Legendary Highland Springs coach George Lancaster made an impact on all who knew him

Note: George Lancaster's memorial service will be Saturday at 1 p.m. at Highland Springs.

George Lancaster’s 726 career victories and two state championships speak volumes about his measurable success as a high school basketball coach.

His 37 years holding forth at Highland Springs sandwiched between stints at Huguenot and Bluestone are a testament to his passion for coaching and his abiding commitment to serve others.

His induction into the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame in 2013 is a fitting reward for the calling he long ago answered and the job he performed with excellence, dedication, and aplomb.

Coach Lancaster, in whose honor the basketball court at Highland Springs is named, passed away on August 23 at 80 years old, and in the days and weeks since, tributes have poured in.

Some spoke to his accomplishments, which include Group AAA titles in 2003 and 2007 and the fifth highest victory total in VHSL history. Most spoke to his love of life and his enduring impact on the lives of the young men and women as well as the adults whose paths crossed his.

Coach Lan, as he was affectionately known, was a “people person” if there ever was one. He lived life to the fullest, not so much for himself but for those he impacted. He was intelligent, insightful, well spoken, and, to the media who covered his games, one of the absolute best interviewees ever.

He was an icon who had a larger-than-life persona and an instinctive way of making everyone feel special when it was actually he who was the special one.

What follows are thoughts, insights, and reminiscences of five friends from the Highland Springs community who knew him well and worked closely with him.

Reggie Tennyson

Tennyson played for Lancaster at both Huguenot and Highland Springs, served as a longtime assistant coach, and succeeded him as Springers coach upon his retirement in 2016.

Coach was the epitome of what a coach and a father represent to a lot of young men and women. When I met Coach, I was a youngster looking up to the guys in the community where I grew up who played for him. I watched him come through the neighborhood and pick them up and take them to summer league and always said to myself, “Man, one day I hope I’m good enough that Coach Lancaster will pick me up and take me to summer league.” Fortunately, that opportunity happened for me. 

Tennyson transferred to Highland Springs when Lancaster accepted the head basketball position.

He told my parents, “I’ll take care of him. I’ll make sure he’s in good hands.” 

Tennyson continued his playing career at St. Paul’s College, then returned to Richmond. He served as head boys basketball coach at Atlee, then joined his mentor at Highland Springs in 2003.

Over the years, our relationship has grown. He’s been a father figure, mentor, brother, friend, uncle, and cousin to me, but the most impressive thing about him is that he’s been that for a lot of people. We were really in the midst of a legend. I can attribute the things I learned about life and about basketball to the conversations we had. We won’t have that opportunity again, but his spirit will resonate with me the rest of my life.

When you think about Highland Springs, George Lancaster is the vision you see. That’s the powerful image and legacy that he’s left behind. Even those who didn’t play for him respected everything he did and loved what he brought to the sports arena as far as competitiveness, fair play, and hard work.

He just touched so many lives. His gift, his destiny, his mission in life was to bridge the gap between people, primarily young people. He had so much savoir faire, to use one of his words. Everything he did was heartfelt. He had such a tremendous heart and love for life and for people that touched his life. He’ll be greatly missed.

As Lancaster’s health declined, Tennyson took him to the hospital.

Never got a chance to hold an extended conversation with him again, but just the short time I was able to speak to him and hear his voice one more time left an indelible impression on me. The doctor was talking to him, just trying to get him to respond. I was waving my hands behind the doctor. The doctor asked him, “George, do you know who that is over there waving his arms?” 

He told the doctor, as boldly as he could, “That’s my boy.”  I’ll never forget those words. Those were the last words I heard him say. They brought tears to my eyes because we all wanted to feel like we were his children.

Franklin Harris

Harris, the Highland Springs girls basketball coach for the past 18 years, met Coach Lan one summer day in1967 when he was a seventh grader playing pickup basketball at the Humphrey Calder Community Center on Thompson Street and renewed the acquaintance a couple of weeks later at the Randolph-Macon basketball camp. From that time on, they maintained their connection. 

Fast forward to 2006 when Harris went to Highland Springs to watch several girls he was coaching in travel softball play basketball. Lancaster initiated a conversation about taking over the Springers’ program. The rest is history.

Basketball-wise and life-wise, he and I talked two or three times a week, especially during the season. We played golf together. We went to coaches’ clinics together. We had a coach-to-coach, older brother-to-younger brother relationship. We could talk about anything. I was very comfortable talking to Coach. It was like talking to my father, like talking to someone in the family. 

Watching Lancaster in action was like going to the mountaintop.

He knew when a player needed that tough love. He knew when he needed a kind word and a pat on the back. He cared. 

Even in retirement, Lancaster was a positive presence.

This is the relationship he and I had. We were getting ready to play somebody from Virginia Beach in the state semifinal. He called me that day and said, “How you feel about tonight?”  I said, “OK, but I’m trying to find somebody down at the Beach who can scout Princess Anne.  If we win tonight and they win, we’ve got to play each other.” 

He said, “Where’s the game?” I said, “Norfolk Scope.” He said, “What time’s the game?”  I said, “I believe they’re playing at 4:30.”

He said, “Gone.” Click.  I thought, Dang, he just hung up on me.

That next day, he called and said, “Are you at work?” I said, “Yeah.”  He said, “I’ll be there in 15 minutes.” He showed up with a 10-page scouting report.

