AYDEN — Chris Ross has accomplished a lot in his 30 seasons of coaching baseball at Ayden-Grifton. He has a regional championship, a plethora of conference titles and is making his 28th appearance in the state playoffs.
But this trip will be his last.
Ross, who announced last month that season No. 30 would be his final at the helm of the baseball program, is hoping to go out with a bang as the Chargers host Dixon at 7 tonight in the first round of the NCHSAA state 1A playoffs.
The coach who has well over 400 career victories and played for a state 1A title in 2003 has never been concerned with winning or losing — all he’s ever asked of his players is that they play their hardest and at their best for seven or more, and sometimes fewer, innings.
But knowing there’s no tomorrow for him as a coach after the next loss, Ross is hoping this season the Chargers give him a deep run to remember them by.
“I told my seniors (on Wednesday) that I hope they play like there is no tomorrow and like it could be their last game because I know and I’m trying to instill upon them that, one loss, and it’s over with,” he said. “We’re just trying to play good and play hard.”
Ross began his Ayden-Grifton coaching career in 1983 and the program has done nothing but succeed under his oversight.
He said his teams have missed the state playoffs just twice in his 30 seasons — “about the middle of my career,” he said — and that includes the years when the NCHSAA took only one to two teams from each conference.
The Chargers won the 1A Eastern Regional crown in 2003 and played for the state title against South Stokes. South Stokes swept the best-of-three series for its second of back-to-back-to-back 1A championships, but that didn’t make Ross change his philosophy.
In 30 years, he’s seen it all. And through everything it’s humbled him greatly.
“I learned a long time ago that this game has a way of humbling you,” Ross said. “This game is unique in that I think it does give young men second and third chances. Sometimes people don’t remember what you did early in the ballgame, but they remember what you did late.”
Ayden-Grifton finished second this season in its final year as a member of the Carolina 1A Conference — next school year it will move up a classification and be a part of the six-team Eastern Carolina 2A Conference, which Ross will preside over — after winning the league title in consecutive years in 2011 and 2012.
The Chargers (17-6) will host a Bulldogs (14-9) squad that finished third in the Coastal Plains 1A Conference and has lost three of their last four games. Ayden-Grifton sort of scuffled near the conclusion of conference play, dropping back-to-back games to North Duplin and Spring Creek two weeks ago that cost it its third straight league crown.
In the grand scheme of things titles don’t mean much to Ross, although he has plenty of them. But ending his final season with one would be the ultimate way to ride off into retirement.
“I would love to make a run in the playoffs, if the good Lord would see fit and the chips fall in the right place,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of good coaches, players, community support and administration that have made it possible for me to endure the 30 years here at Ayden-Grifton. To all those people who have been a part of it, I thank them tremendously.”
Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.
