and high school matches, as well as, multiple district and regional tournaments. He returned to William Byrd to officiate two Big Orange Tournaments. He also was a member of the Big Orange Tournament and Seeding Committee for over five years.

Some of his other wrestling accomplishments include working with Dave Ross and Otis Dowdy to televise the Group A and AA State Wrestling Tournaments and contributing to and providing information for TV, radio, and newspaper coverage of wrestling. Jan produced a column for the Sports Journal, entitled The Mat Corner to promote local wrestling. He also worked with the Virginia Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Jan was instrumental in restarting the Roanoke Valley Wrestling Association after it had been on hiatus for a number of years. He served as president and assisted in the creation of the Ron Childress Tournament and was instrumental in starting the Roanoke Valley Wrestling Academy which provided local wrestlers a place to train with local high school and middle school coaches as well as college coaches. Jan continued serving on the RVWA Board of Directors. During this time the RVWA developed the awards and scholarships that continue to be given each year at this banquet.

He played a role as one of the founders of the Roanoke Valley Hall of Fame working with Stan Parker. Jan worked with Otis Dowdy as co-chairman of the Hall of Fame Selection.