The man behind the curtain, Stephen “Steve” Fox has a hand in all the Madison happenings, from building maintenance to announcing various sporting events. Fox is an integral part of the Madison community and has been working at the school for eight years despite his relative anonymity among students.
As a lifelong member of the Vienna community, Fox is always around, whether he is having a meal at The Vienna Inn, a town staple, or announcing at a Madison sporting event.
“I’m a local guy,” Fox said. “I grew up two miles from here.”
Fox started his career right out of high school. He attended trade school and after graduation, worked in various trades for 15 years. Later in his career, Fox was given the opportunity to work as a building engineer at the World Bank and stayed there for the next 26 years. Upon retirement from the World Bank, he was persuaded to make new plans.
“I couldn’t convince my wife to retire, so I needed something to do, just to stay busy,” Fox said.
These upended retirement plans allowed Fox to start his career working for Fairfax County Public Schools as a bus driver.
“I always wanted to drive a bus,” Fox said. “I had driven big trucks throughout my career so it just worked out perfectly. I was able to get assigned to Madison, actually, my three schools were Louise Archer [Elementary School], Thoreau [Middle School], and Madison.”
Fox had a friend working inside the building: Safety and Security specialist, Anthony Thomas. The two have been friends since Fox’s son was a student at Madison, and they bonded over a shared interest in recreational vehicles (RVs). When the previous building manager left, Thomas thought of Fox for the job as operating engineer, instead of him just driving around outside as a bus driver.
“You need to come inside,” Fox said, quoting Thomas. After discussing it with his wife, Fox agreed to take the job and has been an operating engineer at Madison ever since.
“There’s no question; the teachers, the administrators that I’ve met, the kids are great, and it’s really rewarding still being here,” Fox said.
Part of that reward is Fox’s job as the Madison sports announcer. Fox and his wife, Donna, stand in the announcement box to report the scores for both teams. Donna uses binoculars to track what’s happening on the field and relays the players’ numbers to Fox so he can check it off the roster and announce the player that scored.
Fox started announcing for Vienna Youth Incorporated (VYI) 20 years ago and later began announcing for Madison Football games after the previous announcer transferred to Justice High School. Starting out with football, Fox got involved with softball announcements because his wife was one of the assistant coaches. Girls basketball came later, when the coach, a Madison alumni and friend of Fox’s asked him to announce for this team as well. In all, Fox is the voice behind Madison’s football, baseball, girls basketball, and softball games.
“I’ve had four state championships with girls basketball,” Fox said. “And two state championships with baseball, and the boys have been to the state finals the last two years, they didn’t happen to win, but they made it to the championship game two years in a row so it’s been a great ride!”