Changing of The Guard for Virginia Amateur Sports

Pete Lampman
Pete Lampman

After being at the helm for Virginia Amateur Sports for the past 25 years – and overseeing all but two of the 27 annual Commonwealth Games – Pete Lampman retired as the VAS president at the end of December.

The new president is Dan Foutz, a former insurance executive and a long time college football game official. Foutz’s nephew Zack plays football for Liberty University; his brother Ben Foutz (Zack’s dad) is a former head football coach at Cave Spring High School.

Lampman saw the Commonwealth Games, the all-comers amateur sports festival based in Roanoke since 1990, with events held elsewhere as well, grow its annual count of participants to almost 10,000 annually from about half that number early on. He estimated the annual economic impact of Virginia’s state games at around 3 million dollars annually.

Last year he secured a deal to move the bulk of the games to the Liberty University campus in Lynchburg, at least for a five year stretch, hailing the “Olympic style” atmosphere where multiple competitions can be held on one site. “It went extremely well [in 2015] for a transition year,” said Lampman, “the City of Lynchburg wrapped its arms around us. Of course the facilities at Liberty are world class. It really gave us that Olympic feeling.”

Lampman will also help bring the State Games of America to Liberty in 2019 and perhaps again in 2021. That means about 20,000 athletes and their families, with winners from games in more than 30 states taking part.

He came to Roanoke and VAS in 1992 after being involved with the Special Olympics in South Carolina. “The Roanoke Valley has just been a great host for the games over the years; [it] put their arms around them. Local governments, sponsorships, the people. It was a community effort.”

With a paid staff of just three most of the time (now up to four) the Commonwealth Games and about a dozen other events that VAS has run annually relies instead on an army of volunteers. “It became a part of southwest Virginia, no doubt about that.” One signature of the games are Olympic style opening ceremonies, with participants marching in to an event that has included keynote speakers that were often past Olympians – some of them were gold medalists.

“To hear a story from an Olympian about how hard he or she had to work to get to where they were going and what it took to get there … all of them had a great story. It was a quite a coup for us.” Rulon Gardner, Rebecca Lobo, Dot Richardson and Billy Mills were among the notable Olympians who spoke to Commonwealth Games athletes – participating in sports ranging from badminton to track and field – to fencing and even chess – at various venues.

Those athletes have ranged in age from 4 to more than 90 – Lampman recalls a 91 year old bowler and participants “from every background you can imagine.” He remembers a young fencer, an Olympic hopeful who might have been 10 or 12, beating other fencers much older than he was.

There’s no question as to what Lampman said he will miss most: “It’s the people that get involved. They’ve given their hearts and souls to the event. “Working with [the volunteers] has made the games what they are today.”

Gene Marrano

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