2017 Perfect Game High School Preview Index
Living in a day and age when the question “What have you done for me lately?” seems to be heard more frequently than the comment, “Let’s consider, for a moment, your entire body of work,” it might seem odd to shine a spotlight on the baseball program at Chicago Brother Rice High School.
This is a program, after all, that hasn’t won an Illinois High School Association (IHSA) spring season state championship since 1976, 41 long years ago; its only state runner-up finish came 36 years ago, in 1981.
But the thing about Brother Rice is that it always seems to be lurking just around the corner, ready to pounce. The Crusaders are members of the historically strong Chicago Catholic League (CCL) – sitting alongside storied programs from Mount Carmel, St. Rita, St. Laurence, Providence Catholic and Loyola Academy – and have won 18 CCL championships since 1964, including three since 2012 and one in 2016.
Sixth-year head coach John McCarthy compiled an overall record of 130-56 during his first five years at the school. Although a second state championship hasn’t been realized in 40 years, the Brother Rice High School program remains one of the most respected in the state of Illinois.
When the Crusaders open the 2017 season next month they’ll do so as the No. 32-ranked team in the Perfect Game High School Preseason National Top 50 Rankings. and are the only team in the top-50 from the PG HS Midwest Region (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin).
“We talk about the history of the program and the expectation and the commitment to excellence of our past teams and our alumni,” McCarthy told PG last week. “Our kids understand the support we get. Our baseball alumni give back – they’re supportive of the program – and our kids understand they set the stage for us to get to this point.
“It’s our job to go out and represent our alumni in a positive way and really show good baseball,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean winning baseball, necessarily, it just means that we are going to play with our hair on fire, we’re going to play as hard as we can and if that’s good enough after seven innings then we’re comfortable with the result.”
Brother Rice High School is an all-male college preparatory institution located on Chicago’s South Side amongst historic neighborhoods like Morgan Park, West Lawn, Beverly, Mount Greenwood, Dyer Indiana and Ashburn, according to online sources. Students are also drawn-in from municipalities such as Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park, Orland Park, Tinley Park and Burbank.
The baseball program at Brother Rice – and every other athletic, academic or art program at the school, for that matter – receives tremendous support from the school’s faculty and administration, McCarthy told PG. The young men who arrive at Brother Rice dedicate themselves to whatever endeavor they choose to pursue and work hard during the off-season to try to become the best they possibly can be.
McCarthy noted that it almost becomes “contagious” when you fill a locker room or a dugout with a bunch of driven players who are working shoulder-to-shoulder to become the best teammates and, in turn, the best team in the Chicagoland area.
“There’s an expectation of striving for excellence and that’s what we’re trying to do every day …,” he said. “The type of kids we get at Brother Rice are super-dedicated and team-oriented types of kids, and it begins with our parents; they instill the good values in these kids.
“We’re extremely lucky and extremely blessed to have kids that love the game of baseball, that work hard and are very selfless in their approach to the team.”
It’s been a long and enduring process, but Chicago Brother Rice’s baseball program is being recognized on a national level, as the PG Top 50 ranking indicates. This offseason, McCarthy learned that his team had been invited to participate at the prestigious USA Baseball National High School Invitational in Cary, N.C., March 29-April 1, becoming the first Illinois school invited in the event’s six-year history.
The Crusaders join 17 teams from across the country, including those from high school baseball hotbeds like Florida and California.
“It’s very humbling, number-one, and we’re very grateful to even receive an invitation to the (NHSI),” McCarthy said. “We also have to understand that there is a challenge there and we have to represent the state of Illinois in a positive way; we have to represent this area and show that there is good baseball in the Midwest.”
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COACH MCCARTHY SAW SOME TOP-NOTCH SENIORS GRADUATE from his program last spring – middle-infielder Michael Massey and catcher/outfielder Andrew Dyke are now both at the University of Illinois – but returns six seniors who will be counted on to assume those vacant leadership roles in 2017.
The top upperclassmen are Ryan Kutt, a right-hander/outfielder who PG ranks the No. 248 overall prospect (No. 7 Illinois) and who has signed with Illinois; PG top-500 (No. 20 Indiana) shortstop Ryan King, a Michigan State signee; and top-500 (No. 44 Illinois) right-hander Jack Guzek, who is headed to Indiana State.
“Just having those three guys back – they’ve all been starters since they were sophomores or even freshmen – it’s good to have that experience (in the lineup) because you can’t put a price on experience,” McCarthy said. “All three of those guys have winning personalities and they show up ready to play. They compete, they work hard and they really set the tone for the entire program; I’m excited to see them be leaders this year.”
Other top seniors include third baseman/outfielder Patrick Mayo (Spring Hill College), outfielder Brett Bagus and catcher Andy Lopez. PG ranks Sam Jones (Indiana) and Joe Peyton as top-500s in the class of 2018, and sophomores Kendall Pettis and Michael Bolton are ranked Nos. 215 and 433, respectively, in the class of 2019.
High school teams in Illinois can play both an IHSA spring season and then a shorter summer season if they choose, and Brother Rice opts to play both.
Brother Rice, an IHSA Class 4A school, begins spring practice on Feb. 27 and the state championship game is scheduled for June 10. The team then gets a week off before it starts a seven-week summer season; the graduated seniors are not eligible to play in the summer. “It’s basically what your team is going to look like (the following spring), which is good,” McCarthy said.
Last spring, the Crusaders won the Chicago Catholic League Varsity championship for the first time since 2009 – they won the league four times from 2004-09 – and the Chicago Catholic League Sophomore championship for the third time since 2012; the varsity team finished 14-0 in league play.
