Softball player Cayden Baker owns The Place Nutrition in Halls

• Cayden Baker is a social media intern for Tennessee Mojo, making regular posts and announcements, and giving top players advice on recruiting and name, image and likeness financial deals.
• The former Powell High softball player also is a UT student, owns a business and works part time as a receptionist.

As if owning a business wasn’t enough … or working a second job … or having a time-consuming internship … or carrying a full class load at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville … Cayden Baker’s days — and nights — are full, even without the game of softball that she once loved so much.

Baker, a 2021 Powell High School graduate, had a great softball career at Powell and with the Tennessee Mojo elite summer travel team. She was good enough to get recruited by Texas A&M.

She started 43 games and played in all 52 as a freshman infielder. She hit .261 and didn’t make an error.

However, after a coaching change, the new coach cut four players and Baker was one of them.

She landed at Georgia Tech. Just before the start of the spring season, Baker’s family had an emergency. When the Yellow Jackets’ coach refused to help her through the crisis, she left school and came home.

The last two years, with softball in the rear-view mirror, she has been working on finishing her degree in public relations at UT.

“I would not change anything in my high school or travel (softball) careers,” Baker said. “I had never played for a woman coach (as there were at A&M and Georgia Tech) before. That was hard to get used to. There were way more emotions involved than I had ever seen.”

Knowing customers is essential

Though she has a 3.7 GPA and will graduate at the end of the summer, Baker didn’t come back home to sit back and relax. Her mother, DeLinda, owns Emory Station Nutrition and The Baby Station in Powell. Since they already knew the business, buying Halls Nutrition (which is now The Place Nutrition, 6663 Maynardville Pike in Halls) in December 2022 made sense.

“People think owning a business is a luxury,” Baker said. “It’s a lot of work. You have to prioritize it, keep up with the trends. Customer service is so important. If you don’t know a customer’s name and past order, you’re doing something wrong.”

The Place Nutrition specializes in energy drinks, protein shakes and teas. 

Baker, who relies on a quality manager to run the store, works at The Place Nutrition on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Mondays and Wednesdays she is a receptionist at a beauty salon. Weekends are also consumed with work of some sort.

Decision time is coming

Staying in touch with softball by way of a social media internship for Tennessee Mojo scratches her itch for the game. Besides doing regular posts and announcements, she helps top players with advice on recruiting and name, image and likeness financial deals.

“Most of the NIL deals for softball come in the form of equipment or merchandise,” Baker said. “Only a few of the top, top players are getting big money. It’s not like football and (men’s and women’s) basketball.”

By the end of the summer, Baker will have a decision to make: Get more involved with the travel softball team, or dedicate a lot more time to The Place Nutrition.

“I’ve learned a lot about time management by doing all this,” she said. “I’ve learned to hold myself accountable for whatever needs to get done.”