GREG MADIA The (Charlottesville) Daily Progress

CHARLOTTESVILLE — He spent late Wednesday night reading through an overflowing inbox of text messages from his former players.

On Thursday morning, former Virginia baseball coach Brian O’Connor said he was brought to tears by what the sentiment of those notes means to him.

“Every one of them said like, ‘Coach, thank you for the impact that you made on my life. Thank you for the experience. We’ll be rooting you on like crazy and you’ll forever be my coach,’” O’Connor told The Daily Progress in an exclusive interview on Thursday. “And that’s what I love, because at its core, if you don’t have that, you don’t win. It’s based on the relationships.”

O’Connor spent 22 years building UVa’s program and coaching the Cavaliers.

He took the Hoos to

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