When he’d hung up the phone (the day before), he went and got (his friend) Miss Linda (McCullough). They drove to the Norfolk Scope to watch Princess Anne play. I’m going through this thing thinking, Lord, have mercy! He’s standing at my desk watching. I flip to the last page, and he’s hand written, “Just Press ‘Em.”  Who else would do that? That’s just the relationship we had. 

Loren Johnson

Johnson is the Springers’ ultra-successful (five state titles) head football coach. When he arrived at Highland Springs 16 years ago, one of the first people he met was Lancaster. As Johnson quickly learned, Lancaster’s most salient lessons were not specific just to basketball.

Anything we do in our program is a representation of who Coach Lan is. He always told me, “Work them hard. Expect a lot from them. Set expectations.”  The Springers will always meet those expectations. He set the bar around here really, really high. He always wanted us to focus on the community, focus on the team, and be the best we could possibly be. We’ll continue to do that. Coach Lan was the guy that we’ve talked about in our program a lot and we want to model in terms of our success.  Not just now.  Since Day One. He will always live on here at Highland Springs.

Cravelyn Williams

Williams served as one of Lancaster’s assistant coaches from 1989 until they retired together in 2016. Williams played at Virginia Union and Lancaster at Virginia State which over the years made for some interesting, albeit all-in-fun, repartee.

We met when I was in high school (at Maggie Walker, class of ‘68) and he was teaching and coaching. I remember distinctly him telling me, “Cravelyn, if you all get to the state championship (which would be played at Virginia State), I’m definitely going to come see you play.” We did, and, of course, he came to see us play, and we won. We knew of each other before that, but that was when we really connected. 

What made coaching with Lancaster so special?

One thing was that he instantly saw the coaching staff as a family. One of the things I loved about him was that he allowed us to do what he wanted us to do. He gave us jobs to coach the offense or the defense. He said, “Cravelyn, you’re responsible that my boys get in enough shots. Work on their shooting.” He gave me that responsibility. I was not only an assistant coach. When I first got there, he gave me the responsibility to be the JV head coach and the girls basketball coach. The two of us grew close not only as coaching partners but as brothers.

Williams’ son J.J. was a Springers’ star in the early ‘90’s, earned All-Metro player of the year honors in 1992, and went on to play at Hampton.

There was no other coach in the area I would have wanted my son to play for. I knew Coach Lan would get the best out of him, and he did. Coach Lan invested tremendously in all his players. When I first got there, it was just the two of us, and we would actually go to different homes to pick up kids to bring them to school even if it was way out of our way. If kids were hungry, he would always make sure they had lunch whether they were his players or not. That’s the kind of person that he was. He always made sure that kids were taken care of. He wasn’t just a basketball coach. He was a humanitarian.

That said, Lancaster loved to win. He was competitive, for sure, but he always saw the bigger picture.

On the court, he was all about business. If the referees were right, which in most cases they were, he would always challenge them to make sure they were doing what was best for the athletes on the court, whether it was our players or the opposing team’s players. He was very vocal about that. The referees loved him because afterwards he would tell them, “You guys called a very good game. I really appreciate you.”  We didn’t always have the best players in the district, but he got the most out of those players. We would win games because he was coaching them up in all aspects of the game.

Rudy Ward

Ward coached football and wrestling and taught physical education at Highland Springs before serving as athletic director from 1993 until his retirement in 2015. He remembers well the day that Lancaster joined the Springers family.

Hiring George was probably the best move the school ever made. We became close friends. I learned a lot from him, not so much the athletic part although I did learn a lot there, but about how you work with people. It didn’t matter about their background. It didn’t matter if it was the custodian or the superintendent of schools. He treated everybody with the same respect, and he earned their respect. He was quite a gentleman. He had a way of seeing the best in people. Everybody liked him because he was very personable. He had a way of making you feel comfortable, and the kids loved him.

He might be sitting in his office chit-chatting, and a kid comes in, and George might slip him 20 bucks. I would think, What’s that all about? He would say, “He doesn’t have much at home. This’ll help him.” He did little things like that. If somebody needed something, he would reach down and help them up. Sometimes, it would be troubled kids. He had a way of dealing with them. It was because of who he was. There was no false pretense. He was just a good man.

As he became an icon in the Highland Springs and local sports community, Lancaster remained true to himself.

I can remember the first state championship, I said, “We’ll get a nice bus, and we’ll go up to Lynchburg (where the title game would be played).”  He said, “No, Coach (Dave) Galbraith has driven us all these other games. I want Coach Galbraith to drive the school bus. I said, “We can do better than that.” He said, “No, we’re the airport kids. We’ll go in the school bus like we came.” 

When he retired, Lancaster moved to Chase City, his childhood home. He returned to Richmond often, and when he was among the Springer faithful, it was as if royalty, albeit humble royalty, had arrived.

You know, Highland Springs is a special place. George could have gone other places. He had opportunities, but no, he wanted to stay where he was. He could have even gone to college a couple of times. Like an old poker player, he kept his cards close to his vest. He might say, “I’ve had some interest,” but he always said, “I’m happy where I am. I’m happy I can help people.” 

There’s a void at Highland Springs that will be tough to fill. They say that if you put your hand in a bucket of water and pull it out, it’s the same. Well, it won’t be that way with George. When he pulled his hand out, there was still be a hole in the bucket where his hand was. George always made a difference in people’s lives He was just one of those guys. 

This story has been updated to reflect the correct years of Lancaster’s state titles.