VIA to honor former Armstrong star

Native Richmonder Frank J. Smith will be among those inducted into this year’s Virginia Interscholastic Association (VIA) Hall of Fame.

The banquet will be June 23 at the DoubleTree By Hilton in Charlottesville.

Smith starred in football and baseball at Armstrong High and later was named MVP of the football team at Hampton Institute (now University).

He has enjoyed a sparkling, nearly half-century career in the financial services industry and is currently the president and CEO of Sphinx Financial Group in Williamsburg. Other Class of ’23 inductees (and their VIA schools) include:

• Carl B. Jackson, Burley High, Charlottesville

• Eric “Duke” McCaskill, Huntington High, Newport News

•Alvin Puryear, Phenix High, Hampton

• Douglas Smith, Phenix

• Walter “Rock” Greene, Burley

• Thomas Hooker, Southside High,

Dinwiddie

• Louis Johnson, Parker-Gray High, Alexandria

• Mary Winston Jackson, Phenix

The VIA was the umbrella organization that governed extracurricular activities for the state’s Black high schools from 1954 to 1969.

Area VIA schools were Armstrong and Maggie Walker in Richmond, Peabody in Petersburg, Carver in Chesterfield, Virginia Randolph in Henrico, Carter Woodson in Hopewell and Gandy in Hanover.

In 2020, Jake Rowell found inspiration to help an underserved part of the Richmond community.

That year, the Norfolk native and co-owner of RVA Performance Training was asked to organize an exercise program with VCU Health at his gym as part of a Parkinson’s Foundation Community Grant. The experience proved to be a lasting one, and Mr. Rowell and others soon began to organize a separate group to serve the same clients and needs.

“Our coaches fell in love working with people with Parkinson’s disease,” Mr. Rowell says. “So we chose to create our own nonprofit when the grant completed to continue our work.”

Soon after, Mr. Rowell and his associates launched LiftPD as a new venture in helping those with Parkinson’s achieve healthy living through free exercise. The group became a registered nonprofit in October of 2021, and as with the VCU Health program, Mr. Rowell leads the program’s operations and guides its development.

As board president of LiftPD, Mr. Rowell balances the role with his commitments to RVA Performance Training and his expanding fitness business. The workload seems sizable, but Mr. Rowell carries it in stride, fully aware of the program’s positive impact for those living with Parkinson’s.

“I was able to see the clear impact training could have on quality of life and disease progression,” says Mr. Rowell when asked why he accepted the role. “I saw an opportunity to use my experience and position to support the local Parkinson’s community in the role.”

Sustaining LiftPD’s stability is a major focus and goal for Mr. Rowell, and the nonprofit uses RVA Performance Training’s employees, resources and space to operate.