Sunday Slam: "Cope" Gives NIU Baseball Program Hope for a Bright Future
Ex-Wheeling Hoop Star Washington Joins North Central Staff; Garoppolo, Kaye Part of Ohio Valley Conference 75th Anniversary Teams
Studs are a vital part of many construction projects.
Ryan Copeland knows he needs them for his reconstruction of the Northern Illinois baseball program. The star of Elk Grove’s 2006 Elite Eight team also knows who and where the studs are in the Chicago area and the state after leading the University of Illinois-Springfield program into an NCAA Division II national power.
The blueprint for success at UIS will be similar at NIU for Copeland. Convincing high-level D-I players who viewed DeKalb as an afterthought, or didn’t give it any thought at all, to see the team and individual possibilities. He’s already meeting that challenge head-on since his hiring was announced two weeks ago by getting out and seeing as many potential players as possible.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do and that’s pretty apparent when you look at the numbers and lack of recent success,” Copeland said late Friday afternoon as he was on the recruiting trail. “The program at UIS had some of the same challenges where we lacked some resources and didn’t have this and didn’t have that. One of my selling points is I’m a guy who has done a lot with next to nothing and I don’t make excuses.”
Copeland is coming to an NIU program where the physical resources aren’t in bad shape. This spring the infield, pitching mound and bullpen mounds of Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park were replaced with astroturf. Other facility upgrades scheduled before the 2024 season are fully padded outfield fences, a new scoreboard and pitch clocks.
“There is definitely a commitment to get the facilities not only up to par with the best of the league (Mid-American Conference) but the best in the Midwest,” Copeland said of NIU athletic director Sean Frazier and deputy AD John Cheney.
The resource NIU baseball has lacked most is on-field success as it went 10-43 overall and 4-25 in the MAC this season. There have been only seven winning seasons - the last in 2011 under current North Central College coach Ed Mathey - since the program restarted in 1991 after it was disbanded for eight years.
Longtime Hersey assistant coach Kevin Kelley, who pitched for Larry Pohlman at Prospect and for NIU in the late 1970s, said he had a good relationship with Mathey when it came to suggesting and discussing potential recruits. After Mathey left, Kelley said he wouldn’t get any response to emails about players and stopped trying. And it’s not as if Kelley didn’t know what he was looking at since his sons Scott and Danny were D-I players at Penn State and Tennessee-Martin respectively.
Safe to say that won’t happen with Copeland and his staff. During his eight years at UIS and the last four as head coach, where he went 131-38, he put a premium on in-state talent. The 2022 team that went to the NCAA D-II National Tournament Elite Eight had 39 of 43 players on the roster from Illinois. Not bad for a program that didn’t exist before 2011.
One of the surprises when Copeland started the interview process with NIU was seeing only 15 in-state players on the roster of 35.
“That felt a little crazy to me and I knew that would be a big selling point moving forward with the hiring process,” Copeland said. “We’ve done so well down in Springfield with Illinois talent. You don’t need to go very far around here and you need to make sure you have a presence in the state of Illinois, especially Chicago, because there’s so much talent. Kids need to know they don’t have to go far to play high-level college baseball.”
And Copeland said there isn’t some magic formula to his recruiting success.
“Just try. You try hard and if you have a kid you really, really like you try to get him and make the kid tell you no,” he said. “We’re going to blanket the state of Illinois and Midwest and every kid we think can help us win the MAC championship and play in an NCAA regional we’re going to reach out to.
“If we’re doing our job we’ll be told no a lot more than we’re told yes. You build relationships with kids at a higher level and you’re not settling. You need high-level talent and need to convince them they can be part of the foundation at Northern Illinois. The relationships with travel coaches, high school coaches and scouts are already there so not much has to change in that regard.”
Along with getting kids to believe NIU could be a step to even bigger things in baseball, which Copeland achieved as a pitcher at Illinois State and professionally in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization before an arm injury derailed his career. UIS had its first two major-league draft picks during Copeland’s tenure with pitcher Andrew Dean in 2019 (18th round, Padres) and Hersey product and pitcher Quinn Gudaitis in 2022 (16th round, Tigers). Two-time D-II All-American infielder Zion Pettigrew signed with the Nationals as a free agent last summer and is currently playing in their system.
