From walk-on to key contributor: How Cayden Ward found his place at Cal Poly

“Do you think by training with you, I’ll go play Division I basketball?”

This was the question Cayden Ward asked his trainer and coach Nate Garth.

Garth, who played at UC Santa Barbara and is the former the head coach of Jalen Green Elite on the Adidas 3SSB Circuit, never had a player ask him such a direct question. He told him, yes, he could, but didn’t know the true answer.

“Look, this is where you’re at now,” Garth told Ward. “This is the landscape of the game. Now there’s the transfer portal and there are options to elevate, but right now you’re a Division II basketball player.”

At the time, Ward was heading into his senior year of high school.

The athletic, 6-foot-5 guard who excelled on the football field and basketball court at St. Mary’s High School in Stockton was a star locally but hadn’t generated much college interest.

Just a little over a year later, though, Ward finds himself playing meaningful minutes at Cal Poly, contributing to a team that has made a turnaround this season.

He went from an under-recruited high school prospect to a steady member of a rotation of a Division I program.

Team’s plans for Ward changed quickly

At the start of the year, the plan was for Ward to redshirt. But due to injuries and a need for depth, he has been thrust into the rotation.

In his freshman year, Ward is averaging 7.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in just under 20 minutes per game.

However, down the stretch of the season, Ward has given the Mustangs a much-needed lift, scoring double-digits in five of their last seven games, as the team fights for a spot in the Big West Tournament.

“Any adversity he’s faced, he always has an answer that he’s going to respond to,” Head Coach Mike DeGeorge said. “He doesn’t always get everything right, but he’s always willing to fight and get it right the next time. And (when) you got guys like that, they’re going to get a lot better over four years.”

Only offer came from Colorado Mesa

Despite playing on a high-level travel ball team with multiple Division I prospects, Ward only had one college offer coming out of high school, from DeGeorge when he was head coach at Colorado Mesa.

College coaches had concerns about his ball handling, feel for the game and shooting. Ward was a raw athlete but needed to polish his game to play at the next level.

“Sometimes you could say, ‘Well, look at all the things he doesn’t do yet,’” said Cal Poly assistant coach Ron DuBois. “But, when I saw him play, I was like, ‘Look at all the things he does do.’”

DuBois was a staff analyst for the Santa Cruz Warriors, the NBA G-League affiliate of the Golden State Warriors, at the time, but he still was in contact with DeGeorge going back to their days coaching at Division III Rhode College in 2010.

DuBois played for the same high school coach as Ward in Ken Green. Green reached out to DuBois to vouch for Ward and believed he was being overlooked.

When DuBois watched Ward, he saw a player who makes plays most players can’t.

“He can pass, dribble, shoot and play any spot on the floor,” DuBois said. “He’s athletic, he’s tough and one of our leading rebounders per minutes.”

Football star in high school

Ward was a standout on the gridiron for St. Mary’s High School.

In his senior season in 2023, he led his team in touchdowns and was second in receiving yards per game while playing beside other Division I football players.

But because of his football commitment, he never was able to gain as much exposure compared to peers who played and trained basketball year around.

While some may have viewed Ward playing football as a negative, DeGeorge believes it’s to his advantage.

“He was a very good football player, which means he’s tough, and it meant that he hadn’t yet spent full time on basketball,” DeGeorge said. “When you combine that with his athleticism and coming from a family who are a high-achieving family athletically, we just felt like there was a lot of potential there. Once he got into basketball full time, we were going to see it take off.”

Coach’s move created uncertainty

When DeGeorge got the position at Cal Poly in spring of 2024, Ward and his family didn’t know what would come next. Would they bring him to San Luis Obispo? Would he have to stay at Colorado Mesa or reopen his recruitment late in the cycle?

Ward’s mother, Nesha, remembers the uncertainty around that time.

“Cayden couldn’t even go to school that day,” she said because he was too anxious about what would happen.

There was worry Ward was going to lose his scholarship offer. He may have been forced to go the junior college route and work his way up or find another school to pick him up.

Then DeGeorge gave Ward a call that afternoon and told him that he was accepting the Cal Poly job and he wanted to bring Cayden along with him.

His mother remembered how special the moment was, “to just be in the room and see how happy (Cayden) was to get the offer because he was immediately emotional and we were going crazy.”

DeGeorge was only able to offer a walk-on spot due to prior scholarship commitments to players on the roster, but that didn’t matter to Ward and his family.

“We just cared he was going to get the opportunity to play at a Division I program in Cal Poly,” Nesha said.

Ward had to compete against 5 brothers

At every stop, Ward has worked to improve.

Even as a football player, his dad, Craig Ward, says he wasn’t the most skilled up until high school. It was his son’s relentlessness that pushed him forward.

His drive comes from him being the youngest of five brothers, all of whom played sports at a high level.

“It was really tough on him being the youngest brother,” his father said. “It was a competition at all times.”

Nesha Ward recalls that Cayden’s older brothers would never let him win at anything.

“From the moment he entered this world, he’s been scrappy,” she said.

When Ward plays for Cal Poly, his scrappiness comes out on the floor. He throws his body into the pile to get a rebound. On offense, Ward is one of the best slashers on the team and has two poster dunks on the season.

At St. Mary’s, Ward led the basketball team to a 20-win season, at a school more known for football.

“I didn’t understand how good of a leader he was,” Green said about Ward in high school. “We’re competing with really good teams. Towards the end of the season, where we were, Cayden had a lot to do with it.”

Now, looking ahead, Ward has his sights set on the NBA.

“I feel like I’m making great progress every year.” he said. “I feel like I’m just getting closer and closer to my goal. I’m never content with where I’m at.”

Ward has thrived in Cal Poy’s read-and-react system, where he gets the ball in his hands and can attack the defender. Other times, he’s cutting to the rim and looking to dunk on a defender.

Defense is where he’s improved the most, according to DeGeorge. Ward has a better understanding of rotations and how to use his athleticism to impact the game.

However, ultimately, success will comes down to Ward’s drive to push forward.

“All that adversity that I faced during my basketball career, I just kept going and see that as motivation,” Ward said.

This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.