Henry ‘Turtle” Thomas served as coach of the Harrisonburg Turks in 1981 and the Staunton Braves from 1983-85. His 1983 Braves won the pennant and set a new VBL record for wins in a season.
Thomas played baseball at High Point University and later began a long coaching career in college baseball. Thomas coached as an assistant at Clemson, Georgia Tech, LSU, and Miami. He was also head coach at Florida International.
Thomas helped take four different programs to the College World Series.
He was an assistant coach at Clemson from 1978-85 and helped lead the Tigers to the 1980 World Series. He was assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Georgia Tech in 1986-87 before becoming assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Miami in 1988. He helped lead the Hurricanes to nine College World Series trips in 12 years, including 1999 when the Canes won the title. He was assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at LSU from 2000-2006 and made three more trips to the CWS, including another championship in 2000. In 2007, Thomas was assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for Arizona State and made another trip to the CWS.
Thomas had 19 straight recruiting classes in ranked in the Top 10 from 1988-2006. He had the No. 1 ranked class four times, more than any other coach.
Thomas became a head coach for the first time in 2007, when he took over the helm at Florida International. In nine years, his teams won 282 games and he led FIU to a pair of conference titles and three NCAA tournament appearances.
During his nearly four decades in college baseball, Thomas sent dozens and dozens of players to the VBL.