Former Hillcrest Coach Recovering After Emergency Surgery

Former Hillcrest High boys' basketball coach George Singleton remains in a Lexington, S.C. hospital in intensive care following an emergency brain surgery this past Sunday.

Singleton, who coached the Rams for six years through the 2004 season, had surgery after his blood pressure became so high it caused a vessel in his brain to leak, family friend Elton Harkness told The Greenville News.

He currently remains in the immediate care ICU at Lexington Medical Center, according to Harkness.

“He’s able to talk. That’s a good sign,” Harkness said. “But the road to recovery is going to be a pretty long road, and his family is going to need support from family members and the community also.”

Singleton, currently an executive for an Upstate nonprofit organization, was a star at Furman University and played professionally in Europe after being a second round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1984 before joining the Rams in the 1990s.

“George took the Hillcrest basketball program and used it almost as a ministry for young guys, making them aspire to be more than just athletes, to be student-athletes and better people,” Talmadge Gray, whom Singleton succeeded as the Rams’ coach, told the newspaper.