The Valley Christian Academy baseball program has come a long way since Brad Gunter Jr. played his initial season for the Lions.
"The first year we had a team, we had only seven boys in the high school, including myself," Gunter said. "So we had a sixth-grader at second base and an eighth-grader at first just so we could have a team I could play on."
Gunter went on to pitch at Sierra College, Liberty University in Virginia and Sacramento State before returning to his Roseville alma mater, the K-12 school started by his father, Brad Gunter Sr.
Since his return, Gunter Jr. has built the Lions into one of the section's top small-school baseball programs. Valley Christian has won 12 consecutive league championships and back-to-back Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII titles.
Aside from coaching baseball, he's a teacher, the school's vice principal, athletic director, boys high school varsity and girls and boys elementary basketball coaches, the Sacramento Metropolitan Athletic Conference league commissioner and the father of three: Micah, 11, and twins Claudia and Cloe, 9.
Casa Roble High School coach Ed Tupper is amazed at how well Gunter multitasks.
"The way he handles all those things and does a good job at all of them shows where his heart lies," Tupper said.
But it's the way Gunter's teams play baseball that has earned him this year's Bee Coach of the Year honors.
The Lions have gone 47-12 over two seasons, including a number of wins against larger schools.
"I think my colleagues realize that they'll get a good, competitive game, and that we play with class," Gunter said.
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