ANTR 2016 - Donald "Donnie" Wright from Cville PEG-TV on Vimeo.

ALBEMARLE HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
HALL OF FAME 

DONALD "DONNIE" WRIGHT

Donnie's nominator said, Donnie has taught in the Albemarle County school system for 30 years or more.  He has coached AHS varsity baseball for approximately 20 years.  Several players were good enough to go on and play higher level ball.  While coaching he took several problem students aside and had a stern talk with them about their poor attitude, their contagious influence on other players that would be detrimental to the team, and their potential as a player.   Also Donnie has and continues to officiate high school basketball in the area for the last 40+ years.  When an official was needed anywhere and none were available Donnie would grab his bag and whistle and go and work the game(s) with little notice.

 
Donnie has help the Pilot Club of Crozet to feed families at Christmas time plus would do other volunteer efforts when requested.  He drove the church van for many years to help get many elderly and handicap individuals to church on Sunday.  Donnie became a deacon in the church and increased his many helping activities at the church and in the community.
  
Donnie, while teaching Health and PE at Burley Middle School, would notice children in his class wearing a well-used shirt or pair of pants or a pair of shoes.  Donnie in a very discrete way would ask the student to come in his office.  He would shut the office door and open a big box that he kept in the office.  The child would be told to look through the clothes and shoes and pick ones that fit them.  Donnie would contribute to the box as well as he got other teachers to bring him goods or give him money so he could purchase items.  Donnie knew ways to relate to these children because he grew up in similar conditions and remembered folks that helped him along in his life (AHS graduate, Shenandoah graduate, VCU baseball assistant, minor league baseball player fpr six years in the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals organization, and is a supporting member of the Albemarle High School Alumni Association.
  
Donnie has helped small business owners get started as well as picked up the farm activities of his brother when cancer slowed him down.  He is a very humble man and never let many people know his efforts to make others’ lives better.
 
Comment - There have been twenty five or more players that Donnie coached at Albemarle High School who went on to play college or professional baseball.  Many of them were present at the Hall of Fame induction.