Baseball coach Howard Quigley says Chandler Coates not only sets his goals high, he also “works very hard to achieve them.” The hard work has paid off for Coates, who has committed to pitch at a Division I program, the University of New Mexico.
Coates says he committed to working toward a Division I scholarship five or six years ago. Along the way, he credits his parents, Jim and Sherri, for enabling him to achieve that goal.
“A lot of this credit goes to my dad, who keeps pushing me, and to my parents. They put me in situations to learn the most I can and to play the best competition I can. They were able to get me I’m with the Midwest Nationals where we travel the country, play the best teams in the nation. What they do for me is amazing.”
Coates says mid-way through last summer he realized he was getting close to achieving his goal.
“Probably halfway through the summer last year is when I realized that my dream is very close to becoming a reality. It wasn’t until the fall … that the University of New Mexico finally noticed me and decided to give me an opportunity,” he says.
Throughout the summer, Coates says he became more comfortable as he realized there was no reason to be nervous about playing such high-level competition.
“You think about it, baseball is just a game of baseball. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” he says. “As a pitcher, you’re trying to do the same thing every time. You’re trying to disrupt the batter’s timing. It was a learning process all summer with me learning, getting better, being able to execute more stuff. “It’s just been an unbelievable opportunity.”
