Lea Lessley retires as sports writer

He has survived eight sports editors.

And while never taking on the title of sports editor at Your TIMES, he has been a fixture of sports in Sequoyah County for nearly 40 years.

Lea Lessley of Sallisaw is an educator and coach, but he had “ink” in his blood long before that.

A graduate of Sallisaw Public Schools, Lessley said while in high school he took a journalism class taught by Jack Wofford.

“I think that’s when I first became interested in writing, right before I went to college,” he said.

Lessley decided to attend college at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah and while there, he took a journalism class taught by NSU newspaper advisor Dr. Ivan Holmes and worked on the school newspaper.

“I learned a lot from him and I also worked in sports information,” he said.

“Jim Patterson was the sports information director at NSU and was a big influence on me. Another was Jack Dobbins. He was the men’s basketball coach and later on, the athletic director. I continued to run into him or see him through the years, and he was such a good man.”

Lessley went on to graduate in 1977 with a major in education and minor in journalism.

“I took my first teaching job at Tiawah, which is located between Claremore and Inola, and I was there for seven years,” he said. “I started coaching the second year I was there.”

But even after he started teaching and coaching, he worked a summer at the Claremore Progress and another at the Catoosa newspaper.

“I just really enjoyed doing the newspaper,” he said.

From there, Lessley went on to teach at Mc-Curtain School for a year before coming to Sallisaw Public Schools to continue his teaching and coaching career.

“I worked at Sallisaw as an assistant high school girls basketball coach and did that for about seven years, too,” he said. “After that, I wasn’t in the high school anymore and started coaching at the middle school.”

It was also while working for NSU’s newspaper that he met future TIMES’ sports editor Chuck Reherman.

“Chuck is the one who got me started here,” Lessley remembers. “I began working at Your TIMES on June 6, 1988. I helped over the summer, and then I started helping Chuck keep stats.”

Lessley said he quickly went from keeping stats to helping with the annual football preview.

“I helped Chuck with those and then I continued to keep the Sallisaw game stats,” he said.

He went on to work at Your TIMES for over three decades, assisting the sports editor with photos, stories and stats.

When Vian Tenkiller News and Eastern Times-Register sports editor Bob Swofford left his position with those two newspapers, Lessley took over his duties in 2014.

“I have enjoyed working at Your TIMES. I will definitely miss the people I have worked with and I want to thank the Mayo family for all the opportunities I’ve had,” he said.

Publisher Jeff Mayo said he first met Lessley when he was his middle school basketball coach at Sallisaw. Lessley also worked for Mayo’s late father and longtime TIMES publisher, Jim Mayo.

“It has been an honor to have Lea with us,” Mayo said. “It’s been wonderful to work with him as an adult. We appreciate the great work he did to highlight our Sequoyah County athletes and their achievements over the decades.”

Lessley was honored on Wednesday with a comeand- go retirement celebration at Your TIMES.

David Seeley has been hired as Your TIMES’ new sports editor. He can be contacted at 918-775-4433 or davids@cookson.news.