Cayden Mackey is a senior at Parkersburg South High School where he plays on the varsity baseball team, is a member of the The Board of Education Student Advisory Council which meets monthly to discuss issues at the school and give updates to the board and works in the front office at the school, answering phones, running errands, and helping the office staff. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — Parkersburg South High School senior Cayden Mackey has been playing baseball since he was 3 years old.

“I haven’t stopped. I haven’t had a summer life since I was 8 years old,” Mackey said, referring to his time playing travel baseball with the South Parkersburg Swarm. “I played with the same group of kids all the way up to high school. And it was coached by my dad.”

Mackey said the Swarm has now become an organization with multiple age groups but was originally started by his father and a few others. He said his father was a big part of his early baseball career.

“He basically taught me everything,” Mackey said. “And then we eventually moved up to Mineral Wells, where I played coach pitch and stuff like that. And where I played my first kid-pitch game. But yeah, he’s the one that got me started into it.”

Mackey said his family, which includes his parents Chris and Melissa Mackey and sister Payten Mackey, are his biggest fans and supporters.

Cayden Mackey, far right, with family in South Carolina after his first visit to the University of South Carolina Upstate. Mackey signed a commitment in November to play baseball for the Division 1 school. Also pictured is Mackey’s cousin Todd Koon, his father Chris Mackey, and his grandfather Dave Mackey. (Photo Provided)

“My dad, he, I don’t think he’s missed a baseball game since I was a little kid,” Mackey said. “He’s always at every game.”

Mackey may have picked up some of that sideline energy as he is the leader of the Southside Psychos, the student section for all home games at Parkersburg South.

“There’s no better feeling than having just a huge student section cheering on the basketball team, or whatever team is playing,” Mackey said.

He said others help him but as the Psycho Leader he is in charge of running the student section’s Twitter account, with over 2,000 followers, to promote games and themes, getting the whole student section decorated and ready for games and coming up with the themes themselves.

“For our home opener football game we did an Hawaiian theme,” Mackey said. “We have our own bank account with that, and there’s a ton of money in it, so I was able to order some stuff online and get decorations and stuff like that for the game.”

Cayden Mackey poses for a picture with his Great Dane Willow. Mackey said Willow is a big lap dog that sleeps in his bed with him every night even though she snores extremely loudly. (Photo Provided)

Mackey said his favorite games are the “Crosstown Showdown” with Parkersburg High School.

“The whole school is into it. Our last basketball game we had here at home against PHS, we filled up our whole student section and I’ve never seen it that full before,” Mackey said. “We had people that had to sit in the next section over, and some people that had to leave because there wasn’t enough room. It was insane.”

Mackey said he’s going to miss those moments after he graduates but plans to return home whenever he can.

“My sister plays basketball and plays volleyball and softball here. So, I’d like to come back and see some of her games,” he said.

Mackey signed a commitment in November to play baseball at the University of South Carolina Upstate, a Division I school. He said he was recruited after a scout saw him pitching for the Appalachian Aces in a tournament held in Atlanta, Ga.

Cayden Mackey with his girlfriend, Caelyn Wise, at her signing to play volleyball at Concord University on Feb. 9. (Photo Provided)

“They had no idea who I was,” Mackey said.

He said one of the coaches from the university watched him pitch the first inning of his first game and was talking to his Appalachian Aces coach by the end of the second inning to find out who he was.

“He told the coach, after I got done with that game, for me to give him a call,” Mackey said. “And then while I was down there, on the way home, we ended up going on a visit.”

Mackey said he was impressed with the top-level technology of the facilities and the baseball field at the university. He said the visit was special because he made it with his father and grandfather.

“My dad was the one that mostly went on my visits with me, and it was pretty cool that my grandpa got to be on the visit and got to experience that ,” Mackey said. “It was nice that he was there. I was happy.”

Cayden Mackey as a toddler with his first pet Bayla. Mackey said he has been around Great Danes his entire life and that his current dog, Willow, is very attached to people and is a giant lap dog. (Photo Provided)

He said he has family that lives close to the campus that includes a cousin who lives 20 minutes away and has invited him to dinner anytime he wants, and an uncle who lives in Charleston, SC who wants to bring tailgating back to the university.

“I mean, they tailgate, but they don’t know the way he tailgates,” Mackey said. ” He said he’s got a bunch of buddies over there. And he was gonna come to tailgate almost every game he could.”

Mackey said he plans to major in exercise science, physical therapy, chiropractic care, or become a physician’s assistant. He said he enjoys learning about the human body after taking human anatomy his junior year.

“I definitely figured out what I wanted to be from that class,” Mackey said.

He said his end goal is to play professional baseball, though, and that the university can have up to 20 pro scouts attend their games.

Cayden Mackey poses for a picture with his grandparents, Randy and Mary Woollard, and his sister, Payten Mackey, last October. (Photo Provided)

“So, if that works out, that’s definitely my end goal. That’s my dream,” Mackey said. “But if not, I’d like to open up a business down in South Carolina and start either a chiropractic, physical therapy or physician’s assistant business.”

Mackey said in his free-time he enjoys fishing and bow hunting in the woods near his home. He said he wants to attend a few West Virginia University baseball games this year to watch his former teammate Grant Hussey and to see the projected number one pick JJ Wetherholt.

Mackey said he also likes to spend time with his two-year-old Great Dane Willow.

“She sleeps with me every night because I got one of the biggest beds in the house,” Mackey said. “She’s a lap dog. She likes laying in the beds. She won’t sit in her own bed, and she snores really bad.”

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com

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Cayden Mackey, center, signs a commitment in November to play baseball and attend the University of South Carolina Upstate. Also pictured is one of Mackey’s coaches Bub Walker, his mother Melissa Mackey, his father Chris Mackey and his sister Payten Mackey. Mackey said his biggest supporters are his family. (Photo Provided)

Cayden Mackey with his fifth grade teacher Ken Riggs after he signed his commitment to play baseball and attend the University of South Carolina Upstate in November. (Photo Provided)

Cayden Mackey, far right, during a Parkersburg South football game in September. Mackey acts as the “Psycho Leader” for the school’s student section, the Southside Psychos, where he organizes cheers and themes, purchases decorations and props for the games and runs the social media sites to promote those games.

Cayden Mackey has committed to play Division 1 baseball for the University of South Carolina Upstate. Mackey said he was recruited to be a pitcher and that he is looking forward to taking the field in the fall. (Photo Provided)