Jared Gates joined the Central Arkansas baseball program in the summer of 2019 as hitting coach and volunteer assistant.
Gates signed a free agent contract with the Baltimore Orioles in July 2018 and played a year of professional baseball with the Gulf Coast Orioles after his playing career at the University of Arkansas, where he played his final two years of collegiate baseball. Gates had 12 career home runs and 37 career RBI with the Razorbacks, helping them to the runnerup spot in the 2018 College World Series. He played in 83 career games (73 starts) for the Razorbacks, including 46 during the CWS run in 2018. Gates started all 15 postseason games for the Razorbacks that season, including all six games at the CWS, hitting a home run in the NCAA Regional and the CWS. He finished the season with a .996 fielding percentage, making only one error in 271 chances.
As a junior at Arkansas, Gates appeared in 37 games and started 35, hitting .246 with six home runs, 14 RBI, 19 runs scored and 11 walks. He made only six errors in 56 chances (.964 fielding percentage) despite suffering an early season broken hand. Gates hit three of his six home runs in Southeastern Conference play. He hit .333 with four hits, two home runs and three RBI in four games at the NCAA Fayetteville Regional. Gates had a season-high three hits twice, vs. Alabama and No. 13 LSU.
Gates transferred to Arkansas from Iowa Western Community College where he was a second-team NJCAA Division I All-America selection in 2016. He was also the NJCAA Region XI Player of the Year and was a first-team NJCAA Region XI all-region selection. Gates batted .434 with a .478 on-base percentage and a .764 slugging percentage for the Reivers. He hit eight home runs, drove in 61 runs and scored 77 runs while stealing seven bases in eight attempts in helping IWCC to a 52-15 record and a Final Four appearance in the NJCAA World Series.
Gates, who served previously as a student assistant under Dave Van Horn at Arkansas, played high school baseball at Wichita (Kan.) Northwest High School, where his hit .448 over his four-year career with 83 runs scored, 56 RBI and 37 extra-base hits. He hit over .400 in three of his four seasons, the highest coming in his junior season (.612), which led the City League. He was named the KABC 6A Kansas High School Player of the Year as a junior.
Gates is the son of Steve and Tammie Gates and has three brothers, Zach, Dylan, and Tyler. He graduated in 2019 with a degree in criminal justice.
