Coach Tom Armour celebrates his 400th career win with Eastern's boys.
A look at Tom Armour's career,
written after boys win No. 400 . . .
Tom Armour’s journey as the head coach of Eastern’s
boys and girls volleyball teams began in January of 1995 when he saw the
school had a job opening in the newspaper. Armour had been playing
volleyball most of his adult life at that point and had run the
volleyball program of the Garden State Games since 1988.
Armour's background in the sport landed him the job and he was tasked
with building up the young Eastern program. Armour remembers telling
Eastern’s athletic director at the time, Frank McAleer, what needed to
be done to make the Vikings competitive.
“Volleyball in South Jersey started in the fall of 1993,” Armour said
about a conversation he had with McAleer. “If we’re going to compete, we
need to go to North Jersey. I have to get on a bus and travel. If you
want this to be a good program, you can’t tell me no.”
“I haven’t been told no yet,” Armour added with a smile.
On April 15, Eastern defeated Camden Academy Charter, 2-0, to give Armour
his 400th career win with the boys program. After reaching the
milestone, Armour heard from many people in the sport he’s interacted
with over the past 25 years.
“(I heard from) a lot of former players, way to go coach,” he said. “Some
of the guys who officiate regularly, they sent congratulations. I have
this poster with a big 400 on it. The kids put their name on it and what
year they played.”
In addition to coaching at Eastern, Armour is also the co-founder and
director of South Jersey Volleyball Club. Armour started the club in
1999 with Al Cohen and it has grown immensely over the past two decades.
“When we first started in 99, we had two girls teams,” Armour said. “We
went from having 20 kids (in 1999) to having 168 or 169 this year.”
Additionally, the club now has 20 coaches, all of whom either played for
Armour through the club or at Eastern, or played against Eastern in the
Olympic Conference.
Armour has coached in a variety of sports in his life. His first time as
a coach, however, came while he was in the Navy. Armour was stationed on
the U.S.S. Aylwin, a destroyer escort, in 1971.
“We were in dry dock for a while in Boston Naval Yard, so we put a
football team together,” he said. “I was the coach. We went undefeated,
we won the first Naval division football tournament.”
Armour’s tenure at Eastern includes a number of conference championships
with the boys and girls programs as well as a state championship with
the girls team in 2001. When asked about the secret behind his coaching
success, Armour simply said he was firm, fair and honest with his
players.
“I’m a very disciplined person and that really helps,” Armour said.
“Kids, even more so today, they need direction. They need to know
somebody’s real.”