Ed McQuade, who helmed the Greenway High School softball program for 41 years and now coaches at Boulder Creek, was named the NFHS National Coach of the Year in softball for the 2020-21 school year. He was one of 23 coaches honored by the National Federation of State High School Associations as the top of their sport.

The NFHS, which has been recognizing coaches through an awards program since 1982, honors coaches in the top 10 girls sports and top 10 boys sports (by participation numbers), and in two “other” sports – one for boys and one for girls – that are not included in the top 10 listings. The NFHS also recognizes a spirit coach as a separate award category. Winners of NFHS awards must be active coaches during the year for which they receive their award.

For more than 40 years, McQuade led Greenway to nearly 900 wins and five state championships while being named AIA State Softball Coach of the Year five times. He currently serves on the AIA Softball Advisory Committee after previously serving from 2013 to 2018. McQuade, who is a member of the Arizona High School Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame, Arizona Softball Foundation Hall of Fame and Arizona High School Athletics Coaches Hall of Fame, has guided 56 players to 36 different four-year universities, including three who are current Division I head coaches.

Other recipients of the 2020-21 national awards for boys sports are: John Adair, baseball, Malakoff (Texas) High School; Ron Insinger, basketball, Williamsport (Pennsylvania) Loyalsock Township Senior High School; Jeffrey Howard, cross country, Peninsula (Ohio) Woodridge High School; Rob Zimmerman, 11-player football, DeWitt (Michigan) High School; Holly Lester, golf, Gilbert (Iowa) High School; Samuel “Bunky” Colvin, soccer, Peachtree City (Georgia) McIntosh High School; Christopher Verity, swimming and diving, Endwell (New York) Maine-Endwell High School; Tom O’Brien, tennis, Kansas City (Missouri) Barstow School; Larry Topp, track and field, Minster (Ohio) Local Schools; and Mike Simons, wrestling, Springfield (Oregon) Thurston High School.

The recipients of the 2020-21 NFHS national awards for girls sports are: Jesse Nelson, basketball, Olpe (Kansas) High School; Stanley Johnson, cross country, Moulton (Alabama) Lawrence County High School; Leonard Kull, golf, Washington (Iowa) High School; John Dwyer, lacrosse, Wilmette (Illinois) Loyola Academy; John Hanley, soccer, San Jose (California) Archbishop Mitty High School; Stefanie Kerska, swimming and diving, Ann Arbor (Michigan) Pioneer High School; Kristin Liles, tennis, Tulsa (Oklahoma) Cascia Hall Prep School; Dori Whitford, track and field, Spokane (Washington) Mead High School; and Jean LaClair,  volleyball, Bronson (Michigan) High School.

The recipient of the National Coach of the Year Award for spirit is Linda Drust of Cartersville (Illinois) High School. Robert Vance Jones, a 6-player football coach at Balmorhea (Texas) High School, was chosen in the “other” category for boys sports, and Kit Harris, a girls wrestling coach at Baldwin High School in Baldwin City, Kansas, was chosen in the “other” category for girls sports.

The NFHS receives nominations from its member state associations, which often works with the state coaches’ association in its respective state. The state association then contacts the potential state award recipients to complete a coach profile form that requests information regarding the coach’s record, membership in and affiliation with coaching and other professional organizations, involvement with other school and community activities and programs, and coaching philosophy. To be approved as an award recipient and considered for sectional and national coach of the year consideration, this profile form must be completed by the coach or designee and then approved by the executive director (or designee) of the state athletic/activities association.

In addition to McQuade earning national honors, five other AIA coaches took home Section 7 Coach of the year. Winning are: Art Griffith (Winslow Baseball), Sara Schlesinger (Sunnyslope Badminton for "Girls-Other"), Dan LeFevre (Desert Mountain Boys Tennis), Laurie Martin (Xavier College Prep Girls Tennis), and Sharon Vanis (Hamilton Girls Volleyball).

The NFHS is divided into eight geographical sections. They are as follows: Section 1 – Northeast (CT, ME, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT); Section 2 – Mideast (DE, DC, KY, MD, OH, PA, VA, WV); Section 3 – South (AL, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN); Section 4 – Central (IL, IN, IA, MI, WI); Section 5 – Midwest (KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD); Section 6 – Southwest (AR, CO, NM, OK, TX); Section 7 – West (AZ, CA, HI, NV, UT); and Section 8 – Northwest (AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, WY).

The NFHS Coaches Association has an advisory committee composed of a chair and eight sectional representatives. The sectional committee representatives evaluate the state award recipients from the states in their respective sections and select the best candidates for the sectional award in each sport category. The NFHS Coaches Association Advisory Committee then considers the sectional candidates in each sport, ranks them according to a point system, and determines a national winner for each of the 20 sport categories, the spirit category and two “other” categories.

A total of 660 coaches will be recognized this year with state, sectional and national awards.

State winners for Arizona include: PJ Ponce (Marana Mountain View Wrestling), Justin Smith (Page Boys Basketball), Jon Shores (Brophy Prep Boys Golf), Lynn Johnson (Snowflake Girls Track & Field), Michael Gleason (Horizon Boys Track & Field), Annie Valencia (Florence Spiritline), Mike Urbanski (Salpointe Catholic Girls Cross Country), Cassie Schrader (Coconino Girls Basketball), Tim Zemp (ALA-Queen Creek Boys Volleyball), Rick Garretson (Chandler Football), Michael Blair (Northland Prep Girls Soccer), and Tui Selvartnam (Xavier Prep Girls Golf)