Palatine's Balcer grows into Division I standout
Some athletes receive gifts they are incapable of opening.
And there are those with the gift of being able to turn less into more than most would have imagined.
Scott Balcer came to Palatine as a freshman with dreams of eventually playing baseball at higher levels.
He also came to Palatine as a 5-foot-3 left-handed thrower who was primarily an outfielder and had rarely pitched.
"He's a kid who didn't go to high school with badges of honor," said Balcer's dad Jerry, who played three years of minor-league baseball as a shortstop in the New York Mets organization. "He had to earn his stripes."
Balcer began on the freshman "B" team after he was pegged to be a pitcher by varsity pitching coach Dave Haskins. By his senior year he was one of the top starters for a Mid-Suburban West champions.
He persevered through two challenging years at Harper College. And the payoff is he's earned a scholarship and is preparing for his first season as a Division I pitcher at Chicago State University.
"Like I told (Palatine) coach (Paul) Belo, I feel really blessed to be here right now," Balcer said. "To finally make it here and say I'm a Division I pitcher means the world to me."
Balcer is more than a foot taller than when he entered Palatine at 6-4. He's also added about 5 to 8 mph to his fastball - although it's not quite going to charge up radar guns at 83 to 84 mph.
But what Balcer knows how to do is pitch even though he rarely saw the mound before he came to Palatine.
"His path has been so long," said his dad, who was also his youth baseball coach. "He was so tiny I was afraid to pitch him when he was little."
But Haskins, who is now the head coach of defending Class 4A state champion Prairie Ridge, wasn't afraid to give Balcer a shot at pitching after they met before his freshman year.
There were a lot of similarities between the two. Haskins was also a lefty who threw a bit harder but didn't have incredible stuff at Conant. He also went to Harper and then was a Division I pitcher at Northeastern Illinois, which no longer has varsity athletics.
"I told him if you live downstairs and move the ball you can be successful," Haskins said.
Balcer eventually made it to the "A" team by the end of his freshman year. But the "B" team was a big part of the pitching education he received from Haskins, Belo and his dad.
"Being on the 'B' squad gave me higher motivation," Balcer said. "Being on the 'B' team was not necessarily a bad thing. It showed me I obviously had to work harder to get where I wanted to be."
He suffered a minor setback as a sophomore and missed a month with rotator cuff trouble. As a junior he was used mainly in relief but made a couple of starts.
"With the success my junior year I knew I'd be given a chance by coach Belo," Balcer said. "I wanted to prove to him, coach Haskins, the team and the school I was capable of winning and succeeding and helping out the team in a huge way."
Balcer did as he went 6-3 with a 3.13 ERA in 56 innings. He had only 22 strikeouts but balanced that with just 11 walks.
"He understood he could pitch backward, which was a big weapon," Haskins said. "The biggest thing was the changeup, which he could throw back to back to back and kids still couldn't hit it. He understood the mound and being a competitor."
And that's why he went to Harper after getting a few nibbles from Division III schools. He went through two coaches, an attempt to make him a submarine relief specialist and wound up as a closer.
Balcer was interested in going to Concordia in River Forest, but got in contact in June with Chicago State and its new coaching staff led by Mike Caston.
One of the issues for Balcer was going from the Northwest suburbs to a school on Chicago's South Side. But his dad had grown up in Bridgeport near old Comiskey Park.
"It definitely crossed my mind whether I'd be able to handle it and figure out how to learn how to live in the city," Balcer said. "When I stepped on the campus with my dad and knew I had a chance to play here, it was all settled and done.
"I knew I could be successful not only in baseball and school but socially."
So far Balcer couldn't be happier. He's going through fall workouts, is in line to be in the starting rotation and is even closer to girlfriend Nicole Pauly, the former Palatine softball star now playing at Northwestern.
Balcer loves what he's seen from Caston and his young assistant coaches. He'd love to lead Chicago State to respectability - which has been a difficult task considering the road-heavy schedule that will include a trip to national power Pepperdine in the spring.
This will be a true test of what he's learned. His approach remains the same.
"It's a huge step up for me to be given that opportunity again," Balcer said. "I know I have to work even harder."
And whenever his playing career ends, Balcer plans to translate his own lessons to others as a high school physical education teacher and coach.
"I'll teach them to have dreams like I have," Balcer said. "No one's dreams can be turned down."
Especially with the right approach.