The varsity Crusaders also won their IHSA Class 4A regional championship for the first time since 2010 and won their first 4A sectional game against Catholic League rival St. Rita before dropping a 4-3 decision to St. Laurence – another CCA rival – in a sectional semifinal. They finished the season with an overall mark of 35-4 which included a stretch when they won 30 straight.
“There was one game last year when we beat some good team like 2-1 – a real close game – and a reporter came up to me afterward and commented on how we looked real loose in the dugout,” Kutt recalled during a recent telephone conversation with PG. “He said, ‘You guys kind of model yourselves after the Chicago Cubs and the way they play the game. It was kind of weird because I was thinking the same exact thing.
“We’re always kind of real loosy-goosy – we go out there and have fun, give 100 percent and leave everything on the field – and at the end of the day that’s all you can do; I think that really helped us,” he continued. “Last year we started out (with two losses) but we figured something out and after a couple of small changes, ‘Boom!’ we were off to 30 (straight wins).”
Kutt remembered another game at about the two-thirds mark of the season when the win streak had reached 20 games and the Crusaders were set to face nemesis St. Rita on the Mustangs’ home field; both teams were ranked in the top-10 by the state’s media.
“It was like the World Series out there, and that’s what you want,” he said. “Every game you want to go out there and have it be real special, playing in front of the biggest crowds, going up against their best pitcher and their best guys. That’s what you want; that’s what we want.”
Kutt has been on the Brother Rice varsity squad since his freshman year which gave him the opportunity to play in the high school summer ball season from the start of his high school career. He liked the idea because it gave everybody – himself, his teammates, the coaching staff – a chance to size things up and get an idea of what the team might look like the following spring.
It was his feeling that during his first two seasons of summer ball (2014-15) the team didn’t take full advantage of that situation – in his words, the Crusaders kind of “lolly-gagged it a little bit” – and lost an ideal chance to build momentum that could carry into the next spring season.
Last summer, the Crusaders advanced all the way to the summer state championship game where they lost a one-run decision to Plainfield South, with the winning run coming across on a wild pitch.
“I think that kind of affected us, because when you get that extra opportunity to play in that type of playoff atmosphere when it’s win or go home, that can build up a little bit of confidence when it comes time to play in the actual (spring) state championship playoffs,” Kutt said. “Being able to get your feet wet with the new guys you have on your team (during summer ball) is huge, especially when it comes time for elimination games.”
Playing a short summer season with Brother Rice has cut down on the amount of summer travel ball the Crusader players can experience, but they still manage to participate on a limited basis, especially in the fall. They play for programs like the Illinois Sparks, Elite Baseball Training, Top Tier and Cangelosi Baseball and found it to be rewarding.
Kutt, for example, played in three (2013-15) PG WWBA Kernels Foundation Championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and was at the 2014 and 2015 PG WWBA Underclass World Championship in Fort Myers, Fla., all with Cangelosi.
He played at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., with Cangelosi in 2016 and returned there last October with the Chicago Scouts Association program; he was named to the all-tournament team.
“When you go out there and play travel ball in the summer and the fall, you see teams in Jupiter, you see teams in Georgia, you see teams in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and you see some dudes that can really deal,” he said. “But there are some guys in this town and in (the CCL) that can really play the game, too.
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EVERYTHING THE BROTHER RICE PLAYERS HAVE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY to experience can only prove to be beneficial once they get into the teeth of their regular-season schedule and ultimately move into postseason bracket-play. Sounding a familiar verse, McCarthy is quick to point out that the Chicago-area “is rich with tradition and success” and every game his team plays will be a challenge.
And that is a big reason the program enjoys a sense of prominence at the national level even if a second state championship has proved elusive. Playing the other talented squads in the CCL has served to only make the Brother Rice players more determined – “What doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger” – and has only enhanced their work ethic. And that is how winning traditions are established.
“(Our coaches), one of the things they’ve always prided themselves on is the tradition of the program,” Kutt said. “One of our traditions is our motto: ‘The Team, The Team, The Team.’ We look at it as a unit, and without the unit the whole thing doesn’t function. … The biggest thing our coaches push on us is to play with confidence and play with a little bit of swagger, but at the same time respect the game.”
There is an affiliation between Chicago Brother Rice High School and the Brother Rice High School located in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., which also boasts a strong baseball program with a rich history and traditions. This Chicago team made a trip over there last spring and went up against their Michigan counterpart in what was the first game played at BRHS Michigan’s new stadium.
“They were incredible hosts,” McCarthy said. “They got us our hotel rooms and took care of our meals – they’re first-class up there. Our football team plays their football team and we try to connect as much as we can. Obviously, there are budgets involved so you can’t go back-and-forth all the time, but there is definitely an affiliation between the two schools.”
With the start of the 2017 baseball season just over the horizon, McCarthy reports there is a real “energy” both inside and outside of his school building, just as there probably is over in Bloomfield Hills. The student body is fired-up and, perhaps just as importantly, the school’s strong alumni base is geared-up as well.
Everyone wants the program to succeed, especially with its national reputation on the rise. The school’s alumni association raised most of the money needed for the team to make the trip to Cary, N.C., at the end of March, another example of how much a private school program depends on the support of the students that came before the current group.
“We understand that there are expectations for this team but our goal is to be the best possible team we can be,” McCarthy said. “That doesn’t mean wins and losses – that means that team chemistry needs to be important. We need to respect the game and we need to work hard every day in practice … and we need to stay focused and enjoy the experience.
“Our goal for this year is, ‘Hey, we’re going to play seven innings as hard as we can – play with our hair on fire and do everything we can to win – and if that’s good enough at the end, then we’re comfortable with the outcome. We want to play loose, have fun and do our very best.”