Article by Noah Grant. Photo by St. Cloud State Athletic Department/Nathaly Delgado.
The St. Cloud State baseball team has been on a hot streak recently, winning eight of their last nine games under the leadership of head coach Pat Dolan. Dolan is in his 18th season at the helm, and this year was joined by a few new faces on the coaching staff.
One of the new coaches is a familiar name to the Huskies, as graduate assistant Cal James joined the staff after playing for St. Cloud State just last year. James spent his final season of eligibility with the Huskies after playing four years with the University of Mary.
“I had decided to enter into the transfer portal and had come on a visit to St. Cloud, Mankato, South Dakota State, a couple of places that I was in contact with,” said James. “They were generous enough to keep the door open for me.”
James ultimately chose St. Cloud State, right down the road from his hometown in Buffalo, Minn. He made quite an impact in his lone season in the Cardinal and Black, playing in 51 games and posting an impressive .369 batting average with 13 home runs.
Huskies’ senior catcher Blaine Guthrie also joined the team in 2024, and he spoke on James’ work ethic and motivation.
“He’s just go-go-go-go, he’s never in one spot for too long,” said Guthrie. “He’s always got something, whether he’s donating some time, or he’s helping out, or working at the greenhouse.”
Guthrie is one of a few players on the roster who played with James last year and now plays under him as James serves as a coach. It’s a unique dynamic, but James is grateful for the way things have worked out.
“I’m in kind of a special situation this year with being teammates with some guys last year, and obviously having those guys returning,” said James. “I actually think that’s been really helpful, being in a transition [to coaching], where maybe I wouldn’t be as comfortable if I didn’t know the guys coming in.”
For the players, James’ firsthand experience has made it easy to listen to his advice.
“Everything he preaches he can do,” said Guthrie. “It’s super easy to hear it from him because he’s been there and done that, and he’s done it at arguably a higher level than most of us will ever see.”
James hopes to use his knowledge and the lessons he learned across five seasons of college baseball to promote the next class of Huskies athletes. He makes it clear that he cares about the players not just on the field, but as people in the classroom and community as well.
“I think that was a big piece I wanted to tackle as a coach was getting those guys as comfortable as possible early on so that they can start making those jumps,” said James. “Not only academically, but also with their athletics. What can your coaches offer you, what kind of player do you want to be? And what I really wanted to change from a player to a coach is putting in a language they can understand as a person.”
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