Former pro’s passion shifts from playing to coaching

Since the age of 4, Powell Pioneer assistant coach Joe Cates knew baseball was his passion. Before his life journey landed him in Powell, Cates’ pursuit of that passion took him from playing high school baseball and college to being drafted by a major league team, playing on a professional team in Canada and serving as a college pitching coach.

Baseball “was just something I really enjoyed doing,” said the now 30-year-old Cates, adding, “I knew it from an early age and [it was] just kind of what I really wanted to do.”

Cates comes from a baseball family and his childhood goal was to play in the majors.

His great-grandfather pitched for a professional farm team in Iowa and his grandfather was a catcher for the same team.

“My grandfather actually caught for my great-grandfather,” Cates said with a smile.

Cates’ father didn’t play baseball and instead raced supercross. But while he grew up playing baseball and riding motorcycles, “I just gravitated more towards baseball,” Cates said.

Cates grew up in Hemet, California, where the weather allows baseball to be played year-round.

“There were times I was on four or five different teams throughout a season or year,” said Cates. “I was lucky enough to go play at a lot of different venues in different states.”

Each night of the week was spent practicing or playing, as Cates played on a rec league, two or three travel teams, All Star teams and a Sunday league, where traveling teams played doubleheaders each Sunday with practices twice a week.

“It was busy,” Cates said. “It was consistently always doing something.”

Cates also said it was “really hectic” for his parents, as his younger sister played softball and his younger brother played baseball, too.

In California, baseball is a high school sport. At Cates’ high school, sixth period was used for practicing whatever sport was in session. That would be followed by practice after school then a trip to the gym before heading home for dinner and repeating the same schedule the next day.

“As soon as I got my driver’s license, I was in the gym just about every day,” said Cates, adding, “I liked to play

[baseball] and I knew what I had to do.”

Cates’ high school coach was “nice enough” to give him the keys to the field; so, starting at the age of 16, a group of guys would get together at the field, put some speakers up and hit for two to three hours.

“That was our Saturday routine on our days off, just guys who wanted to play,” said Cates.

He described himself as playing baseball every chance he had.

“From an early age I knew I wanted to play professional baseball and from an early age I worked my butt off to get myself that opportunity,” Cates said.

Coming out of high school, Cates was eyed by five Division I schools and five or six professional teams as pitcher. However, because they hadn’t seen him play enough, the pro teams encouraged Cates to go to a junior college where they could watch him play some more and potentially draft him early.

Cates chose to attend Palomar College in San Marcos, California, where 14 of his teammates would eventually be drafted. At his very first inter-squad game, Cates was surprised to find a lot of attention on his pitching.

“There was a ton of people there and I had no idea what was going on,” Cates said. “And as soon as I got ready to throw my first pitch, there were about 30 radar guns back there — all professional teams and college coaches back there trying to find out what they wanted.”

“Everything was good,” he says of his freshman year. “Until I got hurt.”

Midway through the season, Cates suffered an injury to his throwing arm: bursitis and a slight tear in the tendon along with a bone spur.

Before the injury, Cates expected to be picked somewhere between the third and fifth rounds of the draft; afterwards, he fell to the 30th round of the 2006 draft, No. 933 overall, where he was picked by the San Diego Padres. Because Cates was a junior college player, the Padres were able to select him as “draft and follow” — giving the team exclusive rights to sign Cates until the next year’s draft.

Cates continued to play for Palomar College. Rehab for his shoulder was going great, but just before his sophomore season started, Cates pulled his groin muscle. Four weeks later, while throwing in the bullpen, he tore his groin.

“So my season was over before it even started,” Cates said. He redshirted that year.

San Diego offered Cates $10,000 to sign with the team, but he turned them down.

“If I signed for that low of money, there’s not much keeping me there with the organization and so if I had gotten hurt or not been able to pitch they could cut me,” Cates explained. “And I wouldn’t be able to go play baseball at the college level again.”

He went on to play for three more years in college — including two years in Missouri — pitching with his groin wrapped and continuing treatment.

After college, Cates went to a private tryout with the Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros and the Kansas City Royals, but his shoulder was still hurting and his groin “wasn’t great.”

“Because of my groin hurting so much, I had to shorten my stride off the mound, so then I was throwing with more arm and my arm just got worse,” Cates said. “I went from throwing 94–95 [mph] to about 84-85.”

The scouts at the tryout told Cates to get his shoulder fixed and give them a call if his speed got back up to 90 mph. Then 24, he underwent surgery.

“The doctor told me I wouldn’t throw a baseball for about a year, year and a half,” Cates said. “And I started throwing catch three months and two days after my surgery.”

Cates worked hard — getting his pitching speed back around 88-91 — but his groin still hurt too much to be able to pitch. It appeared to be the end of his childhood dream.

“I still don’t watch Major League Baseball; I just can’t do it,” Cates said. “I got four or five friends playing for pro teams and it’s just like ... just heartbreaking still.”

It was a deep wound, but in 2013, a childhood friend called and said a Canadian team was looking for a pitcher and infielder.

For one year, Cates played for the Reston Rockets in Canada, pitching and playing second base. Cates led the league in RBIs and was second in home runs.

“Hadn’t swung a bat since 2006, something like that, so it was a lot of fun to swing the bat and play infield again. I missed it,” Cates said.

However, after playing the one year, he knew his groin was “done” and “I’m not going to go any further than this.”

Seven years after being drafted, Cates had accomplished his goal of playing professional baseball.

After returning from Canada, Cates was asked to be the pitching coach at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Craig, Colorado, and he served in that role for three years. However, neither he nor his wife Kayla were happy with where they were located.

Needing a change, Cates started looking for jobs and, in January 2016, he saw Powell Recreation District’s open recreation supervisor position.

Cates started on March 1, 2016.

He eventually heard the Powell Pioneers might be looking for a coach. Cates started serving as an assistant this season, in which the Pioneers finished 3-38.

“This season’s been tough; it’s been hard and you feel bad for them, but you gotta love their drive to keep coming out and playing every day,” Cates said of the squad. “It’d be easy to say ‘I don’t want to play anymore,’ and just stop showing up, but they have been grinding it out and playing every day, coming to practice every day and trying to get better — and they have.”

For the future of the Pioneers, Cates said it’s going to be a lot of work, but he notes they’re a young team, with seven freshmen, two sophomores and just one junior and one senior.

“I’m hoping in the next couple years the kids will be a top-tier team in the state,” Cates said. He said all 11 of the players will be eligible to return next year, so the foundation has been built for future success.

As for Cates, his passion for the sport of baseball has shifted from playing the game to coaching it. Cates said he likes helping to develop players.

“If I could do one thing the rest my life,” he said, “it’d be coaching.”