14 years after title, returning Kennedale duo leads Wildcat baseball to success

Corey Taylor and Cameron Massengill were the best of friends growing up in Kennedale. Both loved baseball and with Taylor being a pitcher and Massengill a catcher it’s no wonder that the duo would become close over time.

The two had plenty of success under head coach Jet Teague at Kennedale High School which culminated in a Class 3A state championship in 2011 when both Taylor and Massengill were seniors.

The pair was dominant at state with both making the Class 3A All-Tournament Team. The Wildcats finished the season 33-5-1.

Fast forward to the 2022-2023 school year when long-time Teague assistant Paul Trantham, then the head coach, was set to retire from Kennedale after the season. Taylor and Massengill were both down in the Brazosport ISD when Taylor, whose fiancee was going to head to school in Fort Worth anyway, was contacted about an opening back at his alma mater.

It wasn’t a baseball job, but Taylor came in as a basketball assistant and coached sub-varsity teams. He would also “help out” with the baseball team after his basketball duties were taken care of any time he could.

When Trantham retired at the end of the 2023 season, Taylor threw his name in the hat to be the next head coach of the baseball team.

“It was a pretty easy interview since I had know him since he was in the sixth grade,” said Kennedale athletic director and head football coach Richard Barrett of Taylor. “He just has ‘it’. I’m not really sure how to describe what ‘it’ is, but he just has ‘it’. His knowledge and passion for the game is just infectious.”

Barrett also interviewed Massengill among other candidates, but Taylor took over as the head coach of the baseball program to start the 2023-24 season.

The Road Home

After graduating from Kennedale both Taylor and Massengill went to Cisco College where the duo helped the Wranglers reach the Junior College World Series. Following that the two went separate directions, but just briefly.

Massengill went on to Angelo State University and earned Lone Star Conference first-team catcher honors in 2014 and second-team in 2015. After graduation, Massengill taught and coached at Lake View High in San Angelo for four years and then on to Brazoswood High School.

Taylor stayed one season at Cisco College then moved on to pitch at Texas Tech University. The Red Raiders made it to the College World Series in 2014, during Taylor’s junior year.

After his senior season in 2015, Taylor was drafted by the New York Mets in the 7th round with the 206th pick. He played five seasons in the minor leagues, working his way up to AAA.

Taylor pitched 218.2 minor-league innings posting a 16-13 record with a 2.76 earned run average, but never made it up to the Big Show. He allowed only seven home runs while walking 55 and striking out 179.

Taylor was injured in 2019 requiring Tommy John surgery. After the minor league season was canceled in 2020 due to the Covid outbreak, and rehabbing in 2021, Taylor decided it was time to move on from pro ball.

“After my TJ and then COVID happening I really just felt like it was God’s way of telling me that it was time to hang it up and start doing what I’ve always really wanted to do,” said Taylor. “I’ve always wanted to coach and to come home and give back to the kids that walk the same hallways that I did is special. I love Kennedale. It’s always been a part of me, and it’s nice to get back here.”

The two reunited in the Brazosport ISD while Massengill was at Brazoswood High as the varsity assistant baseball coach. Taylor took a job at Clute Intermediate School in 2022 before getting the call to head back to Kennedale.

“When he (Taylor) called and said that there was an opening to be his assistant baseball coach I was jumping for joy,” said Massengill. “I couldn’t resist the chance to get to coach with my best friend. This is a true dream.

“It’s a blast every single day, even on bad days. To be home and work with my best friend, it can’t get much better.”

“I’ve known Cameron (Massengill) since we were 10 or 11 years old,” said Taylor of his long-time battery mate and now assistant coach. “We played on a select team for the longest time, and he’s caught me there while we were at Kennedale and when we went to Cisco, including in the JUCO World Series.

“I know it says that I’m the head coach, but I tell him all the time that I don’t care about that stuff because he’s just as much the head coach as I am. This thing does not run without him. He has been the backbone when I was playing and now he’s the backbone here.”

