Student-Athlete Profile Kaden Carpenter - Baseball
been truly the best mentors that I could have asked for. Mark: That’s so great. You and I always get a chance to run into each other, sometimes in the cage when I’m down there with my son or just on campus. And, of course, you so graciously spoke to our department staff a couple of weeks ago about your experience to date and all of that, and we were all so grateful for that. What’s really interesting about your journey is that you obviously were a big-time pitcher. You were obviously a hitter, too, but you were a big-time pitcher. And I think the story of how that changed for you is really fascinating. Can you walk everybody through that? Kaden: So, in high school, I did both. Growing up, I did both. And, really, at the end of my high school career, everything was kind of leaning towards defining me as: Kaden’s going to be a pitcher. The left arm is going to kind of take him where he wants to go. So I graduate high school and I’m playing with the Marshalls, a local Utah summer team [for college-bound players] and I’m doing both. We’re about halfway through the season and we’re in Oregon. I was scheduled to pitch. My arm felt great, my body felt great, and I had one of the worst outings I’ve had in
Ranked as the No. 31 left-handed pitcher in the nation by Perfect Game in 2022, American Fork native Kaden Carpenter had his future in focus at the University of Utah. Then, the summer before his freshman year, something changed. Suddenly, the ball wasn’t performing out of his hand like it used to, and the two-way player’s production at the plate was dropping off as well. Carpenter was at a loss, and at a crossroads. A conversation at that time with Ute head coach Gary Henderson helped Carpenter change his focus, and he has remained locked in every since. Now in his second year as a full- time outfielder at Utah, Carpenter has become a regular starter for a team that is making some noise with a 21-10 record. Carpenter joined Utah athletics director Mark Harlan on his Hear it from Harlan podcast in March to talk about everything that’s behind him, and everything that’s still ahead.
and Coach (Mike) Brown came in with him, I didn’t feel that until they got here. I came on an official visit with them. We broke down everything that I was interested in and kind of the long-term things that we wanted to talk about. After just sitting with them for one day, I was like, I don’t need to talk to anyone else or go anywhere else for visits. This is my home. These are the people that are going to take me to where I want to be and where I want to end up. From there, it’s been nothing but a blessing, and I’ve shared that with them. They have
Mark: You were a really, highly recruited baseball player coming out of America Fork. You obviously had options. I’m interested in what it was about Utah that made you say, “I’ve got to go there.” Kaden: From the beginning, I never had a dream school. And I was always waiting for a coaching staff that I knew was going to put just as much energy and time into my development as I was going to. I spoke with so many amazing people, amazing staffs. Up until August of 2021 when Coach Anderson took over, and then in 2022 when Coach Will (Heward)
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CRIMSON CLUB MAGAZINE APRIL 2024
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