Marty Gordon
This past year had plenty of local sports stories with many grabbing headlines.
Softball definitely caught our attention this past spring when Auburn and Christiansburg high schools were ringing the bells.
Christiansburg won the Class 3 state softball title, their first in the history of the school, while Auburn returned the Class 1 girls’ soccer trophy to Riner. It took extra innings for Christiansburg, but they got the job done 6-3 against a 23-3 Turner Ashby squad. Kaden Camper struck out 15 batters, but it was time at the plate late that provided the spark to end a 3-3 tie and what was once a 2-1 deficit. Camper hit a go-ahead double in the eighth inning, which brought the trophy back to the New River Valley. This was the first year on the sidelines for Sean Gaynor. He called the win and the entire season awesome.
“To see the ladies put in work all season long and to see this day finally come and how it came about was just awesome,” he said. “It is hard to describe with words, and I can’t be more proud of those ladies for their perseverance.”
Christiansburg finished off their season with their best record ever 24-3, and Camper finished with 277 strikeouts. The ladies also set a VHSL record of 41 home runs on the season, the very best in Virginia state softball.
Meanwhile, Auburn also had to break open a close game before rolling to a 6-2 win over Northumberland in the Class 1 soccer finals. Stacy Lewis provided the lead with 15 minutes remaining in the contest. Auburn would finish the season 19-4-0.
The Radford High School boys’ soccer team would be the runner ups in Class 2 as they fell 1-0 to Three Rivers District rival Glenvar.
Auburn High School also found it tough to field a football team for the second year in a row.
The numbers game, or should we the lack of, drastically affected the school this past fall in the New River Valley.
Athletic Director Paul Dominy pointed to the lack of upperclassmen causing the problem at the Riner school. Two years ago, Auburn shut down their program half-way through its season. Last year, there were able to limp through a schedule, but not this year.
“We will not be fielding a varsity football team this fall. We had just two upperclassmen come out for football. We have 22 freshmen and sophomores in the program and our middle school program is healthy, so we feel like this is a short-term step back to help sustain long term growth for the program,” Dominy said.
This did cause problems for the schools, which were on Auburn’s 2024 schedule. The school was slated to play a home benefit game on August 23 against Holston and then officially start the season on August 30 against Narrows. The rest of the schedule included the entire Mt.
Empire District group (George Wythe, Galax, Giles, Ft. Chiswell and Grayson County). Eastern Montgomery also had to fill its September 20 date.
Meanwhile, the Virginia High School League had to make its own adjustment when it came to lack of numbers for officials. This would be the second year seven-man crews could be as little as five, and games could also be played on nights other than the typical Friday ones.
In order to subsidy the need for full crews, games will simply be moved around. Thus, Friday night games were rescheduled for Thursday or Saturday nights.
Christiansburg High School had to deal with its own major change on the football field when seven-year coach Alex Wilkens announced he was stepping down after taking the school to another state playoff appearance. Under his seven-season leadership, the Blue Demons made six playoff appearances, highlighted by a region 3D title and trip to the Class 3 state semifinals in 2022.
The past all-county/all-city coach of the year left for family reasons. One of his assistants, Matt Heron, took over the reins of the Christiansburg program.
Christiansburg also lost its girls’ basketball coach Jacob Underwood, who also was replaced by an assistant in K.C. Shrader.
Auburn High School also brought home another state championship in volleyball. The Eagles picked up the 2024 1A state volleyball champions after a win over Rappahannock in three, 25-10, 25-10 and 25-16. The win is Auburn’s ninth in the past 13 years and gives Coach Sherry Millirons the label of an all-county/all-city coach of the decade. The program set a new standard in high school volleyball.
At Virginia Tech, the women’s basketball team grab the nation’s attention and racked up sellouts at almost every home game. Names like Liz Kitley and Georgia Amore became second nature. As a team, the dream included a second-year trip to the NCAA. An injury to Liz did keep that dream from going as far as fans at hoped.
The success in women’s basketball meant Coach Kenny Brooks would leave for the University of Kentucky. He also took Amore with him to change the look of the Hokies roster.
On the national level, the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) took hold of college athletics especially in the area of D1 football. The Transfer Portal also changed the look of football and basketball.
Former Gate City basketball player Mac McClung continued to be the world’s top dunker, but it didn’t get him a NBA contract.
Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark became the darling and face of women’s professional basketball.
Former great Mike Tyson took care of his financial need with the staged boxing match against a much younger Jake Paul.
The United States men and women basketball teams flexed some muscle against the rest of the world on the court, and they both earned the gold-medals.
Colorado’s Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy as a two-way player.
Dodger Shohei Ohtani took baseball by storm and caught our attention in doing nothing but hit homerun after homerun. He might not be the reincarnation of Babe Ruth, but he’s pretty close.
U.S. gymnast Simones Biles returned to top of the podium at the Paris Olympics, posting high schools in the vault, balance beam and floor exercise.
Oh yes, there was another Super Bowl trophy for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, who became the first back-to-back winner in years.
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