Despite having three Baylor School graduates occupying prominent roles on his highly regarded baseball squad, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor isn’t ready to change his program’s nickname from the Cavaliers to the Red Raiders.
At least not yet.
“If every Red Raider is like these three guys,” O’Connor said, “we’ll take a whole team of them.”
Junior second baseman Henry Godbout, sophomore right fielder Henry Ford and freshman pitcher Tomas Valincius are providing optimism galore for Virginia, which is No. 2 in the D1 Baseball preseason poll behind Texas A&M. Godbout and Ford have earned All-America status after their scorching 2024 seasons, while O’Connor is not hiding his praise for the left-handed Valincius and his prospects of contributing way sooner than later.
All three were boarding students at Baylor, and the bond that began in Chattanooga under the former co-coaching dynamic of Greg Elie and Mike Kinney has only strengthened in Charlottesville.