In all the years Astoria sports teams have competed, it is difficult to find a person that was more supportive to the individual athlete than Vince Dulcich.
Dulcich came to Astoria in 1962 from Lake Oswego High School, where he had been the football coach for the Lakers since 1958 and taught in the PE department.
Dulcich guided the Astoria football program for eight years, before taking over the reins of the athletic director leadership position for the next 16 years. His untimely death in the summer of 1985 ended one of the longest stints of service in AHS history.
In those 16 years, Dulcich saw the sports program through many changes. Two of the biggest came in 1974, when Title IX, the equal opportunity for women came into existence, doubling the Astoria’s athletic program and Dulcich’s work load. Another change came in 1981 when the Fishermen, due to decreasing enrollment, dropped from the 3A classification to the 2A level.
Among Astoria’s basketball community, Dulcich will be best remembered for his organizing the annual winter tournament that bares his name. It was in 1970, Dulcich’s first year as the Fishermen athletic director, that the cagefest as we know it today, made it’s first run. At the time of Dulcich’s induction into the AHS Hall of Fame (1999) the tournament was making its 29th consecutive appearance on the AHS sports menu.
Dedicated to making Astoria sports programs one of the best in the state, Dulcich spent hours of his own time attending games of every level. From arranging for officials to supporting his coaches, his extra efforts, while not always noticed, were appreciated by everyone involved in AHS sports.