Former HS girls’ hoops coach, former Virginia Tech assistant, faces child sex charges

A former high school girls basketball coach in Virginia who has been coaching at the college level for the past 17 years, including two stints at Virginia Tech, has been charged with sexual offenses involving underage students.

Arlington County Police confirmed on Tuesday that George Porcha, 53, has been charged with carnal knowledge of a minor and taking indecent liberties with children.

The offenses, according to police, date to Porcha’s time as the head coach of the girls’ basketball team at Washington-Liberty High School, which went by the name Washington-Lee High School at the time that Porcha was employed there.

Porcha was an assistant girls’ basketball coach at the school from 1995-1999 and the head coach from 2000-2004.

Police began investigating the alleged offenses in October 2022, per a press release from the Arlington County PD, and issued warrants for offenses involving two female victims who were juveniles and students at Washington-Liberty High School at the time of the incidents.

Porcha left Washington-Lee High School to take over as the head girls’ basketball coach at T.C. Williams High School in Virginia, where he worked from 2004-2007.

He got his first college job at Virginia Tech, where he worked as an assistant with the women’s basketball program for one season, before stints as an assistant with the women’s programs at West Virginia (2008-2013), Ole Miss (2016-2018) and Boston College (2018-2021), around a three-year post as the head boys’ basketball coach at Woodbridge High School in Virginia (2014-2016).

Porcha briefly returned to Virginia Tech in 2022 to work under Kenny Brooks in the women’s program there, but he was let go in October, weeks before the season started, with Brooks citing “philosophical differences within our program” and issues with Porcha’s job application.

The timing of his abrupt departure from the Virginia Tech job and the beginning of the investigation in Arlington County may not be coincidental.

Back to that Arlington County investigation: the PD there considers it to be an active investigation.

Anyone who has additional information related to this investigation or has had past inappropriate encounters with Porcha is asked to contact Detective P. Pena at 703-228-4183 or [email protected].

Information may also be provided anonymously through the Arlington County Crime Solvers hotline at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).