In 1947 the Group I Coaches Association started considering the formation of a state coaches association.
In the fall of 1948 the first meeting was held in the basement of the old John Marshall Hotel. The meeting was attended by 40 to 50 Group I coaches. They agreed to meet three times a year; fall, winter, and spring. Roland Day (Petersburg High School) was elected the first president. On March 18, 1956, the association was expanded to include all coaches in Group I, II and III. President Pete Rockwell (Washington-Lee High School) appointed a 25-man committee to formulate plans for an all Virginia High School Coaches Association. By December 1957 a definite purpose and constitution for the VHSCA had been adopted. The association agreed to work to promote a better relationship between coaches, facilitate an annual coach’s clinic, and to increase communication between coaches and administrators. In 1958 there were 269 coaches affiliated with the all Virginia High School Coaches Association. The first Service Award was presented in 1961 to Suey Eason of Hampton High School for his contribution to coaching. A Coaches Placement Service was started in 1962.In 1965 theassociation presented the first Media Award to Marshall Johnson. By 1968, 1,219 coaches had joined the VHSCA. The basketball and football all-star games started in 1972. The clinic was at the Salem-Roanoke Valley Civic Center. The games drew record crowds of 4,500 for basketball and 13,000 for football. The football game was held at Victory Stadium. The 1976 VHSCA Clinic, at the Salem-Roanoke Valley Civic Center, drew a record 1,130 coaches. The ’76 clinic saw the greatest number of women coaches to ever attend the clinic. The association’s first East-West all-star baseball game was held at the University of Virginia on June 19, 1976. The VHSCA hosted the NHSACA convention at the Hampton Coliseum June 17-22, 1977. The first East-West all-star girls basketball game was played in 1980.The first East-West all-star softball game was held in Lynchburg in 1990.The first East-West all-star volleyball game was held in Hampton in 1994.The first East-West all-star girls soccer game was held in Hampton in 1999. Today, over 9,500 coaches representing 293 public high schools are members of the Virginia High School Coaches Association. |