When he was eight years old, Kaden Knowles had no concept of college. What kid does? Back then, years before he became a Pocatello staple at first base, all Knowles knew was that he wanted to play baseball. He wanted to play in the majors.
“But you gotta go one step at a time,” Knowles said.
On Monday evening, Knowles took the first step, signing with Treasure Valley Community College — the first stop in what he hopes will become a burgeoning baseball career.
“It just means a lot to move on to the next level,” Knowles said. “It’s been something I’ve worked to since I was like eight. Played on a travel team, and that was all of our goals when we were little — to play at the next level.”
Since 2020, Knowles has gone together with Poky baseball like peanut butter and jelly, a combination so perfect you take it for granted sometimes. Last spring, he batted .240 with 12 hits and 10 RBI, two doubles and a triple, helping the Thunder reach the 4A state tournament, where they fell in the consolation title game.
Knowles’ has been an intriguing career. His freshman season was nearly entirely wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic, forcing him to speed things up — and sell himself — if he wanted to play at the college level. That year wasn’t all bad — for a couple innings that spring, he shared the field with his older brother, Kyler — but it did squeeze tighter his window of opportunity.
To Poky coach Vinnie Benaviez, that Knowles made it happen, no freshman season and all, is a testament to something about his personality.
“Just how hard he works,” Benavidez said. “A lot of coaches obviously see the on-field performance and everything else, but he also has those intangibles about watching him when the ball’s not hit to him, getting on and off the field. If he’s one of the last ones to get off the field when you’re done after a game, if he’s one of the first ones to get there. He checks all those boxes, so it makes it an easy choice.”
To Knowles himself, though, Treasure Valley was the right choice for a couple reasons: It’s close to home. He liked the coaching staff, the team. He’s also buddies with a couple incoming freshmen too. “They had a nice campus,” Knowles said, recalling his visit last fall. “They have a baseball field that’s not super far away, on-campus housing. They have real nice facilities inside. So yeah, it’ll be fun.”
Knowles, a lefty, has played first base for the Thunder and the Runnin’ Rebels, an American Legion club that plays during the summer. Treasure Valley recruited him as that, sure, but also as an outfielder. He says he’s comfortable doing both. If his savvy at first is any indication, well, he should do just fine as a Chukar.
“He’s a difference maker over there,” Benavidez said. “He makes our whole infield better. They know they just gotta get it close. It doesn’t have to be perfect. And when you have a first baseman like that, man, it makes everybody in the infield more comfortable. They don’t have to press. They just have to do their small part. He’ll do the rest.”
{div class=”asset-tagline text-muted”}Greg Woods is a sports reporter at the Idaho State Journal. Follow him on Twitter at GregWWoods.{/div}
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