The Apprentice Builders are the athletic teams of the

Newport News Apprentice School The Apprentice School is a four to eight-year apprenticeship vocational school founded in 1919 and operated by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Newport News in the U.S. state of Virginia. The school trains students for careers i ...

, located in

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Unit ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

. The school is unique in that it does not grant degrees and therefore is not a member of either the NAIA or the NCAA, but has regularly competed in multiple sports against other degree-granting institutions in the area. However, the Apprentice School is a full member of the

United States Collegiate Athletic Association The United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) is a national organization for the intercollegiate athletic programs of 72 mostly small colleges, including community/ junior colleges, across the United States. The USCAA holds 15 nationa ...

and competes in the

Eastern Metro Athletic Conference Eastern Metro Athletic Conference (EMAC) is a Division I conference of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). The conference consists of schools from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The conference hosted its firs ...

(EMAC) for men's and women's basketball. The school competes in the following sports: * Baseball * Men's basketball * Women's basketball * Football * Men's golf * Wrestling * Women’s wrestling * Cheerleading * Drumline

Basketball

The men's basketball team has enjoyed historical success at Apprentice. The 1937 men's basketball team won the Virginia State AAU Championship and qualified for the AAU Nationals in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

. The school also fields a women's basketball team that has regularly competed nationally at their level.

Football

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

has been played at Apprentice since 1919, only breaking for two years during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The former coach is Phil Janaro, who has led the Builders to a record of 42 wins and 35 losses during his tenure. Former

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Norm Snead Norman Bailey Snead (born July 31, 1939) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, and San Francisco 49ers. He played col ...

also served as a head coach. Until the end of the 2010 season, Apprentice was a member of the

Atlantic Central Football Conference The Atlantic Central Football Conference (ACFC) was a college athletic conference which competed in football only in the NCAA Division III. Its member teams were located in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonw ...

, playing teams mainly in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

Division III, although they also schedule games against NAIA teams. The program was briefly a member of the National Club Football Association (NCFA) for the 2018 season. Led by Head Coach John Davis, the Builders won the 2018 NCFA National Championship before transitioning back to an independent varsity schedule in 2019.

Wrestling

Wrestling at Apprentice competes in the

National Collegiate Wrestling Association The National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA) is a nonprofit association of 162 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organize the wrestling programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada ...

(NCWA) and the team won the Mid-Atlantic Conference Championship for the 2010 season. The 2009 team, under head coach Bruce Shumaker, won the NCWA national championship.National Collegiate Wrestling Association
2009 National Tournament Results

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Apprentice Builders, The