Van Gaus didn’t get his name in the paper often, but his impact was all over it.
It could be seen in the success of athletes like Ty Johnson, Bryce Nightengale, Blake Beal, Garrett and Cody Dolly and Danny King, all of whom Gaus coached at the youth level.
You don’t get much recognition for coaching pee-wee sports. The reward is in your pupils going on to bigger and better things, and in your own heart as a positive force in our community.
That’s why there was an outpouring of pain and disbelief when Gaus, 56, died suddenly on June 25.
It wasn’t just felt in Cumberland. The Hampshire Review published a tribute to Gaus, as he was a beloved United Parcel Service worker of 34 years delivering in the Capon Bridge area of Hampshire County.
It’s like the community has got the wind knocked out of it, as his good friend Eric Beal described Gaus’ passing.
Gaus did appear once in the paper in recent years.
In 2021, Van and his wife Cindy were sitting in beach chairs at Rocky Gap State Park when an 11-year-old boy started drowning, and Van came to his rescue.
‘When it happened, I just reacted,” Gaus said after the act of heroism. “I have two children of my own (Dalton and Lexi). I’m just glad to hear that the kid is OK.”
That was the same motivating factor that led Gaus to more than a decade of youth coaching. He treated other people’s children like they were his own.
Gaus, a 1986 graduate of Fort Hill, was a pretty good athlete in his own right.
As a senior, he shared Fort Hill’s Babe Ruth Award with Donnie Raines, presented to the baseball player who best exemplifies sportsmanship and fair play.
A first baseman known for his exceptional defensive ability, Gaus went on to play a year at Allegany College before entering the work force.
It was fitting, then, that his coaching career picked up on the baseball diamond in 2004, managing his son’s team in the Dapper Dan Minors.
He helped run the Cumberland Saints in pee-wee football, and that’s where he coached Johnson, who has gone on to gain more than 2,000 all-purpose yards across five National Football League seasons with the Detroit Lions, New York Jets and Buffalo Bills.
But his real coaching passion was in basketball. He was the Washington Middle School coach for a number of years and also headed Silver Hoop teams.
When it came time for his son, Dalton, to attend Fort Hill, Van could’ve followed him and coached at his alma mater but let Dalton pave his own path.
Dalton went on to a four-year basketball career at Frostburg State.
“Van embodied that type of role as a positive influence in this community and was a great dad,” Fort Hill head basketball coach Thad Burner said.
Beal recounted a story of when, in one practice in 2012, Gaus coached Beal’s Washington Middle sixth-grade team to the Scaletta Tournament championship.
Beal had wanted to run a 1-3-1 trap but didn’t have the basketball chops to do so, and Gaus volunteered to install the defense.
Selfless actions like that are what has made this so hard on people.
“He coached everybody up around him,” Beal said. “He coached people up, including me.”
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he touched the lives of thousands, from parents to kids and across 34 years as a UPS worker.
Gaus was not one for fanfare or adulation, and so his family is holding a celebration of his life on Saturday at 5 p.m. at 1812 Brewery.
And what a life it was. His legacy will live on in the success of his children and of his former players.
That’s how he would’ve wanted it.