To call him just a “five-tool baseball player” would be a gross understatement. Donavan Tate, Cartersville’s do-everything two-sport star, will be in the limelight once again this Friday and Saturday when his Purple Hurricanes baseball team competes for its second straight Class 3A state title. You’ll see him hit for power and hit for average; you’ll see him run fast, throw hard and track down balls from the centerfield position, displaying the five tools that make him an elite player.
Depending on what happens on the first day of the MLB Draft on June 9, he could be the second Georgia high schooler in two years to be taken No. 1 overall (Griffin’s Tim Beckham earned that honor last year). However, the son of former University of Georgia and NFL running back Lars Tate is much more than just the top senior baseball prospect in the country.
COMING TO A CROSSROADS
As good as Tate is on the diamond (he’s also played with USA Baseball’s junior team and in countless other tournaments with the prestigious East Cobb Baseball program), he was equally impressive on the football field for Cartersville throughout his four-year career. Playing quarterback, running back, defensive back and returning kicks and punts throughout his career, Tate shot up the recruiting rankings during his junior and senior seasons, drawing scores of football scholarship offers from schools around the country in addition to his reputation as an elite baseball prospect. This past February, he signed on to continue his football career at North Carolina, and would surely have a spot on the baseball team if he chose to pull double duty. While many had speculated Tate was a slam-dunk to play professional baseball after high school, this came as a somewhat surprising development.
In fact, it looked like Tate’s football career was finished back in August. The push-pull between his two favorite sports almost drove him to eliminate football in the fall, when Tate initially announced he would sit out his senior season to concentrate on preparing for baseball. But Tate’s love of football and dedication to his teammates won out in the end, and he reversed his decision and suited up for the Purple Hurricanes once more.
“His heart is really with football when it’s football season, and in the spring, he absolutely loves baseball,” said his mother, Traci Sims. “Donavan is our chameleon, he can’t pick one or the other. It just depends on what the season is. He’s 110 percent behind both sports.”
Though the challenge immediately in front of him is the championship series against Columbus and a shot at a repeat title, Tate will soon have a major career decision to make. He can either take the college route, which would keep him in Chapel Hill until at least after his third year there, or he can become a professional baseball player after the draft in just a week and a half’s time.
DOING IT ALL
With so much athletic talent from an early age, it’s a wonder that Tate was able to narrow down his sports of choice to just two, baseball and football.
“Growing up, Donavan played every sport,” Sims said. “It was my goal to introduce him to every sport, because when he was younger I wanted him to be able to have a little bit of experience with everything so he could decide what he really wanted to play when he was older. He played baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, soccer … every time the season would change I would introduce him to something new.”
Tate started focusing all his energy on football and baseball upon entering high school, and his mother and head baseball coach alike cite his work ethic for elevating his innate skills to another level. Academically, Tate has always been an exemplary student and has maintained an honor-roll level GPA throughout high school.
“Donavan is very dedicated in whatever he does and he wants to be the best,” Sims said. “He may go 3-for-4 in a baseball game on a school night, and he’ll come home and hit in the garage until late at night.”
“His work ethic is something that people don’t see, as far as how many swings he gets each day and what he does to maintain the type of body that he has,” said Cartersville head coach Stuart Chester.
Chester, also a member of the football staff for the first two years of Tate’s high school career, has been with him every step of the way at Cartersville and, despite the jaw-dropping things Tate has done both on the football field and baseball diamond, Chester marvels at his character beyond all else.
“The thing that sticks out the most about Donavan is, sometimes when you get those high-level athletes, the coaching part can be a headache,” Chester said. “That’s not the case with Donavan. He’s very easy to coach. ‘Donavan the person’ is his greatest attribute. He can fly, he can throw it and hit it and catch it and all that, but his greatest attribute is the type of person that he is.”
WHAT LIES AHEAD
This weekend, the ‘Canes will once again hope to ride their star to a state championship (he was hitting .476 with nine home runs and 39 RBIs before the semifinal series with Perry and is 15-for-15 in stolen bases), but a powerhouse Columbus squad will travel to Bartow County with championship dreams of its own. Each program has a rich history and will be looking for another trophy to add to their already stocked cases. His coach, however, thinks he has the ultimate intimidation tactic when Cartersville comes to bat the first time
“We bat him at leadoff,” Chester said. “He’ll get more at bats at leadoff, and the intangible thing is, that’s the first thing they’re going to see about Cartersville [in the game], and that’s the first thing we want them to see.”
It was last year in Game 3 of the championship series against Stephens County that Tate provided a crucial spark from that leadoff spot, helping the ‘Canes get off to a start that would send them to their 13-1 title-clinching win. In the first at-bat of the game, Tate knocked a routine single to left field, but caught the defense off-guard and stretched it into a double. “That made everybody play harder,” according to Chester. “He’s the type of player that makes the guy next to him better.”
Tate is hoping his last memory as a high school athlete ends with another state title. What lies after this weekend, however, is still very much up in the air. “I just want Donavan to do what makes Donavan happy, whether it’s football or baseball,” said Sims.
One thing that’s for certain is that Tate will soon make someone very happy, whether that’s the folks at North Carolina or a major league front office. With as many tools as Tate the person, the scholar and the athlete has to work with, success will follow him wherever he takes that next step.
Ewalt can be reached at aewalt@scoreatl.com.
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