Email

Print

Share

Volleyball Nova Scotia Inaugural Hall of Fame

The Inaugural Hall of Fame inductees include:
 
Brad Barton joins the Volleyball Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame after a 50-year career as volleyball official and administrator, helping build the sport regionally, nationally and internationally.

Barton began teaching after high school, starting in an elementary classroom in North Preston even before he finished his provincial certification. From that point he went to the Nova Scotia Teachers College, where he joined the first physical education class in 1964. A stipulation of that program was to become qualified as an official in three sports and one of those sports for Barton was volleyball.

When he came out of school in 1966, he began working as a physical education teacher at a junior high in Bedford and started to referee volleyball regularly. His volleyball officiating went from local to provincial, then regional. Next came national and in 1975 when he became an international referee in advance of the Montreal Olympics.

The Order of Canada recipient participated in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal as a referee but was denied a chance four years later with the international boycott of the Moscow Games. His second chance came in 1984 in Los Angeles when he again refereed at the Olympic Games.

He chaired the national officials committee for eight years starting in 1978 and began training officials for international events. That led to him being the assignor, and preparing all the evaluations, for referees at the FISU World University Games in Edmonton in 1983.

He went on to work the test event for the Seoul Olympics in 1985. With Canada not involved, he got to work in matches with many of the world powers, including the United States and Soviet Union. He also worked another World University Games in Buffalo in 1993.

He is still plenty active, evaluating and assigning officials at the university and college level. He referees, too, at the high school and college level.

----------------------------------------------------------

Al Scott came to Nova Scotia in 1979 after taking on the job as head coach of the men’s volleyball team at Dalhousie University.



Scott was an incredibly accomplished coach, winning 19 of a possible 20 Atlantic University Sport (AUS) Championships. On the national stage, Scott’s teams won three Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Bronze medals as well as one Silver medal. Scott was named AUS Coach of the Year eight times, Dalhousie Coach of the year five times and CIS Coach of the Year in 1988. On top of his individual accomplishments and his team’s tremendous results, many of Scott’s former players went on to represent Canada on National Teams.

After leaving Dalhousie, Scott began to make an impact on youth volleyball by starting the Bedford Blizzard Volleyball Club on his own in 2006. Over the past 15 years, the Blizzard have grown from one team to over a dozen teams and are now the second largest club in Nova Scotia. For his outstanding contributions to his local community, Scott received the Bedford Community Service Award in 2013.

In 2009 Scott took the position as Executive Director for Volleyball Nova Scotia where for the next 3 years he would be instrumental in furthering the development of volleyball in Nova Scotia. During his tenure with VNS, Scott played a lead role in the building of the 12 court Beach Volleyball Park in Burnside. This facility is a tremendous legacy for the sport and now plays host to thousands of beach volleyball players every year. On top of this, Scott is well known for transforming Volleyball Nova Scotia into a professional and organized association.

Scott was recognized for his tireless work by winning the Volunteer of the Year for volleyball at the 2014 Ricoh Sports Awards. It is without question that Al Scott has had an incredible impact on the sporting community as a coach, mentor and volunteer in Nova Scotia.

Scott continues to make an impact on volleyball in Nova Scotia as the Club Director for the Bedford Blizzard and can been seen in gyms across the Province.