COULEE CITY — Multiple basin athletes qualified to play in the All-State Baseball Series from June 27-28 in Yakima, with Almira/Coulee-Hartline graduate, Caden Correia being one of them. Correia said he was initially selected for a feeder game ahead of his state qualification. 

“I was at practice one day, and my head coach (Hunter Lee) came up to me and he’s like, ‘Hey, you got selected for an All State feeder game,’” said Correia. “I actually got invited to two, the Central Washington one and the Spokane one.” 

Correia said he decided to go with the Spokane feeder game since it was taking place at Avista Stadium and he had a desire to compete at that venue. Once he played there, Correia was informed that he was also selected to play for Team Baker in the All State games, an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.

At the moment he was focused on practicing and being ready to compete against other top players in the state, but looking back on the experience has been eye opening. 

“Everything that’s been happening over the last month with All State, I mean, it’s been kind of crazy to me,” he said. “Especially being at the small school that I’m at, people somehow recognize my name, so that’s always a good thing.” 

Upon arriving in Yakima for All State, the first thing Correia said he noticed was the size difference between him and the other players. 

“For 1B I’m a pretty decent sized kid and all of a sudden I’m just catching myself looking up to everyone,” he said. “I mean, these kids are 6’ 3”, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’” 

Correia said he enjoyed the social aspect of the All State game where he got to talk to everybody in attendance and catch up with players that he played with or against at some point in his career.  

For the competition itself, he said the All State games were much more intense than what was experienced in the feeder game. 

“I remember the feeder game was more chill and then when I got to the actual All-State game, we had Coach Derek Bingham from Lake Washington and he’s like, ‘I want you guys to really enjoy this, but we’ve got to win,’” said Correia. “It was a great mentality that all of us were competing to have fun, but also in the back of our minds we don’t step on the field without trying to compete and trying to win.” 

Team Baker faced off against Team Adams late Saturday morning where they earned a victory to head into the state championship. Once again in the championships Sunday afternoon Team Baker rallied to win it all. 

During the competition, he said the players were given team jerseys to wear for the first day, but for the championship game were allowed to wear their high school jersey. Being able to put on his high school uniform and compete in front of a large crowd one last time after the end of his high school career was special for Correia. 

“Thinking back on all the memories that I had in the ACH uniform, I mean they’re priceless honestly,” said Correia. “I can’t even describe what this community and what ACH means to me.” 

Growing up Correia said he always had his dad, Mike Correia, around as a coach and he got to be the team manager. While it was hard to spend as much time as he did with the team and not bring home a championship, he feels the values that were shown to him by the community mean a lot more than winning. 

“Everybody is with you,” he said. “There’s just so much support in this ACH community that you just don’t really see very many other places and it’s just awesome to know that a whole community’s got your back, no matter what happens in life.” 

With his high school journey now officially at its end, Corriea now looks toward his future attending and playing baseball for Wenatchee Valley Community College.  

Correia’s journey to Wenatchee Valley began last summer when he broke his ankle during the summer baseball season. Correia said he decided rather than sitting around he would still pursue his dream of playing college baseball and began sending out emails to different colleges. 

After sending around 60 emails, he said the only college that invited him was Wenatchee Valley. Once he was healthy enough, Correia went to try out for the team, and they gave him an official offer to play once he graduated from high school. 

The injury, which initially doctors predicted would keep him out of athletics until the basketball season, had also quickly healed up in time for him to return to the field for the football season. This allowed Correia to finish his senior year as a three-sport athlete. 

“That is all God’s work right there,” said Correia. “Even though we didn’t win a championship, every season that we had ended on a high note, it was just great to be with my brothers one last time and every time I stepped on the field, I was playing for God.” 

With his accomplishments throughout high school, Correia hopes that he can both inspire and open doors for other kids competing in 1B schools such as ACH. 

“Just playing around against other 1B kids, I know there’s just so much skill there, for every sport,” said Correia. “They’re just starting to realize that 1B kids, maybe don’t have the most skill, but we definitely have the most heart. Every kid that you find coming up, they’ll be skillful, but that heart piece is something hard to find in a kid and I think a lot of 1B kids have that.” 

    Caden Correia with the Warriors stands on the field in a game during his senior season.
  

    During his junior year with ACH, Caden Correia hurls a pitch during the 1B state tournament.