A summer conversation with Head Coach Marty Lees was all it took for former WSU relief pitcher Kellen Camus to embody the slogan: Once a Coug, Always a Coug.

“I think it’s been good for both us and him,” Lees said. “I think, one, he gets to learn from another staff. He was talking about, when we first got here, trying to go do something else to maybe be with another staff. And the thing I told him is we’re another staff . . . We want to assist him in that if it’s something that we feel he can be good at, and we feel he is going to be a good coach.”

Camus, who finished his four-year career in Pullman with 86 appearances, the second most in program history, made the decision to rejoin the baseball program while attaining his masters’ degree.

While the degree helps, it was more about learning from a well-respected baseball man like Lees, as well as Pitching Coach Dan Spencer and Hitting Coach Jim Horner.

“Just being here I’m helping myself grow,” Camus said. “I decided myself to come back because I played here and I wanted to get back with the new staff. It wasn’t so much the pedigree of [Lees] – yes knowing his history – but growing from other people talking to me. Former players from Oregon State who knew Marty, knew Dan Spencer and even or former coach Donnie Marbut.”

Coincidentally, during his senior season at WSU, Marbut approached Camus with the idea of coaching after he finished his education. After Camus graduated with his marketing degree, Marbut convinced Camus to enter into coaching the same way his college coach did.

“I said ‘that’s great but you’re going to coach one day’,” Marbut told The Daily Evergreen in a phone interview. “That’s the same thing I was told by my coach. I didn’t think I was going to coach either. Sometimes the coaches know better than you do sometimes. I thought he was going to and we kind of convinced him to do it. And I think he’ll have a long career.”

When Camus was a player at WSU he wasn’t the most overpowering pitcher, standing at 5’11, 184-pounds as a senior. That didn’t matter for Marbut or Camus, because they both knew how strong his leadership skills were dating back to his days at Capital High School in Olympia, Washington.

Camus finished with a career record of 15-5 in 104 strike outs over 133 2/3 innings pitched over his four years in Pullman. Marbut referred to his former player as a classic overachiever based off his strong leadership abilities.

“My guess is most high school teams he was on he was probably the captain,” Marbut said. “He wasn’t scared of his voice. He had the respect of his teammates because he worked really hard at it – it was important to him. Those guys, he’s a classic overachiever, competitor who works hard. Those guys make really really good coaches.”

While Marbut has high expectations for his coaching career down the line, Camus is focused on his current position as a graduate assistant and managing the bench, while still being proud to be living a childhood dream.

“It’s awesome,” Camus said, of wearing the WSU logo. “I’ve always wanted to be a Coug when I was a little kid and had the opportunity. As people say a dream come true to play here. And now I’m still here coaching as a grad assistant and learning what I need to learn to grow my development and see where my coaching career takes me from there.”