A mainstay in Northern Virginia, Covington became the Potomac High coach in 1994 and retired in 2021.

“He’s been the cornerstone of baseball in Prince William County,” Hylton coach Jason Ritenour said on social media when Covington stepped down.

Covington had a record of 469-186 in 28 seasons with 15 district titles, two regional crowns and a pair of state championship runner-up teams.

He also had 76 players go on to the college level, and five played pro ball. Covington coached in the Commonwealth Games of Virginia for 31 years, with 18 gold medals and seven silver.

Covington also coached American Legion Post 28 four seasons and captured three district crowns. In his one season in the Clark Griffith League, he led his squad to the regular-season title and a tournament runner-up finish. 

Covington sent several players to the pro ranks, including Danny Lopaze, who was drafted out of VCU by the Cubs in 2003. Another one of his players was Billy Deck, who reached the Double-A level with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Guzzo, who passed away Oct. 10, found success at two of the premier Division I programs in the mid-Atlantic region: Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Among his players at ODU were pitcher Justin Verlander, who has won 262 games in the majors and is a three-time Cy Young Award winner, and Matt Quatraro, the current manager of the Kansas City Royals. At a celebration of life for Guzzo on Oct. 20 at ODU’s Bud Metheny Ballpark, Quatraro said, according to ODU’s website, “I would not have missed being here. He was such a great person. He affected the lives of so many people.”

His players at VCU included future Major League pitcher Jerry Dipoto, now the president of baseball operations for the Seattle Mariners.

A former coach at Norfolk Catholic High School, Guzzo posted a mark of 102-66 at North Carolina Wesleyan from 1978-82, 329-300-1 at VCU from 1983-94 and 303-252 at ODU from 1995-2004. 

He joined the North Carolina State staff in 2005, scouted for the Red Sox in 2007, coached at Louisburg College from 2008-10 and later coached at Nash Central High School before returning to Old Dominion in 2017.

“He was the main reason I came to Old Dominion,” said Tim Hummel, an upstate New York native who played in the majors for the Reds and former head coach at Cape Henry Collegiate, on the ODU website.

A former infielder for the Eagles, Kendall was an assistant at Bridgewater before taking over for Tom Kinder in 1985. 

“I was very fortunate to take over the Bridgewater College baseball program at Dr. Tom Kinder’s recommendation to then President Dr. Wayne Geisert,” Kendall said. “I played three years for Coach Kinder and was his assistant after graduation and prior to taking the head position. As a player and young assistant coach, I was blessed to be around many knowledgeable baseball minds throughout my lifetime, including Ray Lynn Heatwole (BC alum, 2023 VBCA Hall of Famer). As a head coach I took both pieces of knowledge from many and my experience as a player as I formulated my own coaching philosophy and style in leading the Bridgewater College program.”

Kendall had a record of 790-528-10 and led Bridgewater to 12 Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament championships and 13 ODAC regular season titles. In addition, Kendall was honored as the conference’s Coach of the Year six times.

Before stepping down in 2019, he was the Virginia Sports Information state coach of the year in 2014 when the Eagles won the ODAC title and advanced to the regional tournament. He continues to be the athletic director at Bridgewater, a role he has held since 2000.

His players at Bridgewater who were drafted: Buck Gordon, who played in the minors for the Cubs in 1994-95; and Robert Moose, who was taken by Atlanta and played for the Danville Braves for part of the 2000 season.

Lavelle, a native of Scranton, Pa., pulled off a rare feat: a Major League veteran who was able to win for the long haul at the high school level.

A lefty pitcher, Lavelle was an All-Star in the National League twice with the Giants while posting an overall record of 80-77 with an ERA of 2.93 with 136 saves. His 647 mound appearances are good for the San Francisco franchise record. He also pitched with the Blue Jays before finishing his career with Oakland in 1987. 

In two stints at Greenbrier Christian, Lavelle won more than 500 games. In one stretch, his Gators won the Virginia Independent Schools State Championship four times in a row, and Lavelle was named Coach of the Year for each of those years.

Lavelle won his 500^th game at Greenbrier Christian in 2014 and he retired after the 2016 season, with 12 state titles.

