Marty Gordon
Two years ago, Sean Gaynor was coaching an all-star travel softball team and was helping with the program at a dominant Auburn High School, who had won as many as five of the last seven state titles.
Turn the clock to last summer when the opening at Christiansburg High School popped up. Gaynor did not think twice and applied for the job.
“I’ve always coached softball and in all honestly, I feel more comfortable in being in the dugout or the dirt. Saw it as an opportunity,” he said.
Gaynor led Christiansburg to its first ever state championship, rolling through regional and district competition to finish with a 24-3 record. Max Preps ranked them as number four in the entire state across all six classes. The team outscored its opponents by a 215 to 64 mark, while establishing itself as one of the top homerun hitting squads in the Commonwealth.
Two years ago, Christiansburg was 12-9 and was 33-21 combined over the past four seasons.
“O,” as he is commonly known, instilled a sense of fun and confidence in a group that had seen their ups and downs.
“One of the things I have always stressed if you’re not having fun then you shouldn’t be here (on the softball field),” he said.
The key toward the end of the season, he said was telling the girls they were playing their best ball and, “I told them they would be just fine.”
Last week, Gaynor was named the Class 3 coach of the year. Purdue-commit and Christiansburg’s ace pitcher Kadyn Camper was named the state’s player of the year. Christiansburg teammate Addison Reasor (third base) joined Camper on the first team.
“It was super exciting and super humbling,” Gaynor said in winning the state’s top honor. “God has smiled upon us.”
Camper won 20 games and 277 strikeouts this season and 600 in her career.
He sang Camper’s praise. “It was nice having such a dominant ace in the circle.”
Gaynor is optimistic the future is bright for the Christiansburg program as they only lose four seniors. Of course, it includes the graduating Camper, but the cabinet is not bear. Seven starters return to a team that has depth including the UVA-commit in Reasor. The state run also included bringing up two talented players from the junior varsity.
“I feel really good about that. I’ve got several good pitchers coming back so we should be good. Kinda excited what we’ve got going,” he concluded.
