Baseball notes: Kating, South Elgin’s only coach, headed into home stretch

South Elgin’s baseball program has had one varsity coach since the school’s first season — without seniors — in 2007.

Jim Kating, who has guided the Storm to seven 20-win seasons, 6 regional titles and a pair of sectional championships, highlighted by the team’s third-place Class 4A state finish in 2014 — the school’s first state trophy, announced his plans to retire following the 2025 campaign.

Kating, who earned his 300th career victory in 2023, has watched this year’s squad bounce back from a slow start.

Once 2-8, the Storm improved to 19-9 overall following Monday’s 1-0 victory over Bartlett.

Junior pitcher Zacharia Barkho tossed a 2-hit complete game with a pair of walks and 7 strikeouts, outdueling the Hawks’ Josh Colaizzi (7 IP, 5 H, 12 Ks), while Justin Pold drove in the game’s lone run with an RBI single in the fifth, as South Elgin extended its winning streak to 9.

South Elgin (14-1) owns a 1-game lead over West Aurora (13-2) in the Upstate Eight Conference with 3 games remaining.

“It’s a lot of fun,” senior Ryan Mirante said of playing for Kating. “Some crazy, different emotions come out in any moment of time, so you never know what you’re going to get but he’s a great guy. I love playing for him.

“He is always telling us you could be learning something. It’s good to have a coach that is always teaching you something when you’re out there.”

Kating enjoys the teaching aspect.

“Isn’t that what a coach is called?,” he asked. “I take pleasure in that — in trying to teach, and the kids are very receptive to learn.

“You always see new things in this game, so learn from it, add it to your repertoire, build upon that, and see what happens.”

Kating, a multisport high school standout (football, baseball) in the 1980s at Fremd, earned NJCAA All-American honors as a sophomore at Triton Junior College (.400, 25 home runs) before being a first-round pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the MLB Draft-January Secondary Phase in 1986.

Kating, who hit .263 with 13 home runs and 63 RBI as a 21-year old playing at Class A Bakersfield (Dodgers), spent 5 years in the minors, including the last two in 1989-1990 at Double-AA Huntsville (Oakland Athletics) before turning his attention to coaching.

Thirty-five years later, Kating heads into the home stretch of his coaching career.

“I’m sad because this is a good group of kids to be with,” he said. “Throughout the years, I have had real good kids and great experiences.

“The mind is still there but the body is telling me it’s time for me to give it up and give it to somebody else and see what happens.”

His shoes will be tough to fill.

“It was a unique situation — starting the program from the ground up,” said Kating. “ I’ve had some good coaches along the way who have helped me out. That will be the part I’ll miss most — the interaction with the kids and the coaches.”

Ben Erickson has served as Kating’s assistant at South Elgin since 2007.

“The most important thing I have learned from Jim is that no matter what is happening during a season, winning more games than losing or vice versa, at the end of the day we are still teachers,” said Erickson. “We have been fortunate to have won more than we have lost and even while winning, he’s still teaching the game.”

Throughout the years, Erickson’s fondest memories involve around Kating’s humility.

“As strange as it sounds, the thing that sticks out to me most are the things that Jim never talks about — his professional playing career,” Erickson said. “The only time he ever talks about those days is when you ask him and even then, he downplays everything. He’s a very, very humble person.”

South Elgin’s entire varsity baseball staff, which includes Bob Slania, Dan Koss, Zach Wendt, and Erickson, is also retiring.

“Everyone was here to coach with him (Kating),” said Erickson.

Scouting DuPage County and Fox Valley postseason

While Class 2A and 1A schools, including Westmont, IC Catholic Prep, Lisle, Aurora Central Catholic, Harvest Christian, Aurora Christian, St. Edward, and Westminster Christian, look to advance to Saturday’s regional championship games, the 3A and 4A teams are preparing for next week’s regional openers.

All share one common goal — bringing home a state championship.

Willowbrook, McHenry and Lockport will host 4A sectional tournaments, while 3A sectionals featuring area teams are at Kaneland and Grayslake Central.

At Willowbrook, the field includes the top-ranked Warriors (22-8), No. 2 York (20-9), No. 3 Geneva (23-10), No. 4 South Elgin (19-9), and No. 5 St. Charles North (18-12).

Glenbard East, Lake Park, Bartlett, Wheaton Warrenville South, St. Charles East, Wheaton North, Batavia, Glenbard West, Glenbard North, Addison Trail, and West Chicago are also participating.

“We’re happy with the 3 seed,” said Geneva coach Brad Wendell. “It’s a reflection of a strong regular season. That said, we know the postseason is a reset — everyone’s 0-0 now. We open against a solid Glenbard West team — I think they’re a tough first-round draw.

“But when you think about it, everyone is. Everyone has a good arm that you must beat to keep playing. There isn’t a team in this sectional you can overlook. It’s wide open in the best way possible.”

What will it take to win?

“Quality pitching, clean defense, and timely hitting,” said Wendell. “Those are the three things that win baseball games.”

The Lockport sectional field includes top-seeded Downers Grove North (24-7), No. 3 West Aurora (25-5), and Naperville Central (18-11).

DuPage Valley Conference co-champions Waubonsie Valley and Naperville North are seeded 10th and 12th, respectively, while Downers Grove South, Hinsdale Central, Neuqua Valley, and Metea Valley are also at Lockport.

First-round matchups include Naperville Central vs. Waubonsie Valley, and West Aurora vs. Neuqua Valley.

“We might see them in the conference tournament and again next week, too,” said Waubonsie coach Bryan Acevedo. “We want to be playing our best baseball at the end of the year.”

Fox Valley Conference champion McHenry heads its own sectional field that includes Hampshire (26-7), Huntley, Jacobs, Dundee-Crown, Streamwood, Elgin, and Larkin.

Chicago Catholic League White champion St. Francis (23-6) and Burlington Central (16-15) highlight the 3A sectional field at Kaneland, which includes Marmion, Montini, Benet, Glenbard South, Wheaton Academy and the host Knights.

No. 3 Crystal Lake South (18-11) and No. 4 Cary-Grove (18-11) are in the 3A field at Grayslake Central.

Sectional championships will be held Saturday, June 7, with supersectionals on Monday, June 9.

State championship weekend is June 13-14 at Slammers Stadium in Joliet.