A pair of local spring sports coaches, John Tipton, a long-time baseball coach at Portsmouth High School and Carol Vice, who coached softball at Clay for 11 years, will be inducted this month into the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association and Ohio High School Softball Coaches Association Halls of Fame respectively.

The Ohio High School Softball Coaches Association (OHSSCA) will induct five new members at a luncheon on Jan. 15.

Joining Vice will be Susie Harrison (Granville), Kirk Kadel (Newton), Sharon Monas (Perry) and Walt Snyder (Bellevue).

Vice, a member of the Clay Coaches' Hall of Fame, coached softball at Clay from 1978 to 1988, accumulating a career record of 261-20, never losing more than four games in a season.

Vice's teams won nine league titles, 11 sectional and 11 district championships as well state championships in 1980, 1981 and 1983.

Clay’s softball team is still the only team from Scioto County and the Southern Ohio Conference to win a state softball title.

The Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association (OHSBCA) will induct four new members to its hall on Jan. 22 at banquet at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus. Joining Tipton will be Jim Dougherty (Hilliard Davidson), Dave DiDonato (Indian Valley), and Mike Schumm (Parkway).

Tipton began his coaching career at Northwest and coached at Oak Hill as well. During his years at Portsmouth Tipton led the Trojans to No. 1 rankings in the Coaches' Poll in 1992 and 1993. Tipton finished his head coaching career at Shawnee State and was also a trials coach for the 2000 U.S.A. Junior National Team, that went on to win the Gold Medal.