NIU’s last draft pick was pitcher Alex Klonowski in 2014 (29th round, Angels). The most prominent of its seven big leaguers is Arlington grad and pitcher Fritz Peterson, who won 133 games from 1966-76 with the Yankees, Indians and Rangers. But its last big-leaguer was Rolling Meadows product and current Valparaiso coach Brian Schmack with the 2003 Tigers.
“We have to develop players better than anyone in the state and in the Midwest and that’s what we did at Springfield,” Copeland said.
Copeland already added Joe Kelch, an East Peoria High grad who played at ISU, to his coaching staff. Kelch was one of Copeland’s assistants at UIS before going to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville this past season. Copeland said he also has two UIS recruits following him to NIU.
It’s part of a whirlwind last month where NIU reached out to Copeland as UIS was in the middle of playing in the NCAA D-II regionals. Now, at age 34, he’s one of the youngest D-I head baseball coaches in the country.
“It’s pretty cool and pretty surreal,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy.”
It never is in rebuilding.
Wheeling’s Washington Joins North Central Hoops Staff
Alex Washington, who was a two-time Daily Herald All-Area basketball player at Wheeling in 2004-05, wasn’t necessarily looking for a college coaching job as his family relocated to the Naperville area. But the former Augustana player and assistant coach found one on the North Central College staff of new head coach Vince Kmiec.
"Our family was already moving to the Naperville area, so finding a coaching job wasn't really on the radar," Washington said in a release from North Central. "Being familiar with the league, the team and Vince, and starting to dive in and learn about the program got me excited about this opportunity.
"One thing that is really exciting is North Central's location, which is ideal for recruiting. It's going to be a matter of getting familiar with the team Vince is looking to build, and then bringing in student-athletes who fit that."
Washington will be the lead assistant for Kmiec, who had been in that role for North Central since the 2018-19 season. Washington just finished his second stint as an Augustana assistant since 2013 and coached at D-II Wayne State in Nebraska from 2010-13. He was the program director for a basketball program in Singapore from 2016-18 and is now involved with USA Basketball and Chris Paul’s CP3 camps.
Washington was a three-year letterwinner and two-year starter at Augustana and helped the 2008 team win the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) tournament title and reach the second round of the NCAA D-III tournament.
"His background as a championship player and coach will serve us well here, and I look forward to learning from him just like our players will,” Kmiec said.
North Central won CCIW tourney titles in 2017 and 2019 and the regular-season title in 2020 with Kmiec on the staff and is coming off a 14-12 season. Tyler Swierczek, an all-area player from MSL champion Palatine, is one of the program’s incoming recruits.
"I come from a championship program, and that is what North Central is," Washington said. "I'm looking to help mentor and shape student-athletes while bringing my experience from the outside to support Vince and help him build on the high standard that already exists here."
Washington was a four-year varsity player for Lou Wool at Wheeling. As a junior in 2004 he led the program to its first MSL division title in 31 years with an East co-championship and a berth in the league’s title game.
Garoppolo, Kaye Make Ohio Valley 75th Anniversary Teams
Rolling Meadows’ Jimmy Garoppolo and Conant’s Rick Kaye went from the Mid-Suburban League to tremendous success at Eastern Illinois University in football and basketball respectively. They are also part of a celebration of the Ohio Valley Conference’s 75th Anniversary Teams for all sports.
Garoppolo, who is entering his 10th year as an NFL quarterback with the Las Vegas Raiders, was a Daily Herald All-Area quarterback for Meadows in 2009. Garoppolo threw for 118 touchdowns in four years at Eastern and 53 in his senior year when he won the Walter Payton Player of the Year Award as the best player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision.
Kaye and Corey Brown led Conant to the Class AA basketball Elite Eight in Champaign in 1994. The explosive Kaye averaged 13.8 points per game for his career at Eastern and was a two-time all-OVC selection who averaged 21.1 ppg as a senior in 1997-98. He went on to play professionally for three years in Spain, Italy and Belgium.
