Being able to manage time between schoolwork and sports is a challenge that many collegiate athletes face every day. For Wayne State College’s Brayden Chaney, the opportunity is twice as difficult.
During the fall season, Chaney plays as a defensive back for the WSC football team. The junior started all 11 games for the Wildcats and earned All-NSIC second team honors. He finished the 2025 football season with 31 tackles, two interceptions, and nine pass breakups.
Once the new calendar year hits, his focus has already shifted to the baseball diamond. During his sophomore season in early 2025, Chaney started 23 games and played in 45 total for the Wildcats baseball squad. He recorded a .278 batting average with 15 RBIs and went 17-17 on stolen bases.
There are many benefits to playing multiple sports at the college level, but Chaney said there is a clear one that sticks out to him.
“Just having the moral support from everyone and then having the competitive spirit all year long and being able to go, go, go and not having to wait in the offseason,” Chaney said. “It’s just getting to compete constantly in the school year.”
Being the competitor that Chaney is drew the attention of WSC baseball head coach Alex Koch and was the main reason why he wanted him to play both sports.
“I always love recruiting multi-sport athletes,” Koch said. “I think it keeps them in competitive situations at all times. They never really have an off-season, so Chaney really gets to compete year around. I think that gives him a little edge, and he’s that type of kid, where he’s always looking for that challenge.”
One of the biggest challenges for Chaney going into the baseball season is finding his rhythm once again.
“In baseball, just picking up a ball and seeing the ball, seeing off speed and seeing it in the dirt,” Chaney said. “Things like that and getting the strike zone back engraved into your brain is probably the biggest challenge.”
Having these sorts of challenges to battle requires a great coaching staff, and Chaney said he is very grateful to have the support of both Coach Koch and Coach Masters.
“It’s awesome to always have them talk so good about me and it’s great to know what they expect and know they think so highly of me,” Chaney said. “They want you to go be great, make plays and knowing they expect that out of you makes it so much easier because you just go play.”
Coach Koch’s secret to supporting his dual sport athlete, is trying to take some of the pressure off of him during the offseason.
“The support we can give him is kind of to just lay off of him while he’s in the other sport and not bugging him too much,” Koch said.
He mentioned that last year, he got on Chaney more about getting into the practice facility and getting some swings in while he was still in football season. Now, he knows that Brayden will come into the season ready to go and trusts him to have that time off.
Even with the difference in playstyle of both, football being more physical and baseball being more of a mental game, Chaney said there is not a big flip of a switch for him.
“So, in baseball you’re not hitting people. You can’t take your aggression out on going and hitting someone,” Chaney said. “But your aggression is taken out through swinging the bat and making plays. Hitting the ball and making a play in the outfield is how you release your anger on the baseball field.”
Coach Koch said that he loves the way Chaney approaches the game and leads his teammates, even if it’s not with his voice.
“He’s a lead by example kind of guy. I could tell him to go run through a fence to catch a ball and he would do it,” Koch said. “He’s just a high skill, high motor with his physical attributes.”
“Just being able to see a kid like that, not be with our program for a whole semester and then step in and all of the guys are just in awe of the things that he does and how he practices. It is pretty neat to see,” Koch said.
Coach Koch said that during last season, Chaney took a big step halfway through the year by improving his bat too ball skills. For this season, he wants to see it click sooner rather than later.
“Looking for him to snatch that a little quicker as he makes our lineup a little more dynamic when he’s in there,” Koch said.
As for Chaney’s personal and team goals this season, they are set very high.
“I’d love to win the conference. I think that is the goal for everyone,” Chaney said. “We have some tough challenges, but I think our staff and our hitters can attest to that challenge, and I think we’ll be good. We just need to stick together as a team, go win the conference, I think that’s the main goal.”
The Wildcats’ first game of the 2026 season will be in Hawaii. WSC will play a five-game series against Hawaii at Hilo starting Feb. 6 and going until Feb. 8.
Chaney said that this early of a trip sets his team up for success later in the season, even with having practices in the dome.
“It’s great for us, we obviously have the bubble which is huge for our program. We get a lot of live reps but going and seeing live flyballs off the bat this early in February. That’s huge for us to get those reps already,” Chaney said. “It’s very exciting to go be in Hawaii, but when the time comes, locking in is going to be huge and being able to play the game this early and play efficiently is what we will strive for.”
