Kay, Leblebijian head for Bradley, ISU
Brett Kay of St. Viator and Jason Leblebijian of Prospect just finished a summer together as the double play combination on Arlington's American Legion baseball team.
But the seniors will be collegiate rivals - albeit only 30 miles apart - after they made verbal commitments to Missouri Valley Conference schools. Kay chose Illinois State and Leblebijian picked Bradley.
Leblebijian will be joined by former Prospect teammate and third baseman Tim Scanlan, who was released from his scholarship at Eastern Kentucky after head coach Elvis Dominguez took the job at Bradley in late June.
And Fremd senior outfielder Mike Tauchman also committed to Bradley this weekend.
"It's going to be fun," Kay said of the local spice added to the Interstate 74 rivalry.
Coaching changes at both schools played a big role in their choices. New ISU associate head coach Mark Kingston will take over the program when Jim Brownlee retires after the 2009 season.
Kay, a Daily Herald All-Area shortstop, expected scholarship offers from Creighton, Southern Illinois and UIC but was impressed with Kingston.
"He's got a very good professional background," Kay said of Kingston, who was an assistant at Tulane the last seven years. "He told me every shortstop he's coached has gotten drafted.
"That was definitely a big factor in me going there. It's going to be definitely the best competition in the Missouri Valley and that's what I need to get to the next level."
Dominguez's departure from Eastern Kentucky had the left-handed power-hitting Scanlan considering other options such as Missouri State, Jacksonville State and Valparaiso. But Scanlan was thrilled to have the chance to follow Dominguez to Bradley.
"Everybody I talked to about the guy said he was a great guy and I like him a lot," said Scanlan, who also played for Arlington with Kay and Leblebijian. "I like his style of coaching and I always wanted him to be my coach.
"I didn't want to play for a guy I don't know and when I got an opportunity to play for Dominguez I wanted to stay with it."
The late change means Scanlan isn't guaranteed an immediate scholarship but expects that to be taken care of in the near future. Scanlan will be eligible to play right away and has a chance to play third next spring.
"I wouldn't leave a scholarship at one school to go to become a walk-on," Scanlan said. "That's one reason why I kind of felt I'd be OK. I trust (Dominguez) and he never backtracked on me.
"When he left for Bradley I understood. Why wouldn't you want to take that job."
And Scanlan could have a familiar face alongside him on the left side of the infield in Leblebijian, an all-area shortstop who also had an offer from Eastern Illinois.
"It helped a lot," Leblebijian said of Scanlan's familiarity with Dominguez. "We went to lunch and talked about it and Tim said nothing but good things about Dominguez. That made me feel comfortable with him."
Tauchman, who has been on the Fremd varsity since he was a freshman, also had some help from former teammate Nick Addison and coach Chris Piggott. Addison switched from Eastern Kentucky to UIC after the departure of Dominguez, who was an assistant coach at Creighton when Piggott played there in the mid-1990s.
"Coach Dominguez and coach (assistant John) Corbin are great guys and they definitely made me feel wanted," said Tauchman, whose mom graduated from Bradley in 1981. "They both seemed to be genuinely interested in my thoughts in the whole process."
Tauchman, who will be Fremd's starting quarterback this fall, said everything from the campus to the facilities seemed right. So was the chance to end the recruiting process early after talking to Addison and former teammates Ryan Shober (Valparaiso) and Matt Gailey (Northwestern).
"I definitely wanted to get it done early," Tauchman said. "Now that I have it done I can focus on having a great senior year."