Jose Vivanco, Sr. began his service to the sport of soccer in 1974 when he became a youth coach at the South DeKalb YMCA. That same year, Vivanco became certified as a USSF referee and was certified to referee in high school the following year.
In 1978, Vivanco became certified as a USSF referee instructor, qualified as a USSF referee assessor before spending some time as a college referee assessor and state referee instructor. In 1992, he attained the grade of USSF state referee assessor and was appointed as a high school referee assessor for the Georgia Soccer Officials Association in 1996.
In 1994, Vivanco was appointed as the GSSA State Director of Referee Assessment. Seven years later, in 2001, he was given the title of State Director of Referee Assessment by the Georgia State High School Athletic Association. He still serves in both positions.
During his career, Vivanco coached for nearly 23 years. He worked with teams in every age group, including the American Soccer Association's Mustang Soccer Club, the Georgia Tech Club Team and many more. Some of his most notable players include Grant Leroux, fellow Georgia Soccer Hall of Fame member Josh Wolff, Chad Carithers, Javier and Carlos Vivanco, Josh Farrar and Shane Weems. Four others - Brad Harris, Phil Danbury, Brad Brown and Tracy Crouch - became high school soccer coaches. Although Vivanco ended his coaching career in 1997, he went on to make great strides, as mentioned before, in refereeing. In 2007, Georgia Soccer had the honor of inducting Vivanco in the Hall of Fame.