Baseball: Brauer bringing quite a team home

When he first arrives at Grayslake Central's baseball field on Saturday morning, habit might take Eric Brauer toward the home dugout.

But he'll make the correction, as strange as it will be.

"It will be weird to be in the visitor's dugout," Brauer said. "I've never been in the visitor's dugout before."

The 35-year-old Brauer grew up in Grayslake and was a standout athlete at what was then Grayslake High School before graduating in 2000. Easy to spot with his red hair and 6-foot-7 frame, Brauer was a 3-sport rarity, an ace pitcher for the baseball team with a 90-mile-per-hour fastball, a star center for the basketball team and a member of the golf team. He was all-area in both baseball and basketball.

Brauer is now a baseball coach himself, and he's returning to his alma mater for the first time ever as the opposing head coach.

Now in his 12th year of coaching, Brauer is thrilled to be bringing his Chicago Christian team from Palos Heights up to his old stomping grounds in Lake County to play a nonconference game against Grayslake Central at 11 a.m. Saturday.

"Grayslake was a great place to grow up and I'm still a big fan of the school," Brauer said. "I want Grayslake Central to win at everything, except for on Saturday when they play us."

Chicago Christian won't be just any nonconference game for Grayslake Central. In fact, it might be the Rams' toughest of the season.

Brauer's tiny squad of 14 players from a coed school of just 340 students is a sparkling 32-0 on the season, and one of the best Class 2A teams in the state of Illinois. Five players on the team are planning to play in college next year.

The 32 wins by the Knights is a school record for Chicago Christian, which has recorded four 30-win seasons in Brauer's nine-year tenure at the school. Brauer also got his 300th career victory this season.

"Any time we can bring back one of our guys, it's pretty special. But maybe this was the wrong year for us to schedule Eric's team," Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen said with a laugh. "You don't get to be 32-0 by accident. This will be a very tough game for us."

Brauer, who was coached by Whalen in summer ball during high school, has made a habit of putting bigger schools rich in baseball tradition on his team's schedule. His goal is to be battled-tested for the Class 2A tournament, which happens to start on Monday.

In recent years, the Knights have taken on big school powers such as Lockport, Sandberg, Lincoln-Way East and Mt. Carmel, and they have parlayed that experience into seven regional titles over the last eight years.

"We take a lot of pride in our program," Brauer said. "And we take a lot of pride in the fact that we will play anyone."

Besides getting to come home, that was one of the main reasons Brauer was so excited to get Grayslake Central on the schedule. The Rams have established a reputation as a Class 3A power, having won seven regional and five sectional championships since 2006. Grayslake Central has also been downstate three times since 2009, finishing third in both 2009 and 2013.

When Brauer was in high school, Grayslake didn't have quite that kind of success, but the program was up-and-coming. Brauer remembers a marathon game against Jacobs his junior year in which he pitched 13⅔ innings and threw 173 pitches. The game was still tied and suspended due to darkness so it was picked up the next day. Brauer hit a home run in the 14th inning to win it. It was one of the signature victories of his career.

"We had some really good seasons in baseball and also in basketball. We went to the sectional in basketball," said Brauer, a two-time most valuable player of the basketball team. "I played basketball, baseball and golf all four years of high school. I think I was the only 12-sport athlete in my class. But I just liked doing everything. I had fun playing different sports."

Brauer carried baseball into college. He went to Valparaiso University where pitched in 20 games as a freshman. He was a reliever his first two seasons and then had to redshirt his junior year to get Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.

But he recovered nicely and became Valpo's No. 2 starter the following season and the ace during his senior year.

"Tommy John surgery was the best worst thing that has ever happened to me," Brauer said. "I had to sit out and the recovery from that is long and hard. It was 13 months. But I added 3 miles per hour to my fast ball (93 mph), my arm felt great after the surgery and I got that fifth year of school…and that completely changed the course of my life."

Brauer had been studying business. With the fifth year, he pursued his master's degree in athletic administration and that led him into education and coaching.

His first job out of college, at age 23, was as the head baseball coach at Michigan City Marquette High School in Indiana. He eventually became the athletic director there at age 25. During his first season, he met his wife Meredith, the sister of his senior centerfielder. After seven years of marriage, the Brauers have a 2½-year-old daughter, Audrey.

Brauer moved over to Chicago Christian in 2008 and has been the head baseball coach and athletic director there for the last nine years.

"When I look back on my playing days, I think about all the lifelong friendships I've made with my teammates and all the lifelong lessons I learned through sports," Brauer said. "When I got into coaching, I really wanted a big part of it to be about giving back to a sport that has given me so much.

"I try to give our kids a great experience. We go on Spring Break trips, we've played at Valpo and at the U.S. Steel Yard in Gary. We also try to teach them some important life lessons and help them grow as people. I'm just hoping that these experiences will have the kind of impact on our kids that baseball had on me."

Brauer is hoping his team's trek to Grayslake will be one of those worthwhile experiences.

"It will probably mean a lot more to me than them," laughed Brauer, who is expecting his family and some friends to be at the game. "But I think they'll have fun with it. They're excited to play a good team, and I want us to go up there and make a good showing."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

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