For Maize High senior Jaden Gustafson, baseball has always been a huge part of his life. Gustafson has been playing baseball for as long as he can remember and cannot imagine life without it. He credits part of his love for the game to his mother, Andrea Gustafson. 

“I’ve just always been around the game, especially because of my mom,” Gustafson said. “It’s nice having a mom that is also a coach and knows what she is talking about, it’s definitely made me a better player.” 

Andrea Gustafson played softball all through high school and college and is now the head coach of Newman University. 

“I try to pass along all the things I have learned along my journey as both a player and coach to help him to try and understand that it’s never going to be easy,” Andrea said. “You have to put in the work to be the player you want to be, there aren’t any shortcuts to success.” 

Jaden Gustafson has played a lot of sports throughout his life. He was a starter on the MHS basketball team that won state in 2021 and made it to the semifinals this year. But baseball has always been what he is most passionate about. 

Gustafson plays left field and had a .333 batting average his junior year during school season and had a .541 average during the summer season. 

Gustafson got offers from multiple Division I, Division II, and junior college schools before ultimately deciding to commit to Wichita State University. 

“It’s always been a dream to get to play in college, so whenever it finally seemed like it was actually happening it was really cool,” Gustafson said.