Building A Dynasty

The Kennedale baseball program is in its 35th year of existence. And for the past 29 seasons in a row, excluding the canceled 2020 season due to COVID-19, the Wildcats have been penciled in to the University Interscholastic League’s playoff bracket.

During the streak there have only been three head coaches at the helm of the Wildcats. Teague from 1996 to 2014, Trantham from 2015 to 2023, and Taylor, who became the head coach in 2024.

Teague was there from the beginning, serving as an assistant coach in 1990, and taking over as the head coach in 1991. The team went 3-21, according to Teague, in that first season, but steadily improved as players developed.

“In the early days, we would almost always finish in third place in our district, and back then, only two teams made it to the playoffs in our class,” said Teague, who spent 24 seasons as the head coach at Kennedale. “But when we first made it to the playoffs in 1996, I have to admit that I was a little shocked that we made it all the way to the regional final, one game away from getting to go to Austin.”

One thing that had changed in 1996 was Teague’s addition of Trantham as an assistant coach. The pairing was golden as Kennedale won 13 of the school’s 15 district titles in the 18 seasons they were together as well as the only state championship.

Trantham spent 28 seasons total at Kennedale. Taylor and Massengill went 24-7 in their first season and reached the area round of the playoffs.

2025 Kennedale Wildcats’ eventful playoff run

Kennedale was just six outs away from being booted out of the playoffs in the area round last week against Aubrey in their Class 4A Division 2 series. The Wildcats won the first game of the series, run-ruling the Chaparrals 11-0 behind the pitching of Jacob Villagomez, who allowed just two hits over five innings.

Aubrey escaped with a 4-3 win in Game 2 and things looked bleak for Kennedale when the Chaparrals built a 5-1 lead heading into the top of the sixth in Game 3.

The Wildcats loaded the bases with one out on a walk to left fielder Noah Padgett, a fielder’s choice by Villagomez, who played right field, and an error that allowed catcher Nate Arber to reach.

Taylor then sent D.J. Darjean up to pinch hit for his cousin, freshman second baseman Joshua Darjean.

“D.J. (Darjean) came up to me the night before, after game two, and told me that he had one in him,” said Taylor of D.J. Darjean, who can’t play in the field because of an injury but can still hit. “He was really confident, and I just had a hunch that he could do it, so I put him in, and he executed.”

D.J. Darjean, a senior who’s headed to Southeastern Oklahoma State University to play football next year, delivered a bases clearing triple to right to cut the lead to 5-4. After a walk to shortstop Colton Sandoval, D.J. Darjean scored on an error and Sandoval later scored on a passed ball to give Kennedale a 6-5 lead.

The Wildcats added a run in the 7th on an RBI double by Arber and Kyle Moore closed out the game on the mound with 2.1 hitless innings.

Taylor didn’t expect his team to perform quite this well after losing 11 seniors off of last year’s team, but added that he felt he had a really talented group coming up from the junior varsity.

“I have just a bunch of tough, ready to go play baseball every single day kids,” said Taylor. “That’s what they are.”

Other key players include junior Jacob Monreal at third base; speedy leadoff hitter Aidan Ruiz, a senior, in center field; junior Tanyan Miller at first base; junior pitcher/outfielder Dilon Sandoval, Colton’s twin; and senior Dylan Rice a heavily relied on left-handed pitcher.

Kennedale (18-12) will now face Carthage (18-14-1) in the regional semifinals, a round that the wildcats haven’t been to since 2013. The three-game series at Emory Rains High School begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday with Game 2 at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Game 3, if necessary, following Game 2.

“They’re just great kids and outstanding young men,” said Teague of the new coaching duo at Kennedale. “For Corey (Taylor) to take over as the head coach, for his first head coaching job, and Cameron (Massengill) as the assistant of a program that has been very successful for many years...I’m just so proud of the way they’re handling the team.”