Mundelein made the downstate call first

When it comes to technology, Mundelein coach Todd Parola is a bit behind the curve.

He still doesn’t have his own cell phone.

But when it comes to high school baseball, Parola is a like a tech-savvy teenager who has scooped up the latest, hard-to-get gadget. He’s a trendsetter.

These days, it seems like high school baseball teams that don’t leave the area during spring break in search of better weather and a better chance of getting their games in are in the vast minority.

Back in 1997, when Parola first took the Mustangs on their now annual trip to southern Illinois, he was one of the only coaches doing so.

Mundelein has played teams from the Carbondale area over spring break for the last 15 years. The Mustangs went 4-1 during their trip this year.

“When we were first going down there, the only other team from the suburbs that was going was Glenbard South,” Parola said. “It’s just grown and grown every year since then and now half of Lake County is down there. We’ve seen Grayslake North, Vernon Hills, Carmel, Warren, Zion-Benton, Cary-Grove, Lockport, New Trier, Prairie Ridge, Lakes and others. I know Lake Zurich has gone away (to Missouri), too.”

Meanwhile, Libertyville now has a long-standing tradition of going out to Arizona for Spring Break while Grayslake Central takes a team trip to Florida to play in tournaments at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.

Traveling with a team during Spring Break can be taxing for coaches and their staffs, but it’s usually well worth the extra effort.

The difference in temperature alone is a huge bonus. Plus, at RentOne Park, which is where many of Mundelein’s spring break games have been played, artificial turf takes the problems of rain and a wet field out of the equation.

“With that field, you know you can play your games no matter what the weather is,” Parola said. “And we’ve usually had really nice temperatures down there, too. This time, it was 80 degrees every day without a cloud in the sky. It was just beautiful. That’s why we like going down there.”

Mundelein’s spring break trip to southern Illinois was originally facilitated by former athletic director Doug Duval. Cobden, a school in the Carbondale area, was looking to jazz up its Spring Break schedule with games against bigger schools from outside of the area. The Cobden athletic director and Duval were good friends, and the idea took off.

“They’ve had some really good teams down there and they’ve kicked our butts a few times,” Parola said of Cobden. “But that first year, they helped us arrange the entire trip and we had a lot of fun. We kept wanting to go back each year.”

More is more:

Here’s a coaching head scratcher: What do you do when there are too many good players on your team?

Finding enough playing time to go around can be an issue.

But, make no mistake, coaches are still always going to sign up for having too much talent than too little.

“It’s a good problem to have,” chuckled Vernon Hills coach Jay Czarnecki, who would know.

This season, the Cougars boast starter-quality players deep into their bench, and it shows in their 9-3 start to the season.

“One of the things we learned over our Spring Break trip (to southern Illinois) is that we can rely on a lot of different guys,” Czarnecki said. “We went 4-1 on our trip and we had different people pick us up on different days.

“That is so big because in baseball, you know guys are going to go through slumps. Or sometimes, you just need someone to give you a shot in the arm. We feel like we have a lot of different guys who can help us in those areas and help us win games.”

Connor Dickman was one of those guys over spring break.

Pat Crowley, a starting outfielder, came up sick for one of the Cougars’ games and Dickman stepped in seamlessly, getting 2 hits and 2 RBI in the process.

Meanwhile, Czarnecki has had issues in his middle infield, with injuries to senior Jordan Levine and junior Dylan McNamara. But sophomore Jake Boyer has slid into at shortstop and performed without a hitch.

“The nice thing about having (so much depth) is that we can play guys who are hot and we can sub guys out who are struggling,” Czarnecki said. “I just have to keep reminding guys not to get down if they get subbed out. They’re not used to that. I just tell them that having so many guys we can play is great for them because they’re all pushing each other to get better. And that’s just going to make our team better.”

Still waiting:

Antioch is still without its four-year starter behind the plate, catcher Joe Gregory.

He aggravated a chronic hip problem at the beginning of the season and has been out ever since, rehabbing and waiting for doctor’s clearance to resume playing.

“I think it’s going to be one of those things where the pain is going to be his guide,” Antioch coach Paul Petty said. “We’re thinking he may be back in early May, hopefully.”

In the meantime, the Sequoits are getting quality innings out of sophomore catcher Adam Harvey.

“He’s a pretty good catcher and we’re working with him,” Petty said. “But it’s tough to replace someone like Joe. It’s tough to replace experience.”