As another summer wraps up, some area athletes will be making the transition from high school to college sports. A big jump to say the least.
Included are former Humboldt baseball players Kaiden Barnett and Gavin Page. Both student-athletes competed at the state level for the American Legion Iola Indians team this summer and will be playing at Allen Community College in the spring.
Allen provides these student-athletes a full slate of practices and games beginning now so they can continue to play year round.
Barnett and Page have been by each other’s side mainly playing the infield through their high school baseball days. Barnett played a lot of third base and Page primarily started at shortstop this past season.
“This past season I definitely played more third,” Barnett said, in addition to shortstop.
“Freshman year I pitched a lot actually. We didn’t have a lot of pitchers.”
Both ballplayers hope that Allen can be used as a stepping stone to reach their ultimate goal of playing baseball at a bigger four-year university.
“Ever since I was little I always said I wanted to play college baseball, so it was a pretty big weight off my shoulders when I finally got that offer. I actually used to be terrible at hitting when I was younger. Freshman year is when it really hit me that I needed to do something,” Barnett said.
Barnett never thought he would end up at Allen Community College after he mainly worked with other college coaches throughout his playing days. The process worked out great, however, as the Red Devil coaches welcomed Barnett with open arms after hearing about the opportunity from his coach at Humboldt, coach Mike Miller.
“I always thought I was going to end up at Neosho. I’ve practiced with their coaches probably since fourth grade up until around eighth grade. It just seemed like every coach I was working with there ended up taking a different job so came back to Humboldt, talked to coach Miller and he said ‘Have you ever thought about Allen?’ I reached out to coach Drew Noble and we hit it off,” said Barnett.
To take a skill like baseball to the next level takes time and dedication to the sport. That is what Barnett put in over the years as he played for a number of different teams prior to high school and American Legion ball most recently.
“It was T-ball in Burlington before I moved to Chanute. I think I was four years old. I’ve played every year since. In eight and under is when I started doing travel baseball with the Chanute Titans,” said Barnett. “That team ended up quitting and I went to Burlington, the Strikers, played with them for three seasons. I think we picked up a state title.”
Page has been able to get up close and personal with some of the teams at Allen when he was much younger through the annual baseball camps the teams hold every season. This allowed him to gain access to many of ACC coaches’ and players’ thought processes and how they see the game.
“That’s where I first heard about Allen and their baseball program,” said Page. “I got contacted by the coach two weeks before school started. I was a late pick up guy.”
The middle infielder in Page expects the jump from high school to college baseball to be a big step up and he’s ready to take on any challenges that come along with that. Beginning college can also be anxious for any young person and none so more than Page.
“I think the level of play is going to be way up. I’m going to have to work my butt off to earn a spot, even playing on JV, it’s just competitive baseball,” said Page. “We’ve got our first practice today and I’m sure there’s a lot of new things I’m going to learn and see from the other guys.”
