Valley Christian tops Sac Waldorf to claim first section championship for beloved coach
It’s the cozy little campus nestled in the heart of Roseville, enrollment 115, a small stage where everyone thinks big picture.
Kids grow up on Valley Christian High School, a good many of them attending classes from kindergarten through their seniors years. The school stresses academics, giving to others, being the best you can be.
Sports is the extracurricular that makes for a memorable and well-rounded experience for private Christian schools everywhere, and so the locker room joy for the fast-breaking Lions was a long time coming.
Seeded fourth in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI bracket, Valley Christian beat injury-plagued No. 4 Sacramento Waldorf 72-29 on Friday morning at Golden 1 Center, the first such feat for a program that has competed at a championship level for years under spirited and fun coach Brad Gunter Jr., whose father Brad Sr., founded the school in 1978 as a pastor.
Ian Glapsy scored 16 points for VCA. Chase Clary had 14. Chris Donker had seven points and yanked down 14 rebounds. Eight players in all scored for a Lions team that moved to 22-8 and will advance to the CIF Northern California regional tournament next week.
“The key to any VCA team is they work really hard and they’re good kids, and that’s why I’ve chosen to stay at VCA for 27 years,” Gunter said. “Any success we have here in sports is a bonus. A lot of our guys at VCA have been on our campus since they were two, three, four years old. I’ve seen them compete in elementary and middle school, and to see them celebrate was great.”
Gunter is also the school’s baseball coach, where he has won 20 league championships and eight section banners. He’s no longer just a baseball guy. He’s a championship coach in multiple sports. One of his assistant coaches in both sports is Steve Eakes, a mentor when Gunter played for him at Sierra College.
The game was a meeting of longtime coaching friends in Gunter and Waldorf’s Dean Stark, the winningest coach in section history with 676 victories, all at the same school. Waldorf was coming off the tournament’s biggest upset when the gritty Waves stunned top-seeded Stone Ridge of Merced in a semifinal.
Stark dressed the part at Golden 1, as he always does, in a blue suit, and his most unsung team moved him nearly to tears just by getting here. But the Waves took a hit when leading scorer and rebounder Eli Neuhaus went down with a rolled ankle two minutes into the game. VCA went on a 40-8 run to seize control.
Rocco Hanson scored 12 points for Waldorf. Lucas Rivas Day eight.
Typical of both coaches, they were classy after the game.
“I don’t think we had enough to beat them anyway and they were better and deserved to win,” Stark said. “I’m super happy for Brad that he won. That was hard, losing Eli. We avoided injuries all season and I held my breath on that. Losing him changed everything for us.”
Gunter said he could feel for his friend Stark, who for all of his success has found a section banner to be elusive.
“We have such high regard for Dean Stark,” Gunter said. “He’s the best.”
Clary, VCA’s junior guard, leads the team in scoring at 17.3 points per game. He is one of the Lions who have grown up on that Roseville campus. His mother was also a student there, someone whom Gunter had in class years ago. Clary said it was “super great” to be surrounded with friends who happen to be teammates and to win the biggest game of their lives in the biggest venue they’ve ever experienced.
Gunter said his program takes none of this success for granted. He said it’s a dream for players and coaches to play in an NBA venue, and he praised the section office for letting even the smallest schools enjoy the fun. The D-VI title games used to be held on a Thursday night at Galt while the larger divisions played for banners at Golden 1. Now, all six divisions play in the big house. When told that the D-VI games would be in the morning, 10 a.m. starts, Gunter Jr. said they would have giddily accepted offers to play at 6 a.m.
“It’s such a big deal for the kids, and, man, we’re grateful,” Gunter said. “We’re OK with the early games. We’ve got portable buildings on campus, 115 kids. We’ll take it.”
The coach also thanked the unsung person of the program. Gary Smith coached 37 years at the University of Redlands in Southern California, where he popularized “The System” with waves of players entering the game to keep up the tempo.
“He comes to practices and games,” Gunter said. “He’s taken the time in retirement and we love him for it.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 4:12 PM.