Wyoming golf inks pair

LARAMIE -- Wyoming Director of Golf and Head Men’s Golf Coach Joe Jensen announced on Thursday the signing of Ethan Cates of Cheyenne, Wyo., and Patrick Azevedo of Othello, Wash., to national letters of intent.  Cates is currently a high school senior at Cheyenne Central High School, and Azevedo is a senior at Othello High.

Cates, 6’0” and 145 pounds, was the 2019 Wyoming State Golf Association Boys Player of the Year. He was a three-time All-State selection by the Wyoming Coaches Association in 2017, ‘18 and ‘19. Cates placed second at the Wyoming Class 4A State Championship as a senior in the fall of 2019 after placing third as a junior and eighth as a sophomore. He also helped lead his Central High team to a fourth-place team finish his senior and sophomore seasons and a third-place showing as a junior.

He was a three-time All-Conference selection and captured the conference championship his junior season.  In addition to being a four-year letterman in golf, Cates also is a three-year letterman in basketball at Cheyenne Central. As of early January 2020, he was part of a Cheyenne Central boys’ basketball team that was ranked No. 1 in the state of Wyoming in Class 4A.  He played for head golf coach Mike Lepore at Central High School. Cates will join current Cowboy sophomore and former Cheyenne Central golfer Seth Edeen on the Cowboy Golf team. Cates is one of four children of Michelle and Steve Cates.

“Ethan (Cates) is one of the top players in Wyoming, and he also is an outstanding all-around athlete who plays basketball at Cheyenne Central,” said Jensen. “Ethan is a wonderful kid, who has played a little bit nationally and has had some success.  He is a great student, and is a young man who I think will fit well into our program.  He has made some pretty significant jumps in his play over the last year, and I believe he has a good upside to continue to develop as a player.  He has wanted to be a Wyoming Cowboy for a long time, and I know he will do everything we ask of him to be the best player he can be.”

Azevedo, 5’7” and 155 pounds, finished third as a junior at the Washington Class 2A State Golf Championship in May of 2019. 

He won the 2A State Championship as a freshman in the spring of 2017 and placed fifth as a sophomore in 2018.  He will be pursuing his second state championship in the spring of 2020 as a senior. In the summer of 2019, Azevedo enjoyed a great deal of success in several Washington Junior Golf Association (WJGA) tournaments. He placed second overall at the WJGA Players Open.  He captured the District 4 Sub-District #1 tournament championship and the District 4 Sub-District #3 tournament on way to winning his second straight WJGA District 4 Championship. He also captured the WJGA District 4 Championship in the summer of 2018. 

In the summer of 2019, Azevedo was one of only four junior golfers to earn the opportunity to represent the state of Washington in the 2019 Hogan Cup, which has been played at the Riverside Golf and Country Club in Portland, Ore., every year since 1969. 

The Hogan Cup pits the top junior golfers from the Western United States and Canada against each other in a team competition. Azevedo also was an IMG Academy Junior World Golf Championship Qualifier in 2019, tying for third place. While golf will be his sport at the college level, Azevedo was a multi-sport athlete in high school playing football and basketball at Othello High.

He was his football team’s MVP in 2019 and earned First Team All-Conference honors as an outside linebacker and return specialist. Azevedo also was team captain for his basketball team in 2019. He played for Othello head golf coach Brian Lumsden.  Azevedo grew up on his parents dairy farm, Azevedo & Sons Diary, outside Othello.  His parents are Guiomar (mother) and Lisuarte (father) Azevedo.

“Patrick (Azevedo) is also a multi-sport kid,” said Jensen. “It’s kind of funny, I had asked him to send me a recruiting video during the recruiting process, and he had returned a punt for a touchdown the previous night and he sent me that video. He is from a 2A school, a smaller school, and is from a small town. He is the point guard on the basketball team and is really athletic.  Patrick hits the ball so hard and makes such a beautiful, balanced, athletic move at the golf ball when he swings. He hasn’t focused solely on golf before, but when he plays he has been very competitive in the tournaments he has played, whether that be in state championships or amateur events in the summer. He is widely viewed as one of the top junior players in the state of Washington.”

Both Cates and Azevedo will join the Wyoming Cowboy Golf Team in the fall of 2020 -- University of Wyoming press release