Brent Gates starred at Grandville High and at the University of Minnesota before a seven-year career in Major League Baseball.
The 1988 Grandville graduate was a two-time All-State selection in high school and went on to set a career batting average mark at Minnesota hitting .387. In 1991 he was Big Ten Conference Player of the Year and earned All-American honors for the second time. He played in the Cape Cod Baseball League after college and was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the first round (26th overall) of the MLB Draft.
Gates played seven seasons in the majors as an infielder, mostly as second base, including four years in Oakland, one in Seattle and two in Minnesota before retiring in 1999. In his rookie year in the majors in 1993 he hit a career- best .290 with 69 runs batted in over 139 games. Over his MLB career he played in 685 games with a .264 batting average, 25 homers and 279 RBI.
After his MLB career he opened a training facility in the Grand Rapids area and coached the West Michigan Whitecaps in 2001. He has worked as a scout for the Tampa Bay Rays and has been especially successful as a high school coach at Grand Rapids Christian High. His 2012 and 2013 teams at Christian won state championships and the 2011 team was a state runner-up. He annually runs a Brent Gates Baseball Camp at the Gainey Athletic Complex and has also coached at Byron Center High and Davenport University.
He is also a member of the University of Minnesota Athletic Hall of Fame.