This Saturday, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) will induct former Battle Mountain head varsity baseball and basketball coach Worth Nelson to the hall of fame in Reno.
Nelson, one of the great athletes at Battle Mountain High School, graduated in 1979.
Ten years later, Nelson would return to coach and teach at the school in 1989. Nelson coached Longhorn boys basketball from 1989 to 2013 and baseball from 1990 to 2015, leading the Longhorns to over 850 wins in his coaching career.
“At a 10-year class reunion I came back for, Max Bunch talked me into going to talk to Fred Huckaby who was the principal at the time, and he offered me a job and talked me into coming back to give it a shot. It was him that I have to thank for all this,” Nelson said on coming back to coach in Battle Mountain.
During Nelson’s baseball coaching career, he held a record of 445-273, leading the Longhorns to the 2002 state championship title, six state runner-up titles and eight northern league championships.
His coaching peers voted Nelson as a two-time state coach of the year and five-time northern league coach of the year.
Nelson also holds the third most wins in Nevada baseball only trailing Ron McNutt of Carson High School (1976-2034, 29 seasons, 781-289 total) and Rodger Fairless of Eldorado, Valley & Green Valley High School (493-80).
“There have been a lot of good years, and the kids have asked me all the time comparing the teams,” Nelson said. “Obviously, the state championship, the state playoffs games and the year in 1994 in both basketball and baseball,” Nelson said on some of the special seasons he has experienced. "In the quarterfinals, we beat Manogue by one, then beat Yerington by one on a last-second three-pointer in semi-finals, before we faced Virgin Valley in the championship. But just that group of kids we lost Rick Cross, Brian Engleson and Jason Hall who are these giant guys that were good and got to the state playoffs. Then the next year you watch those guys walk out the door and wonder now what do we do.”
“Then you end up with Mikah Tolbert, Pete Scheffel, John Corbit Mike Hoy and Jeremy Edgar. Looking back, give me three guards over two or three big guys. Because those guys didn’t know they weren’t supposed to win and a lot of those guys were on the baseball team when we beat Manogue in the state baseball championships. There have been a lot; it is hard to compare,” continued Nelson.
During Nelson’s basketball career, he led the Longhorns to over 400 wins, winning three northern league titles and two state runner-up trophies along the way. Nelson, who coached varsity boys basketball and one-year varsity girls basketball, decided late in his coaching career to switch the junior varsity boys team.
“Coaching two sports, I know a lot of people do it but having five kids and things like that it was really time-consuming,” Nelson said on why he switched to coach JV boys basketball. "When you are the head coach, it was just a lot and seemed like I got home later and later. We would get done with the state championships on a Saturday then had to turn around and get ready for baseball tryouts.”
Nelson left for Reno on Tuesday, for induction into the NIAA hall of fame inside the Peppermill on Saturday.
He will get some video interviews done on Wednesday, and then he will attend a banquet award ceremony on Thursday evening before being officially inducted into the hall of fame Saturday night.
“My wife has been a rock for the family forever and my mom has been a staunch supporter in any programs I was coaching and financially supported any fundraisers the teams held,” Nelson said. “We wore out two suburbans and a couple of cars with my wife chasing that yellow bus around. Also, the thing that gets left out is the hundreds or thousands of kids that I got to work with over the years; without them I don’t any of this would happen.”
Nelson remains in Battle Mountain continuing to hunt in his off time and occasionally appears as a substitute teacher for Battle Mountain High School.
He has recently joined the Lander County Wildlife Advisory board, wanting to help preserve the wildlife in Lander County. Nelson's legacy now lives on in the NIAA Hall of Fame.
