Palisade names Nate Porter new baseball coach; Kiel Roling will be assistant

Palisade has hired Nate Porter to be its next baseball coach, Bulldogs athletic director Gregg Hawkins announced on Monday.

Porter played collegiate baseball at what is now Colorado Mesa University, and also has previously been an assistant at Grand Junction Central, where he was part of the 2002 team that won the Class 5A championship.

Porter replaces Aaron Howard, who resigned in May. He inherits one of the Western Slope’s best teams, one that went 16-4 and hosted a Class 4A regional this past season.

“He is excited to be a part of the winning tradition at Palisade High School,” Hawkins said in a statement.

Already, Porter has named Kiel Roling as an assistant.

Roling, who graduated from Grand Junction Central in 2005, played at Arizona State and was later selected by the Rockies in the sixth round of the 2008 draft. Roling retired from professional baseball in 2014.