HIGH-SCHOOL

After leading Gaston Christian softball to title, Craig named area's top coach

Joe Hughes jhughes@gastongazette.com

Danny Craig is swift to shift responsibility for Gaston Christian’s success this season elsewhere.

But when it came to pushing the right buttons at a perfect time, the Eagles softball coach proved to be spot on.

Despite holding a solid mark, Craig wasn’t pleased with how his club finished the regular season. Such prompted a heart-to-heart among players and coaches, hoping to ensure that the home stretch was its finest hour.

“At the end of the season, in the conference tournament in fact, we had a six-run lead go to waste and got beat,” he said. “We had a meeting and promised that wouldn’t happen again, and that the state playoffs were going to be different.

“As a result, we hit the ball hard for 10 days and rolled into the state playoffs playing how we did 90 percent of the year.”

That meeting proved to be a seminal moment for the softball club, one that concluded with the NCISSA 3A title.

After leading the Eagles to a championship, Craig has been named the All-Gazette softball Coach of the Year.

“Even though this award is geared to the coach, I accept it on behalf of my other three coaches,” he said. “I’m not a person who steps in front of them, I work with them. We leave our pride and egos at the door, allowing this to be a collective coaching situation.

“More importantly, I give this to our girls. I didn’t play one inning, didn’t make an out or score one run. These 12 young ladies are the reason I’m even in consideration for this.”

After losing several senior contributors the previous season, Gaston Christian’s young contributors ensured the team didn’t miss a step.

Sophomore Mia Holmes batted. 490 on the year, hitting four home runs and bringing in 22 runs. She also was 8-3 in the circle, striking out 111 batters and earning a 1.14 ERA.

Junior standout Anna Crenshaw batted .365 this past season and pounded out three home runs, while seventh grader Emma Ghorley hit .382 and had 18 RBIs.

However, it took a team effort to get complete the Eagles’ run to a title.

“I’ve been at Gaston Christian for three years, and we had only beaten (Hickory Grove Christian) once, and that was in middle school. We hadn’t scored any runs against them in the past two years.

“The last game we played them, their top pitcher hurled a perfect game against us. I came back and thought, ‘we have to stop this.’ Right then, we started changing how we approached her, letting the rise ball go by and making contact on other pitches. We had a seventh-grader in two at-bats make their pitcher offer 30 pitches. That momentum was big … we took advantage of their mistakes that we typically ours.”

Craig added: “No one expected much from this group of girls, no one had words of confidence. We hung it up for them to read. And I’m happy these girls worked hard to make their dream of a championship, a reality.”