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Home > Archive > Jul 26, 2007

Gunn Spends One Last Summer in St. George Sun
By Stephen Vincent
Adam Gunn didn't want to be the hero of Snow Canyon's state championship baseball run last spring. But after guiding the Warriors to the title and winning the 3-A state Most Valuable Player Award, Gunn found a large amount of embarrassing praise coming his way.
“It was a lot of undeserved credit,” said Gunn, who is spending his summer playing for the St. George American Legion squad. “The team didn't get enough credit for what they did. Everyone on that team did something to help us win.”
Still, Gunn enjoyed the things that came with the state MVP title: large trophies and free bats sent to him by Louisville Slugger.
“That was cool,” Gunn said, “but I'm trying to stay humble about it.”
Now, Gunn is focused on getting prepared for his next challenge: college baseball. He is using his time with the Legion team to get ready to play for Salt Lake Community College next year.
“I'm really excited,” Gunn said. “I've always dreamed of playing college ball, and it's awesome to see all that hard work pay off and have it come true.”
Gunn chose to play for the Bruins for a couple reasons: First, Salt Lake will let him both pitch and play a position on its team. And, second, the Bruins are going to let him play this year instead of asking him to redshirt.
The redshirt issue came into play at some other schools because of Gunn's plans to serve an LDS church mission after his freshman year.
“I didn't want to go somewhere and redshirt,” Gunn said.
After his mission, Gunn said he hopes to do one thing: play baseball.
“I want to play baseball as long as I can,” Gunn said. “If I can go on and play professionally, I'll give it a shot. But I want to be smart about it. I don't want to miss out on an education.”
The concept of playing baseball for as long as he can makes sense to Gunn, who said he can't remember a time before baseball.
“I grew up on it, I was raised on it,” Gunn said. “I just love being out on the diamond. I just love being out there with my friends. There's nothing like hitting a homerun or pitching for the last out of the game.”
That Gunn was raised on baseball has everything to do with the fact he has five older brothers, who all happened to love playing baseball. So Gunn joined right in.
As he grew up, he played on the Snow Canyon Little League All-Star teams.
His freshman year in high school, however, was the year that made him decide to focus exclusively on baseball.
He had played basketball and football earlier in life, but some bad knees ruled those out for high school. So he had played golf during the fall of his freshman season.
But when springtime rolled around that year, he knew he had found his sport.
As a freshman, Gunn played on both Snow Canyon's junior varsity and varsity teams. He saw some time on varsity as the Warriors' designated hitter.
That experience convinced him to focus solely on baseball.
Gunn ended up being a three-year starter, culminating in the Warriors' title last year.
“That was so awesome,” said Gunn of winning the state title. “That was the most amazing thing; that was my happiest moment ever.”
This is Gunn's second go-round on the legion team. He said he enjoys the opportunity to play with the best high school players from the St. George area, and he also likes the challenge of facing great players from other places.
Mostly, though, he likes the more-relaxed pace of legion ball.
“Legion's a lot more laid back,” Gunn said. “In high school there's so few games that each game is so critical. In Legion, you can lose a game, forget about it and go on to the next game. It's more fun because you can have a good time.”
When he's not playing baseball, Gunn likes to play the piano and guitar, and he enjoys going to the lake, skimboarding, and hanging out with friends.
“I always have to be doing something,” said Gunn, as he stood on the banks of the Virgin River on a recent skimboarding excursion. “I can't be sitting around.”

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