In perhaps his last interview, former Lynchburg College standout Brad Babcock told this reporter how he got his start as a college baseball coach.
“I had coached at prep schools in New Hampshire and Colorado, and I came back to get my master’s degree at Lynchburg,” Babcock said in a telephone interview in the spring of 2020, just a few weeks before he passed away on June 4 of that year.
After being an assistant at Lynchburg in 1970, Babcock took over the young baseball program at what is now JMU. He coached the Dukes from 1971 through 1989 and posted a record of 558-249-4 and led JMU to the College World Series in 1983 – the first school from Virginia to reach Omaha.
Babcock was recently named part of the 2025 Hall of Fame class of the Virginia Baseball Coaches Association (VBCA), which will hold its ceremony Dec. 4 at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business during its annual convention. The VBCA will honor its 2025 coach of the year and Baseball Impact Award recipient at the event, which takes place from 6-8 p.m. at Darden.
The reception is open to the public, and tickets can be acquired at VBCA.org.
Former Virginia head coach Dennis Womack is the Baseball Impact Award winner in 2025 from the VBCA.
“Womack spent 23 years as head coach of the University of Virginia before retiring to move into an assistant athletic director position for the Cavaliers,” noted the VBCA. “During his tenure, Virginia won the 1996 Atlantic Coast Conference championship and made two NCAA Tournament appearances. Among the players he coached and mentored were Ryan Zimmerman, Seth Greisinger, Mark Reynolds, Javier Baez, Brian Buchanan and Joe Koshanksy. Womack, the 1985 ACC Coach of the Year, also impacted baseball in the Commonwealth by joining with Scott Gines to found the Best in Virginia showcase camp in 1988. The event became one of the biggest and best-run showcase events at a time when getting seen was a challenge for baseball players across Virginia and the country. In 2001, for example, the camp attracted players from 27 states, and it regularly sold out from 1992 on. Womack, known as a tremendous coach working without the resources of other ACC programs, is credited with helping Virginia usher in a new era with the opening of Davenport Stadium and enhancements that followed.”
Other members of the 2025 Hall of Fame class, besides Babcock, are Ken Blackley, who coached in high school at Ladysmith, Rappahannock, Caroline, Esses and Northumberland; Nick Boothe, who led the program at Virginia Wesleyan College; Rick Holcomb, who coached at Courtland and Spotsylvania high schools; Gary Rice, who guided Alleghany and Valley high schools; Jeff Smoot, who won 519 games in 35 seasons at Strasburg High; Jim Snow (deceased), who coached at Menchville, Smithfield, West Point, Poquoson and Warwick high schools; Chuck Welch, who guided Langley and Westfield at the high school level; and Jim White, who mentored future big-leaguers Phil Leftwich (Radford) and Brandon Inge (VCU) at Brookville High in Lynchburg.
Billy Sample, from Salem and Andrew Lewis High, played under Babcock and was the first JMU baseball player to reach the Major Leagues, as an outfielder with the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves from 1978-1986. He also played for the Harrisonburg Turks of the Valley Baseball League.
“Brad cut a broad swath with baseball in Virginia, not only coaching at JMU, but in the Shenandoah Valley League (with Harrisonburg) as well,” Sample wrote on social media when Babcock passed. “He saw two of my high school games. I went 0 for 4 in both of them. A good-looking man with a body builder’s chest, he was very personable and a great recruiter. Six of my (JMU) teammates also signed professional contracts.”
Babcock was a graduate of Appomattox High and is the father of Whit Babcock, the athletics director at Virginia Tech who played baseball at Harrisonburg High and for his father at JMU.
Previous Hall of Fame selections with ties to the central Shenandoah Valley include Ray Heatwole (2023 class), the former head coach at Bridgewater College and Turner Ashby High who was an assistant under Babcock at JMU before taking the head post; and Curt Kendall (2024 class), the ex-head coach at Bridgewater College, who is now the athletic director at the Division III school.
“Coaches make an incredible impact in so many ways,” said Tim Merry, founder and executive director of the Virginia Baseball Coaches Association, in a release. “We’re humbled to welcome our fourth Hall of Fame class, a lineup of coaches that not only won lots of games on the diamond, but also shared a passion for mentoring, teaching and developing players on and off the diamond. Baseball in the commonwealth is better because of them.”
The VBCA coach of the year is Larry Bowles, who guided American Legion Post 280 to the American Legion World Series title. The team was honored during Game 4 of the World Series in Los Angeles in October. Bowles also coaches at Indian River High.
Note: This reporter did pro bono publicity work for the VBCA in 2023 and 2024.
Notes
- Pitcher Dana Allison, who also played at JMU under Babcock, appeared in 11 games for the Oakland A’s in 1991. He was one of 30 JMU players under Babcock who appeared in the minors or Majors. Front Royal native Allison was teammates in Oakland with fellow pitcher Reggie Harris, a Waynesboro High They both pitched in the same game on April 16, 1991, for Oakland – out of the bullpen – in a game in which future Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley got the save for the A’s against the California Angels.
- New Washington Nationals bench coach Michael Johns managed in the minors with Princeton in the Appalachian League with Tampa Bay from 2010-2012. New pitching coach Simon Mathews played in college at Georgetown.
- Lynchburg College won the Division III World Series in 2023. Former Lynchburg student Lefty Thomas pitched for the Washington Senators in the 1920s. He was born in Glade Springs in 1903 and passed in 1952 in Charlottesville.
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David Driver
