While at Barton County, the baseball team was able to send many of its players onto four-year schools. BCCC is one of the most highly regarded junior college programs in Kansas. 

Coach Cantrell was also the pitching coach at NCAA Division I Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana.  While at Centenary, the Gents played one of the toughest schedules in the country and the pitchers were able to set school records for a game and a season.  His pitchers in 2003 set a school record for strikeouts in the season and in a single game. Cantrell also participated in team community service and fundraising, and fulfilled the responsibilities of a pitching coach.

Coach Cantrell began his coaching career as an administrative assistant at another NCAA Division I school, University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. 

Coach Cantrell has had tremendous summer coaching experiences as well.  In the summer of 2002 he coached in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League. Many players that played in the Cape Cod League that summer are currently playing in Major League Baseball.  He has also coached for the Wenatchee AppleSox now in the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League. The AppleSox were league champions that summer.

He also was the head coach for the Wichita Wheat Kings of the Walter Johnson League.  In addition, Coach Cantrell coached the Shreveport Orioles to back-to-back Louisiana State Tournament births, with the 2005 team finishing second. 

Coach Cantrell has also had the opportunity to learn from some of the best programs in the country by working camps at Stanford University, University of Arizona, University of Mississippi and University of Kansas.

Cantrell holds a bachelor's in chemistry education from Bethany College, where he was an active student-athlete in baseball from 1997 to 2000. He was named an all-conference pitcher three times, and in 2000, was a captain of Bethany's Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) championship-winning baseball team.

He also holds a master's of education in exercise science from Louisiana State University - Shreveport.

Cantrell and wife, Carlene, have two children, Brent and Annika.