When Chris Goyette was hired as the new head coach for the Medina High School baseball team in 2022, the team was good. They won a lot of games and made the postseason in the years prior to his hiring.
His hiring was not one in order to rebuild a program but instead to take it to the next level.
In the four years that he has been the head coach, Goyette has done just that, taking the program to new heights that the program has never seen before.
During his tenure, Goyette has gone a combined 73-15 overall while capturing three Niagara-Orleans League titles in a row. He has also won five sectional titles in the last six years.
“My first year was in 2016, Brian (Fry) was there two or three years before that, helping out with the previous head coach in the program,” Goyette said. “… Up until that time, the program really struggled, never really advanced beyond the first round of sectionals, in some circumstances. … We were volunteers but in essence we were in charge. We ran day-to-day practices, we made all gameday in-game decisions.”
This year was different from the rest, though. This year’s team did something the other three teams could not, they made it to the state tournament.
The 2025-26 team went 22-3 overall and made it all the way to the state title game, where they lost to Chester 3-0. The team captured its third consecutive Section VI Class B title with a 3-0 win over JFK in the sectional final.
When he first took over the program four years ago, Goyette always knew the program had the potential to be a perennial power in the area. He always knew the team could compete for state titles. It especially became clear to him when the team had success in 2019 and then he thought his first team’s shot at greatness would have happened in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the season.
In the years that have followed, the team has had success making deep runs in the postseason before falling short while continuing to build and improve on a yearly basis. It resulted in the aforementioned run to the state title game this year.
When he thinks about what he is most proud of from his career, the wins and the accolades are always nice, but it is the relationships he has built with his former and current players and their players. Even though Medina did not capture the state title this year, he still received a lot of congratulations on the team’s run.
The culture has allowed him to send 10 players to college since 2019 including Aidan Paul to NCAA Division I, High Point University.
“There’s been a couple of years where nobody expected or nobody ever thought we were gonna do what we did,” Goyette said. “They always know we’re going to be competitive but to dominate our league and dominate our section the way we have over the last several years is truly satisfying and rewarding.”
Now that he has had time to think about the days following the conclusion of the best season in program history and his last four years as the coach as a whole, he is proud. He is proud of the legacy that he has built and it has been noticed by area head coaches who have told him that he has built a powerhouse and the gold standard for programs in the section.
Now that he does have time to look ahead and look to next season, the standard remains the same.
Even if the loss does make the team just a little bit hungrier. They want to go back to Binghamton and win the state title this time around.
“That’s our goal every year and that’s our expectations every year is to first win sectionals and try to give ourselves the best shot to get back to Binghamton,’ Goyette said. “… Yes to the point where I didn’t love the way we performed. I would always love a better result or a better performance and then I would have loved to see what our performance was.”