What Being Alabama Baseball's 2025 Team Captain Means to Kade Snell

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— If you ask Alabama baseball outfielder Kade Snell, it isn't necessarily the biggest narrative in the world that a former Auburn player has now become the Crimson Tide's team captain. To him, the mantle is more of an embodiment of the whole program.

"I've thought of it," the Dothan, Ala., native said on Jan. 24 about having played for his current team's in-state rival. "I'm just, I'm glad God's given me all these opportunities to just show up and play a game that I've played ever since I was four... I'm happy I'm in the position I am now. I'm happy with the coaches and the players I'm around. I think it's pretty, I wouldn't say easy, but it's easier to do good things around the players I'm with. These guys, they build me up. They'll let me know when I need to work on something, and I couldn't be more happy [with] the guys I'm gonna be playing for."

The redshirt senior was one of the new additions to head coach Rob Vaughn's first team in Tuscaloosa last season, having transferred from Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Ala. He batted .324 with 15 extra-base hits and assembled a 13-game hitting streak from mid-April to mid-May. Snell also pitched, starting six games and taking the mound 10 times overall. He was 1-0 with an earned run average just above six and spent time as the midweek starter. As a whole, Snell played in 40 of a possible 57 games (primarily at designated hitter) and started 36.

As one of the experienced faces on the Crimson Tide's 2025 team, which brings plenty of new names but also high expectations following a berth in the NCAA Tournament in Vaughn's first season, Snell is pumped to get going. The regular season officially begins on Feb. 14 with the opener of a three-game series against Bradley, marking the official start to the second year of the Vaughn era. Alabama has been selected to an NCAA regional in three of the past four seasons.

"It means a lot," he said. "We don't need to make it too big, but that's what you look for when spring rolls around. It's always been that way for me. It's baseball season. People say, 'It's spring.' It's baseball season. Just looking forward to that and competing with all these guys. There's a good bit of new faces, but we've completely meshed. We're a huge family. I just can't wait to put on display, all that, for everybody."

Another thing that comes with the captaincy, in addition to a new designation on the team's online roster, is getting to wear the jersey No. 3. Vaughn brought that tradition with him from Maryland. Last season, right fielder Evan Sleight wore it, but his collegiate eligibility ended this past summer. Sleight described it as an honor; the number symbolizes three of the program's core values. Those values are toughness, ownership and grit. Vaughn has called them pillars. Part of getting to wear the number is embodying those three values.

"I love these coaches. I love all the players. For me to be picked by all my peers that are pretty much the same age as me, it means a lot," Snell said. "I love those guys with all my heart, and it's reciprocated. We show up to practice and we know what we need to do, and we show up to games and we know what we need to do.

I get to wear this number, but it pretty much signifies the whole team. All these guys, they've had my back, and I've had theirs through and through. I'm just glad I get to be a part of something that's bigger than me."

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