Glenvar will have a new athletic director come July and he’s no stranger to the school. Andy Clapper, who has been an assistant soccer coach in the very successful boys’ program, has been named to replace Jason Murray when Jason moves to an assistant principal’s role.
Clapper is a 1990 graduate of Bellevue West High School in Bellevue, Nebraska, and a 1994 graduate of Virginia Tech. His father was in the Air Force so he moved around quite a bit growing up.
“I attended three different elementary schools, three different middle schools and three different high schools, moving to a new school my senior year,” he said. “I’ve lived in Korea, Nebraska, Hawaii twice, Florida, Maryland, Northern Virginia and Washington DC during my time as an Air Force brat. I did not play college soccer, but was involved in club and intramural soccer while I attended Virginia Tech.”
Andy settled down when he moved to the Roanoke Valley. He’s lived in the Glenvar community for almost 25 years and has spent the last seven assisting Josh Jones with the boys’ soccer program.
“I’ve coached in four different Roanoke County schools and coached for the VBR soccer club,” he said. “Between my coaching and educational experience I have always thought that if the right opportunity presented itself that I would love to become an AD. When Mr. Murray announced that he was moving on to be an administrator at GHS, I jumped at the chance to work in the community I call home and to lead the Highlander athletic department.”
Andy’s wife, Kim, taught Kindergarten at Glenvar Elementary before retiring after 30 years. She still serves as a reading tutor at Glenvar Elementary.
The Clappers have two sons who graduated from Glenvar. Mac graduated in 2019 and Colin is a 2023 graduate. Colin kicked the corner kick that Jake Williams headed in when Glenvar won their first state soccer championship in 2023, a 1-0 win over Clarke County. After the season Colin was named the Class 2 state Player of the Year, setting a VHSL single-season assist record with the second most career assists in VHSL history.
Andy has been involved with education and soccer for quite some time. He spent his summers at Camp Varsity, a summer camp in Madison, VA run by the legendary track and field coach from Northern Virginia, Ed Trimm. Coach Trimm coached and taught at several Fairfax County high schools, including TC Williams and Lake Braddock High School. During his summers, he and his wife ran Camp Varsity.
“At 16 I was hired as a camp counselor and, based on my work experience during high school and college, I decided to pursue a career in education and coaching,” said Andy. “Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was developing my first Salem connection as not only did Coach Trimm work at TC Williams, the TC football team would go to preseason camp at Camp Varsity.”
Clapper is getting ready to complete his 31st year working in Roanoke County Schools. The first two years he taught at Roland E. Cook Elementary in Vinton and then he moved to Oak Grove Elementary. After nine years at the Elementary level he moved to Hidden Valley High School, where he has worked for the last 22 years as the school’s Instructional Technology Resource Teacher.
“I was an assistant and head soccer coach at Cave Spring High School, head soccer coach at Hidden Valley High School, and I coached a couple of years of football at Hidden Valley Junior High before it was a middle school,” he said.
Andy has been around some quality mentors.
“I’ve worked with and for some great Athletic Directors during my years in Roanoke County with Glenvar and Salem ties; Joe Hafey, Dennis Layman, Chuck Parker and most recently with Jason Murray. But my biggest influence was an athletic director I was around during my childhood, VHSL Hall of Famer Bob Carson. He was the athletic director at Lake Braddock High School in Northern Virginia where my sister attended high school. Both my parents were heavily involved in the booster club at LBHS and Mr. Carson took me under his wing and let me help him with his AD duties on game days when my parents were working the concession stands.”
When he takes the AD job at Glenvar Andy won’t be able to help Jones with the soccer team, at least not on the pitch. He’d like to go out with a third straight state championship as assistant coach, and the Highlanders are looking good so far at 14-0 and having given up just one goal all season.
“It’s been a great ride over the last several years, making it to the state semifinal in our first year coaching together, followed up by a state final appearance and then winning two state championships back to back,” said Clapper. “I have been fortunate to work with a future VHSL Hall of Famer and see how Josh has built the culture around the GHS boys program and into a perennial 2A soccer power. We are working on the 3-Peat.”
Andy is already settling into his new position.
“The official start date is July 1st, but the emails are already starting to come in,” he said. “Mr. Murray and I will be working together over the summer on the transition. I have some really big shoes to fill. I am extremely excited about the opportunity to serve the athletes and coaches of Glenvar High School and the Glenvar community.”
