Coach Fletcher Arritt of Fork Union Military Academy to be Inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame on April 25th
Fork Union, Virginia (PRWEB) April 10, 2015 -- Fletcher Arritt, the legendary head basketball coach at Fork Union Military Academy throughout five decades, is soon to receive a capstone honor in a career that has been filled with accolades and trophies. On April 25, 2015, Fletcher Arritt will be inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, the sixth alumnus or coach from Fork Union to receive this high honor.
In announcing his selection as a member of the Class of 2015 to be inducted at the 44th Annual Induction Banquet, the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame press release described Arritt as "one of the most successful basketball coaches in the country, with 400 players going on to play in college, 200 of them at the Division 1 Level, and dozens going on to professional career in basketball." The press release went on to note that, "Fork Union won over 75 percent of its games during Arritt's tenure...a career record of 890 wins and 283 losses."
Coach Arritt's consistent approach year after year, his great care in teaching his players to pay attention to the small details that lead to greater success, and his emphasis on building fundamentally-sound players who played with intensity earned him the respect of top college coaches across the nation.
"No coach that I've been aware of during my time in basketball," states Hall of Fame college coach Bob Knight, "did a better job of preparing kids for college than Fletcher did with his kids at Fork Union. I think he has made a tremendous contribution to the game of basketball, a contribution that is worthy of...the Hall of Fame."
Billy Donovan, coach of the University of Florida Gators whose teams won consecutive NCAA National Championships in 2006 and 2007, stated it simply: "He has to go down as one of the greatest coaches of all time."
This year's busy Hall of Fame Weekend will be full of activities honoring Coach Arritt and his fellow inductees in the Class of 2015. The events begin on Friday morning with the 22nd Annual Celebrity Golf Tournament to be held at Bide-A-Wee Golf Course in Portsmouth, Virginia. The VIP Celebrity Reception follows on Friday evening at 7:00 PM in the Hall of Fame, at which the Class of 2015 display cases will be unveiled. Saturday morning features a Memorabilia Show from 9 AM to 2 PM, as well as an Autograph Session with the inductees from 12 PM to 1 PM at the Hall of Fame. Then will come the main event - the 44th Annual Induction Banquet on Saturday evening at the Renaissance Hotel & Waterfront Conference Center in Portsmouth, Virginia. Registration starts at 4:30 PM, the reception begins at 5:30 PM, and then the dinner and induction ceremony gets underway at 6:30 PM. Following the banquet, Fork Union Military Academy will host a private reception with our FUMA family and friends to honor and congratulate Coach Arritt.
The Class of 2015 Inductees to be honored along with Fletcher Arritt include lacrosse great Cherie Greer Brown, former Detroit Tiger Johnny Grubb, soccer player Angela Hucles, longtime sports reporter Mike Stevens, NBA veteran Ben Wallace, and another outstanding high school basketball coach and one of Fletcher Arritt's favorite colleagues, Paul Hatcher.
Fletcher Arritt will take his place alongside other great members of the Fork Union Military Academy family already in the Hall of Fame, including:
*Ed Merrick, Class of 1980 Inductee, head football coach at Fork Union from 1946-1950
*Melvin "Meb" Davis, Class of 1984 Inductee, Athletic Director at Fork Union from 1927-1930
*Ulmo "Sonny" Randle, Class of 1991 Inductee, Fork Union alumnus and NFL great wide receiver
*Charles "Rosie" Thomas, Class of 1993 Inductee, Fork Union alumnus and longtime coach
*John Hilton, Class of 2008 Inductee, Fork Union alumnus and outstanding NFL tight end
Tickets for the Induction Banquet are available through the Academy's Development Office. The private reception hosted by the Academy is free, but you may register to attend with our Development Office as space will be limited. You do not need to attend the Induction Banquet in order to attend to the private reception. Please contact Mrs. Jamie Krogh in our Development Office (development(at)fuma(dot)org or 434-842-4227) for information about the banquet and reception, or purchase banquet tickets online at: http://www.forkunion.com/vshf.
For tickets and information about all of the other weekend's activities, please contact the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame directly at 757-393-8031 or info(at)vshfm(dot)com.
Dan Thompson, Fork Union Military Academy, http://www.forkunion.com, +1 (434) 996-7772, [email protected]
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