After coaching at the high school level, he guided the program at Bryant & Stratton College for four years and also has served as a pitching coach at the school. Lavelle went into the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.

“I was a Giants fan growing up, so I was blessed to be able to play with them for all those years,” he told MLB.com in 2021.

A former baseball standout at ODU, Lee was a freshman All-American in 1985, a fifth-round pick of California in 1987 and played parts of four seasons in the Angels’ farm system.

In the minors, he was a California League All-Star in 1989 as he swiped 66 bases and the next year, he was an All-Star in the Texas League, hitting .297 with 45 steals.

After his playing career, he was the head baseball coach at Great Bridge in Chesapeake, where he won 11 Southeastern District titles and state championships in 2003 and 2011.

His program at Great Bridge High School produced 50 future collegiate baseball players, including Ryan VanAssche, Chris Joyce, Jason Barker and Drew Suttmiller. In addition, Lee helped four former Wildcats move on to professional baseball, including Major League All-Star and top-overall pick of the 2005 draft, Justin Upton. An outfielder, Upton hit 325 homers in the majors – tied with Willie Horton for the most by a player born in Virginia.

Lee was an assistant coach at Norfolk State in 2015 when the Spartans set a then-program record with 27 wins. The next year – his fifth with the program – Norfolk posted 29 wins and won the MEAC Baseball Championship with a 1-0 win over Bethune-Cookman. He was inducted into Old Dominion University’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994.

A utility player at Longwood University, Lowery has continued an impressive coaching tree that includes his college mentor Buddy Bolding, a member of the 2023 VBCA Hall of Fame class.

“Coach Bolding was my baseball coach at Longwood and was such a positive impact on my coaching career,” Lowery said. “Much of my philosophy of coaching is modeled at what he did. He worked hard to make you better every day and was truthful with you.”

Another strong influence was Ron Atkins, the former University of Richmond and J.R. Tucker High School coach who went into the VBCA Hall of Fame in 2022.

Lowery coached at Clover Hill from 1986 to 2006 and won 276 games with a winning percentage of .660. In 11 years at Cosby, he won 194 games to give him a total of 470. Combined, his teams won 11 district titles and gained 21 regional berths, and he took his team to the state tournament six times. His 1994 team won a state title and was ranked No. 10 in the nation by USA Today.

Lowery won his 400^th game in 2013 as Cosby beat James River to add the Dominion District tournament title to its regular-season crown.

His son Jake won the Johnny Bench Award as the top college catcher in the country while at James Madison University and now is manager of the Fredericksburg Nationals. His other son Luke played in the minors for Arizona. 

“He was the type of player who came to practice every day and played hard,” former Longwood standout David Mitchell said on a podcast about Lowery. “His knowledge of the game was just tremendous. He was the best teammate anybody could ever have.”

Norwood, a native of Maine, came to Virginia after an impressive pro career as a player and manager. In 28 seasons at then Washington-Lee, he won 19 district and 14 regional titles with a record of 384-180 from 1959 to 1989.

That was after he pitched in the minors for the Red Sox and Senators from 1950-59 and won 14 games in a season twice. After that, he managed in the minors for the Minnesota Twins from 1960-63 and with the Kansas City Royals in 1969.

In 1961 while guiding Wytheville in the Appalachian League, his top hitter was Tony Oliva, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022. A lefty hitter, Oliva batted .410 under Norwood with 81 RBI in just 249 at-bats.

One of Norwood’s top players at the high school level was the late Clay Kirby, who was drafted in the third round out of Washington-Lee by the Cardinals in 1966. The right-hander pitched in the majors with the Padres and Reds and won 75 games. Another top player was pitcher Mike Slade, who ended his pro career at the Double-A level with Texas in 1972.

Norwood, a member of the Virginia High School Hall of Fame (1992), Arlington Sports Hall of Fame (1998) and the W&L Hall of Fame (2002), passed away in 2003. One of his sons, Scott, played football and soccer at JMU and in the NFL as a kicker for the Buffalo Bills. Another son, Steve, played baseball at the University of Virginia and in the minors for the Milwaukee Brewers. His daughter, Sandra, was a multi-sport standout in high school.

