A packed house showed up at the Rolla High School cafeteria Saturday night to watch eight inductees into the schools’ hall of fame, including Dave Roberts, who serves as sports editor for The Salem News, Phelps County Focus and Pulaski County Weekly.
Members of the RHS Hall of Fame class of 2022 include former students Marvin Breuer, Eric Berg, Dr. Ingrid Nygaard, Robert Barefield and Roberts; former principal Dr. Roger Berkbuegler; former teacher Leland Womack; and the 1993 Bulldog boys’ soccer team.
Roberts, class of 1979, started his sports journalism career as a senior in high school, beginning as a part-time sportswriter for the Rolla Daily News in the summer of 1978. He has covered area sports, including all athletic teams of his alma mater, for more than 40 years. In 1980, at the age of 19, he became the youngest sports editor of a Missouri daily newspaper.
Except for a five-year absence, Roberts served as the Daily News sports editor from 1980 through 2016. During that time he also worked as sports editor for the Waynesville Daily Guide for three years and provided weekly stories for the St. James Leader-Journal and later the St. James Press.
After a year away, in 2017 he returned to his familiar role of covering area athletics as the sports editor of the newly-formed Phelps County Focus newspaper and The Salem News.
In all or parts of five decades Roberts has overseen the selection of football and basketball student-athletes to the Central Missouri Media all-district teams.
Roberts was presented the Distinguished Service Award by the Missouri Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association in 2017. Over the years he has earned more than 40 writing awards from United Press International (UPI), the Missouri Associated Press (AP) and the Missouri Press Foundation’s Better Newspaper Contest. In particular, he was voted Missouri’s top sports columnist numerous times in the small daily newspaper category (1982, 1984, 1985 by UPI; 1995 by AP; 2011 by Better Newspaper Contest). He also has won many awards for sports features and sports photography and was part of a newsroom that earned several first-place awards for best sports pages and best sports special sections.
As an athlete Roberts was a lifetime drug-free powerlifter, winning state and regional championships as well as setting state, regional and national records. In 1995 he finished fourth in the 275-pound weight class when the World Drug-Free Powerlifting Federation held its World Bench Press Championships in the United States.
Dave and Donna Roberts, RHS Class of 1982, owned and operated The Frame Shop in Rolla for 20 years. They have two daughters, Ashley (RHS Class of 2003) and Alicia (RHS Class of 2005), and 10 grandchildren.
