Tanner Tredaway Finishes High School Career at THSBCA All-Star Game as 3rd Generation Player

By anybody’s standards, Justin Northwest Senior SS Tanner Tredaway had an incredible high school career. Tanner has been a four-year varsity baseball player for Northwest and this year, Northwest won the 6-5A District Championship, the first baseball district championship for Northwest in over 30 years.

Tredaway was named the 6-5A MVP, finishing the season with a .474 batting average, scoring 49 runs with 32 stolen bases. Tredaway was also selected to play in the prestigious THSBCA 5A/6A All-Star Game. He has signed to play baseball at Seminole State College in Oklahoma, a college with a great baseball reputation having been to 15 National Junior College World Series.

But for the Tredaway family, Tanner’s success this year was more of a continuation of family tradition. Tanner’s father, Chad Tredaway, and grandfather, Reggie Tredaway, both played college baseball and both were drafted in the Major League Baseball draft.Untitled

Tanner’s grandfather, Reggie Tredaway, was the first in the family to make a career of baseball. Reggie played high school baseball at Midland High and then went to Alpine to play baseball for Sul Ross State University and Coach Al Ogletree. During Reggie’s freshman year, Sul Ross went to the NAIA World Series in Missouri. Reggie had a great year but on the bus ride back home, the team learned that Sul Ross would be dropping the baseball program.

Reggie didn’t have a place to go until the NAIA and NCAA All-American teams were announced and Reggie was on both teams. Then his phone began to ring. He talked to Coach Ogletree for advice. Coach Ogletree got back with Reggie and told him that he had all of Reggie’s expenses covered for continuing college but that he had a new coaching job at Pan American and he wanted Reggie to go with him there to play baseball. So Reggie moved to the Valley to play baseball.

Reggie played three years at Pan American. In 1971, his junior year, Pan American went to the College World Series in Omaha. After his senior year, he was drafted by the Oakland A’s. “They offered me a $500 bonus and $500 a month to play minor league ball,” Tredaway explained. “But I was married and I needed work to pay the bills.”

Reggie took a coaching job at Brownsville High School (later Brownsville Hanna) instead of playing baseball. Then Coach Ogletree asked Reggie to join him at Pan American. He worked as assistant there for 24 years and then became Head Baseball Coach there for 4 more years. He retired from coaching in 2002.

Reggie spent a total of 31 seasons at what is now the University of Texas-Pan American as a player and coach. He was inducted into the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2009 and was introduced as perhaps the most recognizable name in Valley baseball.

It was no surprise that Reggie’s son Chad took to baseball as well. With his Dad the Assistant Coach at Pan American, Chad grew up at the field playing around, watching games, hitting in the cages and hanging around the college players.

Chad played baseball at Edinburg High School and signed to play baseball with Oklahoma University. Playing in the Valley was not an easy place to get noticed but while Chad’s father Reggie was at Pan American, Oklahoma came down to play Pan American one evening.  Chad had a high school game the same night. Reggie told the OU coaches that there was a kid across town playing that night that was going to be a great college baseball player but nobody had recruited him yet. One of the OU coaches went over to watch Chad play. They were impressed and later signed him.Chad Baseball Card

After the baseball season, the Oklahoma coaches were all let go and Chad was not excited to play for new coaches he didn’t know. Some of the OU Assistant Coaches helped out and got Chad to go to Seminole Junior College, now Seminole State College. Chad had a good freshman year and was drafted by the Chicago Cubs but decided to play another year of junior college ball. In 1992, during his sophomore year, Chad was named the National Junior College Baseball Player of the Year.

Chad decided to turn pro after the ’92 season. The Cubs had the rights to Chad and he spent the next 3 years in their minor league system. In 1995, Tredaway was sent to the San Diego Padres as compensation for the Cubs signing Padres manager Jim Riggleman. He spent the next 3 years in the Padres organization, mostly at AAA.

After a couple of years playing in the Mexican League, Chad turned to coaching. He coached the Edinburg Roadrunners for 4 years, winning two league championships. After a few years of working in Baseball Operations, he returned to coaching as Manager of the Fort Worth Cats. He coached there from 2008-2011 and then retired from coaching so that he could watch his boys play. Chad has been able to follow Tanner through all four of his years at Northwest as well as his other son, Tayte, who was a sophomore catcher for the Northwest team this year.

Family Pic Article

At the recent THSBCA All-Star game, a group of 15+ family members and friends, including Northwest Head Baseball Coach John Herrick, sat in a suite to watch Tanner as the 3rd generation of baseball players. It was a passing of the baton gathering as Tanner competed in his last baseball event of a successful high school career with an eye on moving to the next level.

On watching Tanner at the THSBCA All-Star game, Chad commented, “I’m excited for Tanner. He’s had a great season. I always knew he was a real athletic kid. He’s younger. He’s has an August birthday and is still 17. He has a great high school set of skills and I look for him to fill out and grow more physically at the next level.”

Grandfather Reggie agreed. “Tanner has a great set of skills. He is a different type of player than his Dad. He is a more skilled player. He doesn’t have the power at the plate but he hits well and he can really run. He doesn’t make mistakes and he is always in the right place.”

Tanner will be playing at Seminole State College next Fall, the same college where dad Chad played and was named Junior College Player of the Year.  Seminole State College Assistant James Martin has been watching Tanner since Tanner’s freshman year in High School and wanted to sign him to play at Seminole State College.Tanner Signing Article

Tanner looked at several schools but felt like Seminole State College was the best fit for him. “Coach Herrick was tough on me and that made me a better player,” Tanner explained. “So I was looking for that type of coach and found that in Coach Leone at Seminole State.”

Obviously, there will be pressure on Tanner to go to a school where his Dad had so much success but the family does not seem worried about it. “Me going there has nothing to do with Tanner,” Chad related. “I want him to understand the two things are separate. My time there is the past. It’s over with. He is the future and I’m excited to see what the future holds for him.”

Grandfather Reggie was confident for Tanner as well. “Sure, it’s going to be tough on him. But that’s okay.  He’s a tough kid. He is so fundamentally sound. I’m not worried about him at all. He’s going to be a good player.”

It was an exciting day for the Tredaway family to see a 3rd generation baseball player complete his high school career in anticipation of the next step at the college level. Tanner continues the baseball tradition for the Tredaway family but the family already knows he is not the end of the line.

“Tanner’s little brother Tayte is good ball player too,” Reggie added. “We expect good things out of him. And we have a 5 year old great grandson who can really play for a 5 year old. We’ve got to get back and watch him play next week.”

3 Generations

 

 

-Tim Baugh

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