Paul Sanderson Elected to NSCAA Hall of Fame
The National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) has elected Paul “Sandy” Sanderson, whose tireless efforts helped grow the association at the high school level, as the 44th member of its Hall of Fame.
As many alumni know, Sandy joined the Suffield Academy staff located in Connecticut in 1952, where he taught history, mechanical drawing and public speaking, in addition to his coaching responsibilities in soccer, basketball and tennis. During his tenure, he also served as Suffield’s Director of Admissions and Assistant Headmaster and spent four years as the school’s Headmaster. As the varsity soccer coach, he fashioned a 156-77-22 career record before leaving Suffield in 1978 to lead American Secondary Schools for International Students and Teachers (ASSIST), the organization he founded. Sandy passed away in 1986.
His efforts to grow the sport branched in several directions. He was founder and president of the Western New England Preparatory School Soccer Association and was president of the North American Soccer League’s Hartford Bicentennials from 1974-76. He also served as a vice-president of the NSCAA and received two Letters of Commendation from the association, recognizing his coaching success, organizational efforts for prep school soccer, and his work to attract independent and high school coaches into the NSCAA. Those efforts laid the foundation for the association’s growth into the largest coaches’ association in the world, with a membership that now exceeds 25,000. Sandy was inducted into the NSCAA Hall of Fame in January at the association’s annual awards banquet held in Baltimore, Maryland.
Based in Kansas City, Kansas, the NSCAA is the largest coaches' organization in the United States. Since its founding in 1941, it has grown to include more than 25,000 members, who coach both genders at all levels of the sport. In addition to a national rankings program for colleges and high schools, NSCAA offers an extensive recognition program that presents nearly 10,000 individual awards every year. It fulfills its mission of coaching education through a nationwide program of clinics and week-long courses, teaching more than 4,000 soccer coaches each year. For more information, please visit www.NSCAA.com.
