The Coaching Staff
Dr. John Ballein
Associate Director of Athletics for Football Operations
Dr. John Ballein holds one of the most important positions in Virginia Tech athletics as the associate athletics director for football operations. He was promoted to the position during the summer of 2000 in recognition of his excellent work for Coach Frank Beamer and his program. Ballein is responsible for all operations dealing with the football program. He continues to serve as assistant to Beamer and as departmental recruiting coordinator, jobs he performed prior to his promotion.
“You name it and John Ballein does it,” Beamer said in a Dec. 18, 1999 article on Ballein in The Roanoke Times. “Just everything that goes on around here – our travel, our recruiting, our camps, our clinics. He is absolutely the best.” A native of Bentleyville, Pa., Ballein was a linebacker at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a degree in health and physical education in 1983. He later earned a master’s in education from Old Dominion University in 1987. Ballein completed his doctorate of education at Virginia Tech in 2006. Ballein was a teacher and football coach in 198384 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth, Va., and at Western Branch High in Chesapeake, Va., in 1985-86. Ballein served on Beamer’s first Virginia Tech staff in 1987 as a graduate assistant coach. In 1988, he accepted a position as running backs coach at Western Kentucky University. He returned
John Ballein and his wife, Stephanie, with Jalyn and Jordan.
to Tech a year later as recruiting coordinator. With his office adjacent to Coach Beamer’s, he is often considered Beamer’s right-hand man. He deals mostly with the administrative side of the football program, but is one of the favorites among players. His office is a preferred hangout, and he is one of the most beloved and respected members of the staff. “Everyone knows Coach Ballein’s the guy that gets things done,” said Ben Taylor, a former Tech linebacker who was a two-time All-American. “If it is for Coach Beamer or the players, he has a way of taking care of business. Whether it was about football, academics or an issue in your personal life, his door was always open. The thing I appreciate the most about him is the fact that he genuinely cared about us. He is one of the people that make Virginia Tech so special.” Ballein and his wife, Stephanie, have two daughters, Jalyn and Jordan.
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