Not many high school mentors can say they coached a possible Hall of Famer. But Peery, who passed in 2019, did more than help send Billy Wagner to Ferrum and a big-league career.

He was the Tazewell coach from 1979 to 2013, missing just the 2005 season for health reasons. He won more than 400 games at the school and helped Wagner and others advance to high levels. The Bulldogs won 10 Southwest District regular-season and tournament titles, two Region IV championships and five state tournament appearances.

A lefty pitcher, Wagner had 422 saves in the Major Leagues – the most among Virginia natives and more saves combined than the next eight on the all-time Virginia list. Another Tazewell pitcher, Bean Stringfellow, was drafted out of Virginia Tech by the Braves and reached Triple-A Richmond in the Atlanta system in 1987.

Zak Wasilewski, also a Tazwell product, pitched in the minors for the Blue Jays while Trey Lambert, another Peery product, pitched in the minors for the Rangers, Nationals and Marlins after starring at Liberty University.

The school’s baseball stadium is named in Peery’s honor. And he is included in a mural that depicts prominent local Black residents at the Tazewell County Courthouse – which was unanimously approved by local officials in 2022.

Thacker started in left field on Liberty High School’s 1977 state title team for Jim Cutler, a VBCA Hall of Fame member. “I enjoyed my years playing for him,” Thacker said in a local newspaper. He later played at Longwood for another VBCA Hall of Famer, Buddy Bolding.

At Jefferson Forest, Thacker also produced winners. He retired in 2013 after 28 years at the helm in central Virginia. He posted a mark of 424-205 with 12 Seminole District titles, seven district tournament titles, three regional titles, a state runner-up and a state title in 1988 – the Cavaliers blanked York 5-0.

Thacker passed the reins to one of his former players – Ryan Gilleland, who took over in 2013 after starring at the University of Virginia, where he is in the school’s baseball Hall of Fame. The field at Jefferson Forest is named in Thacker’s honor.

Other top players at Jefferson Forest under Thacker were Anthony Poindexter, who was drafted by the Marlins in 1994, and Stanley Hurt, who was drafted out of Norfolk State by the Cardinals in 1989 and was the winning pitcher in the 1988 state title game. Poindexter was an All-American football standout at Virginia, played in the NFL with Baltimore and is now on the football coaching staff at Penn State.

The 2024 VBCA Baseball Impact Award honors the late Dr. William M.T. Forrester, a pioneering figure in Virginia’s baseball community and civil rights advocate. Dr. Forrester founded the Metropolitan Junior Baseball League (MJBL) in Richmond, Virginia, in 1966 to provide inner-city youth, especially African-American children, with opportunities to play organized baseball during the era of segregation. Inspired after his son was excluded from local Little League teams due to racial barriers, Dr. Forrester created MJBL as an inclusive league open to all youth. 

Beyond baseball, MJBL incorporated educational and cultural programs to support the development of well-rounded, productive citizens. Over the decades, MJBL has grown into a national network with teams across the United States and the Caribbean, continuing Dr. Forrester’s mission to uplift disadvantaged youth through sports, education and cultural enrichment. The VBCA honors Dr. Forrester’s enduring impact on baseball and his legacy of inclusion and opportunity for all.

Daniel Rollins is the VBCA Coach of the Year for 2024. Under Rollins, the Paul D. Camp Hurricanes qualified for the NJCAA Division III World Series for the second year in a row after winning the NJCAA Region 10 championship.  Rollins also was named the NJCAA Region 10 Coach of the Year for the second year in a row.

Rollins was named head coach at Paul D. Camp Community College in 2019. He took over the Hurricanes program after spending two years at Bryant & Stratton College. At BSC he led the recruiting effort and managed the pitching staff on game days. 

Previously, Rollins was an associate scout for the Cincinnati Reds and the Atlanta Braves. He also spent two years as the Director of College Recruiting Operations for the Baseball Factory. At the Factory he worked directly with helping players successfully get to the collegiate level and was also on the Under Amour All-American Game Selection Committee.

Rollins, a native of Hartfield, Va., also spent time as an assistant coach at George Washington University, Randolph-Macon College and George Mason University. He played collegiately at Randolph-Macon.