Giants’ Critzer resigns

In the days leading up to Waynesboro’s second straight Group AA Final Four baseball berth, speculation was abound that it would be skipper Jim Critzer’s last season at the helm of the Little Giants.

Critzer put the rumors to rest Monday, confirming that for the first time in four years the Waynesboro baseball program will have to search for a new coach.

“I did this with a heavy heart,” Critzer said of his June 18 resignation. “I don’t want to quit. I don’t want to resign. I don’t want to retire. I don’t want these things. But it’s the right thing for my wife and I.”

Critzer took over a struggling Little Giants program and led the team to the Region II tournament in his first year, losing in the first round to Potomac Falls.

“We took a losing varsity team, mixed in a winning JV team and went to regions that first year,” he said.

He capped his career with back-to-back trips to the Group AA Final Four — including a 19-7 season in 2008 — but could never get his Little Giants over the hump at Pulaski’s Calfee Park after a disappointing 2006 that saw the Giants’ season end with a first-round district upset by Rockbridge.

In 2007, the team he dubbed the “Miracle Men” lost to Hidden Valley in the semis and this year’s squad fell to the eventual state champion Powhatan.

“They made their shot and it didn’t happen,” Critzer said of the last two seasons. “We didn’t have any all-stars this year; we had a lot of kids step up.”

Critzer spent nine seasons as the Giants’ JV coach before moving up to varsity in 2005. When he was hired, the coach told the media his job was to build a program and, looking back, the 1968 Waynesboro High School graduate said he has accomplished that.

“I think I can say this with my head held high,” Critzer said. “We built a program here.”

Incoming Waynesboro principal Tim Teachey agreed.

“Jim has done a great job of creating a real positive direction for the baseball team,” Teachey said. “He’s just a good fellow and a hard worker.”

Despite the initial success during his first season, Critzer was the bull’s-eye for angry parents who sent e-mails and placed phone calls to the local media asking why he was the school’s coach and calling for his firing before the season’s end.

“That first year,” Critzer said, “someone left a card on my vehicle that called me every [name] in the book. I always kept it as a reminder and looked at it.”

Teachey said Critzer was more than just a coach to his players. Players whom Critzer always called “men,” because, “I hate calling them boys,” he said.

“I know he put a lot of his own personal resources into [Kate Collins field],” Teachey said. “And I can appreciate how he handles young men and what he knows about baseball. All of that went into making him a good coach.”

Critzer was known more for his sharp tongue and wit than his contributions to the Waynesboro athletic program. Assistant coaches lauded him for paying out of his own pocket for game-day breakfasts at Basic City Luncheonette and for purchasing four new bats before this season’s Group AA semifinal. But Critzer always shunned the extra attention.

“I spoke with somebody today and they said, ‘You don’t take credit,’ ” he said. “I will take credit for one damned thing — I surrounded myself with a lot of good people.”

Waynesboro Athletic Director Mel Morris could not be reached for comment, but Teachey said he would like to keep as many of the current crop of assistant coaches — Gary Weatherholtz, Webber Payne and John Lucas — as he can on staff and left the possibility open for an inside hire from the group.

“Mel [Morris] will field all applications [but] certainly those folks that are in place now, we would hope they would want to be a part of it,” Teachey said.

Critzer, not ruling out a complete retirement from coaching baseball, said he plans on moving to Virginia Beach with his wife — “and biggest supporter” — Linda Ann.

“Right now,” he said, “change is good.”