The OVC 75th football team also includes NFL quarterback Tony Romo and legendary coach Bob Spoo from EIU and notable names such as NFL quarterback and TV analyst Phil Simms (Morehead State) and 1970s standout Bears defensive lineman Wally Chambers (Eastern Kentucky). The OVC 75th basketball team includes EIU stars Henry Domercant (Naperville North) and Kyle Hill (Argo) along with Ja Morant (Murray State), former Chicago Bulls player and college coach Clem Haskins (Western Kentucky) and ABA legend Fly Williams (Austin Peay).
The OVC has currently released 75th anniversary teams in six sports.
Hersey Makes IHSBCA Phil Lawler Classic Elite Eight
Hersey’s most successful baseball spring continued as it won its Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association (IHSBCA) regional and advanced to the Phil Lawler Classic Elite Eight on Tuesday and Wednesday at North Central College in Naperville.
The Huskies will face Naperville Central in Tuesday’s final quarterfinal at 7 p.m. The other matchups are Lake Park-Lane Tech at 10 a.m., Glenbard West-New Trier at 1 p.m. and St. Charles North-Lincoln-Way West at 4 p.m. Wednesday’s semifinals are at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. with the championship at 7 p.m.
The IHSBCA also does a fun thing by naming the regionals after legendary coaches - Larry Pohlman (Prospect), Glen Pecoraro (Prairie Ridge), Mike Napoleon (New Trier), Robin Renner (Neuqua Valley), Len Asquini (St. Charles East), Doug Sutor (Sandburg), George Ushela (Lyons Township) and Gary Sulaski (Hinsdale Central).
The Lawler Classic is named after Phil Lawler, the longtime Naperville Central assistant coach to Bill Seiple and big supporter of the high school baseball and the summer tournament, who passed away in April 2010 after a battle with cancer.
Dennis a Quarterback’s Menace in USFL
Wheeling grad and Philadelphia Stars cornerback Amani Dennis finished in a five-way for second in the USFL in interceptions with 3. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Dennis returned one of his interceptions 72 yards for a touchdown and finished the season with 30 tackles.
Dennis was a Daily Herald All-Area pick in 2014 and a two-time all-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin selection during his career at Carthage College (2015-18). He was invited to the Cleveland Browns training camp in 2019 and just finished his second season in the USFL.
Richards Takes Over Harper Men’s Hoops
LaMario Richards will try to turn around the fortunes of Harper College men’s basketball as its new head coach. Richards has 11 years of coaching experience in the Midwest and 10 in the Chicago area. His most recent stint was as an assistant and recruiting coordinator at Olive-Harvey College in the city when the program went 20-9 in 2021-22.
“Harper College has a strong academic reputation, a rich history of winning in every sport, a commitment to excellence and a great culture,” Richards said on the Harper athletics website. “The opportunity to be a part of such a great institution of higher education was an opportunity I couldn't pass up and the interview process led me to believe that Harper College would feel like home.
"My desire is to create a culture and an atmosphere that is conducive to winning on and off the court. That starts with holding student athletes accountable in all things, especially academically. Maintaining a positive attitude at all times and competing every day. That will give this team a chance to obtain micro achievements and turn them into major achievements fostering the expectation of winning."
Harper was 4-25 last season. Head coach Sean Stochl resigned to take the head coaching job at his alma mater, Marian Central Catholic.
Adrianza Goes D-I from Harper Baseball
Harper College sophomore middle infielder Ehinger Adrianza, a two-year starter for head coach Nelson Gord, will continue his college career at D-I Eastern Kentucky. Adrianza, who is from Miami, had a slash line of .276/.372/.458 with 3 homers and 35 RBI this season and is the brother of Atlanta Braves infielder Ehire Adrianza.
Gord said seven other Harper players have made decisions on their next stops for baseball. Infielder Nic Castrovalli (Bartlett) is going to Spalding University, a D-III program in Louisville, outfielder George Betevis (Bartlett) and pitcher JT Adams (Huntley) are going to Benedictine University and pitcher Jason Gutowski (Lake Park) is going to Augustana. The other commitments are outfielder Micah O’Neal to Dubuque, pitcher Connor FitzGerald to Concordia and infielder-outfielder Tyler Spiecker to Wisconsin-Platteville.