WOODBERRY FOREST, Virginia – A local legend will be returning to the sidelines this fall as longtime Hoggard Football Coach Scott Braswell has been tabbed to lead the successful Woodberry Forest School program in central Virginia.
After 18 years of building the tradition of Vikings’ football on Shipyard Boulevard as head coach and later as athletics director, Braswell stepped down in 2015 to earn some time off following a battle with cancer. While he was still focused on the task at hand —returning to full health— Braswell knew he would have the urge to get back on the sidelines again.
During his time at Hoggard, Braswell went 167-51, winning a state championship in 2007 and 12 conference titles. After his coaching tenure concluded, the high school’s stadium was renamed in his honor.
“I am excited to be a part of the role the football program will have in the development and growth of your sons — what an awesome responsibility and opportunity,” Braswell said in a letter to Woodberry parents. “I am incredibly humbled to be joining an education community where the traditions of intellectual thoroughness and moral integrity stretch back over one hundred years.”
Braswell becomes just the sixth head football coach at Woodberry Forest since 1926. The private, all-male boarding school has a long history of success on the gridiron. Nine Woodberry Forest football players signed letters of intent Wednesday on National Signing Day.
“I am very excited about Coach Braswell coming to Woodberry Forest to join our school community and lead our football program,” said Headmaster Byron Hulsey ’86. “I learned throughout the search that first and foremost Coach Braswell is a man of humility and character, respected and admired by his players, their parents, opposing coaches, and referees.
His record of excellence on the field speaks for itself, but his commitment to the whole mission of what we do at Woodberry is what struck me the most as I got to know him through the search.”
Woodberry Forest School is a private, all-male boarding school. It has a current enrollment of about 400 students.
