After a long school day filled with multiple AP classes, such as AP Physics 2 and AP Calculus BC, to maintain his 4.6 GPA, senior Kade Mitchell heads back to his white Chevrolet truck. He reaches into the back, retrieves his practice shirt and gray pants as he suits up as the Boy’s baseball Team Captain, and promptly reaches the field at 3:45 to start a daily practice.

The choice was clear who the team captain should be, as Mitchell is the only senior playing on the baseball team this year.
“Being the oldest person on the team, that kind of pushes me to take a leadership role,” Mitchell said. “It’s kind of cool that I get to mentor my teammates and let them know what does and doesn’t fly.”

Baseball has been a major part of Mitchell’s life, as he has been playing the sport for over 13 years and has maintained a batting average of .333. Although he doesn’t plan to continue playing the sport at the university level, he continues to grow his skills at practice and at home daily. Being a role model for many of his teammates allows Mitchell to pass on experiences and lessons he has learned through his own four years of high school.

However, Mitchell doesn’t just shine on the field as he has worked diligently to ensure he can pursue a career he enjoys, majoring in Materials Engineering at Cal Poly SLO. Mitchell has been fascinated with science and building throughout his life, “It’s always been a really cool topic for me so that’s why I just kind of wanted to focus on it because I was interested in the classes and I was good at it too,” Mitchell said. Throughout highschool, Mitchell has taken many advanced classes structured around mathematics and equations. A total of four sciences and four math classes.

On top of his busy schedule filled with classes and baseball, Mitchell reserves the weekend for working at his job at Blast N Brew. As Kade turned 18, he began to pick up more responsibilities and harder tasks at his work. “As soon as I turned 18, they just gave me my own solo shift and I was alone for eight hours.” Mitchell said, “At work I cut vegetables, do food prep, and make pizza and other specific dishes. It’s definitely improved my cooking.”

Mitchell has been able to continue pursuing the sport he has loved his whole life while balancing difficult classes and maintaining a job. As he prepares to go to Cal Poly he reflects on PRHS and the memories and friends that were involved with all four years of high school.