By Jackson Posey | Sports Editor
Ten miles south of the Ferrell Center, a gangly teenager with hoop dreams lifted off.
It’s tough for a 6-foot-10 athlete to blend in at Midway High School; Caden Powell sure didn’t. Born less than four months after Baylor hired Scott Drew to head its basketball program, and seasoned by a lifetime of Baylor games, he’s now Drew’s first scholarship player from Waco.
“It’s a true blessing to have somebody from Waco on the team,” Drew said of Powell, who transferred to Baylor this offseason. “I know just what the jersey means to him and what a great teammate and leader he’s been on the team.”
Powell grew up playing with the neighborhood kids until the lights turned off. He played soccer, too, but times are hard for goalies.
“There’d be times where I’d just be sitting on the ground, just picking at grass and throwing it,” Powell said. “Basketball is a lot more fun. It’s also on TV.”
As a child, Powell would sit in the living room, entranced by the glowing athletes on the screen. When it came time, he would hop in the back of his mom’s car to make the pilgrimage to basketball camps and games at the Ferrell Center. It was a blessing, so close to home, to “see what they do on TV.”
“You’re in an area where the college team is good at basketball,” Powell said. “[It was] like, ‘If you want to be good at basketball, you’re going to have to do this, and there’s a school — and if you’re good enough, you can go play basketball there.’ … Trying to get to the point where it’s like, ‘OK, well if they know about you, then that means other people know about you, and that means you’re doing something right.”
Sometimes, though, a bird needs to stretch its wings. As he matured, Powell began telling coaches that he wanted to play college ball outside of Texas.
“My mom was like, ‘I’m going to drive and I’m just going to show up on campus whenever I can,’” Powell said. “I was like, ‘Ope, yup, I’m not dealing with that or taking that risk.”
Powell enrolled at Wyoming, his furthest Division I offer, and spent two years playing for the Cowboys in snowy Laramie. He averaged 5.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game as a sophomore before transferring to Rice. After a two-year escapade in the mountains, it was time to come home.
“I [wanted] to be able to see my family a little bit more,” Powell said. “I was able to see my mom a lot more [at Rice] … just the proximity, being closer to home.”
Powell took a massive step forward for Rice, leading the Owls in scoring during conference play and improving his field goal percentage from 48.2% to 56.5% on higher volume. As soon as he entered the transfer portal, Baylor assistant Tweety Carter — who’d been monitoring his progress since high school — came calling.
“I had probably seven or eight missed calls from Tweety Carter,” Powell said. “Got back to my phone and I see eight missed calls — five of them are FaceTimes, three of them are calls … four texts, like, ‘Call me whenever you’re free.’”
The pair have known each other for years. Four years ago, Carter spoke at a Midway banquet and, in Powell’s words, “sweat through his suit because he was nervous.” So when Powell FaceTimed him back, the conversation was jovial. Drew called soon after.
“With so many new guys, he definitely gave them the shortcut versions of where to eat, where to go, what to do in Waco,” Drew said.
That little kid from Waco would be in awe of where he is today, Powell said. How do you tell someone their wildest dreams came true?
“I don’t know that I would be able to say anything to myself,” Powell said. “Probably just be starstruck.”
Powell and the Bears will tip off the regular season against UTRGV at 7 p.m. Monday at Foster Pavilion. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
