A record-setting career with Teays Valley has helped Gavin Waters lay claim to the Mark Anderson Award as Pickaway County’s top male soccer player.
“It definitely means a lot, that’s for sure. I couldn’t have done it by myself, though. The team was a huge help,” Waters said. “I can only do so much up there by myself, I need the rest of the team to be able to help secure the win and to get the ball up there in the first place. It was definitely not just an individual effort.”
The senior scored 31 goals and had 10 assists during the season in the sport that he loves playing.
“Something about kicking a ball around is fun,” Waters said. “Especially when the whole team is very passionate about everything. Like, when they really get into it, it makes the game a lot more fun”
“Gavin’s definitely been a game changer, season changer for us,” TV coach Shane Harber said. “Lots of hard work, lots of great effort, good teammate for everybody to always look up to and guidance and being that game changer — game in and game out for us.”
Waters finishes his career with the most goals in a season for a freshman, a sophomore and a junior along with the career record with 109 goals (the old record was 82).
“He’s not going to tell you he didn’t ever want to score, but I never felt that it was ever being selfish,” Harber said. “It was never about Gavin. I truly feel it was always about the team. If he works to take care of business, he knew that those things were going to come to him as they came to the team as well.”
While the Vikings don’t match up against the other county schools in the regular season since moving to the OCC, Helber said the other coaches were familiar with him from earlier years and knew what he was getting done in his senior season.
“We still kind of follow each other a little bit as the season goes on and talk from time to time. They had seen the success that he had had and the success the program had again this year, and knowing that he was the driving force behind the majority of that was kind of key for them,” Harber said.
The third year for the Mark Anderson Award, Waters had played with the first two winners – Derek Yarnell and Maxwell Spencer – and he said they provided good examples.
“With Derek, he left it all in the field. There was never a time where I had any doubt in my mind that Derek didn’t leave it all on the field,” Waters said. “Max, always working hard on the field. If there was a ball that looked like he was going out, he was trying for it. He was definitely a good example of hard work on the field.”
Waters said he tries to emulate some those traits.
“I like to think I’m somebody that kids look up to off the field just with attitude and everything and on the field, I like to work as hard as I can,” he said. “Obviously, just working as hard as I can every game.
“I’d say I lead the team a good bit by directing them, where to be, when to press, when not to press. I think that was a huge thing for us this past season was when we needed to press versus when we needed to sit back. I think that helped a lot in our success in the OCC.”
The team’s efforts in the OCC Buckeye led to a 4-3 league record. Despite the fourth-place finish, the league’s coaches recognized the impact Waters had on games and named him the league’s player of the year.
“It just goes to speak for what he did when he was on the field against every team. They knew that they had to double team him to have a chance to beat us,” Harber said.
Waters scored at least once against every OCC opponent.
“That in itself just speaks volumes,” Harber said. “Coaches had seen him play prior years and knew what he brought to the field when they were going to play against him.”
“It definitely means a lot to me that to play against other teams and for their coaches to recognize me on the field,” Waters said.
Along with his scoring, Waters also is pretty good at stopping the other team as a goalkeeper, though he wasn’t called on to do it very often.
“He’s probably equally as good in goal as he is on the field, just we’ve got goalkeepers that could take care of things for us,” Harber said. “So he was able to give us his talents up top.”
Waters is looking to continue his soccer career while studying for a business degree but hasn’t decided on a college at this point.
He wouldn’t mind another season with the Vikings, though.
“I kind of wish I could go again. But, you know, all good things have to come to an end,” Waters said. “I’m excited to move on to college, but I’m definitely going to miss playing with the guys.”
The award is named for Mark Anderson, a Circleville High School graduate who scored the very first varsity soccer goal in Pickaway County history in 1982.
The winner of the Mark Anderson Award and the Brad Morris All-Pickaway County soccer teams were selected by the Pickaway County high school soccer coaches.
Mark Anderson Award winners
2023 — Derek Yarnell (Teays Valley)
2024 — Maxwell Spencer (Teays Valley)
2025 — Gavin Waters (Teays Valley)