High school summer league baseball now little more than a memory
Often in its early years the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association summer league felt like something out of “The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings.”
You’d squeeze as many teammates as you could fit into an Oldsmobile Delta ’88, and with the 8-track blasting Rush or Scorpions join a barnstorming convoy to then-rural sites like Oswego High School, where a local farmer would drive his tractor past the ballpark down a dusty path about 20 feet off the left-field line.
The mood was loose yet productive, incoming sophomores learning from seniors and all getting innings, the pressure pretty lax until the summer league tournament.
Coaches liked it, too, for the ability to evaluate returning players and gauge the progression of those rising sophomores they may not have seen since spring tryouts.
But for some time high school teams haven’t maintained an official schedule. And other than for pandemic pauses in 2020 and 2021, for the first time since it began in 1976 this year the IHSBCA tournament was canceled.
Semifinals and the championship game of the Phil Lawler Summer Classic, renamed in 2010 to honor the late Naperville Central pitching coach, would have been held Wednesday.
Only eight teams signed up, and 32 would have been needed to run a legitimate tournament, said Lake Park baseball coach Dan Colucci, an IHSBCA hall of famer who took over summer league from Naperville Central coach Mike Stock after COVID paused play.
“We would have a little over 100 teams 15 years ago, 20 years ago. It’s a little disheartening,” said Colucci, whose Lancers placed second to Hersey at the 2023 Lawler Classic, and to St. Charles East last year. Colucci used to have 20 teams in his sectional, one of eight sectionals.
“The kids are all playing travel baseball,” said Stock, who like Colucci understands and somewhat begrudgingly accepts it. The pandemic itself pared off some clubs, Colucci said.
Whether it’s individual travel programs or through scouting services such as Prep Baseball Report for which parents pay good money, it’s much easier for scouts to see players gathered at their numerous tournaments and showcases.
“That used to be the best players,” Colucci said. “Now it’s all players.”
Stock conceded that if he were a scout, that’s where he’d be. He’s among high school coaches who have attempted to rally the troops. This summer Stock offered what he described as a baseball camp, with a handful of practices and four games against three schools.
“It was very much abbreviated,” Stock said.
Travel ball also dug into pitching staffs. Prep coaches tried condensed schedules with doubleheaders Monday through Thursday but wanted to protect players who would pitch for their travel teams on weekends.
“It’s good for our program, it’s good for our players, but it’s not good for exposure,” Colucci said of summer league. “From that aspect, the summer just became ‘ehh,’ and a lot of coaches didn’t want to fight it anymore.”
He said he would “go back to the drawing board” for future IHSBCA summer ball plans.
“I think everybody’s got to reevaluate and think about what’s best for the kids,” Colucci said, but this tradition may have become history.
“Kids are still playing a lot of baseball in the summer,” Stock said, “but the high school providing it is no longer necessary.”
Happier summer story …
Buffalo Grove football coach Jeff Vlk got a kick out of coaching in the 2025 Illinois High School Shrine Game in Bloomington.
He was invited to the five-day event featuring practices, outreach with children served by the Shriners, a big banquet, and the 51st Shrine Game on June 21 at Illinois Wesleyan University.
“I was very flattered to be among the coaches I was there with, to be honest with you,” said Vlk, who coached defensive backs on a “Blue Team” staff that included Jacobs’ Brian Zimmerman and head coach Brian Glashagel of Antioch. Glenbard East’s John Walters was the Red Team head coach.
Rosters included Alex Branas of Buffalo Grove, Vince DeLordo (Jacobs), Luke Gormsen (Jacobs), Robert Lee (West Chicago), Max Maj (Lake Zurich) and Nikko Nordwind-Caraballo (Burlington Central).
Vlk was tickled when Gormsen returned an interception 99 yards for a touchdown to seal the Blue’s 29-7 win, having forged a great relationship with the Jacobs safety in their brief time together.
He also enjoyed that linebacker Branas was named a Red team captain and drew praise from that staff.
Vlk got a kick out of coaching players he’d never seen before, many from unfamiliar small schools, and picking the brains of fellow coaches. And to coach football without the responsibilities of a head coach.
“Yes, you really wanted to win,” he said, “but the experience itself was what it was about.”
doberhelman@dailyherald.com