Baseball: South Elgin's Keough came a long way
South Elgin pitcher Max Keough's success gives hope to freshman B-team players everywhere.
The varsity career of Keough - named 2015 honorary captain of the Daily Herald's Fox Valley All-Area baseball team - almost didn't come to pass.
Through the tumult of mass tryouts at a large public school, he was placed on the freshman B team in 2012. Though he felt he should have been on the A team, the affable pitcher didn't hold a grudge.
"Coaches can't be right about tryouts every time because there are so many kids," Keough said earlier this week. "Besides, it was good for me because I probably wouldn't have played much on the A team."
Keough didn't play much on the B team either as it turned out. An early season injury forced him to miss most of his freshman season.
Without a chance to be seen much by the program's coaches, he became a borderline pick to make the sophomore team the following year. How borderline? Sophomore coach Bob Slania later told Keough it came down to him and one other player for the 20th and final sophomore roster spot.
Fortunately for South Elgin baseball, the tall, skinny kid with the dry sense of humor was kept.
"I think coach (Dan) Mandernack, my freshman B coach, had confidence in me and put in a good word with coach Slania," Keough said.
The rest is history.
After working with his coaches to improve - particularly South Elgin varsity pitching coach Ben Erickson - the 6-foot-4 right-hander from Bartlett eventually developed into one of the most effective starting pitchers of recent vintage despite a fastball that tops out in the low 80s.
As a senior this spring, Keough debuted an improved changeup to complement his sharp curveball and well-located fastball. He finished the regular season 6-1 and went on to dominate playoff victories against Batavia and Lake Park, allowing only 3 runs (2 earned) on 12 hits in 14 innings. Along the way he struck out 17 and walked 3.
Leading the Storm to its second straight sectional final appearance capped a fantastic season for the oldest of Steve and Kelly Keough's three children. Max finished his final high school campaign with an 8-1 overall record. He allowed only 9 earned runs, struck out 67 and walked 16.
Keough is the second straight South Elgin pitcher to be named Honorary Captain. Hard-throwing Ryan Nutof earned the award last spring and went on to earn freshman all-American honors this season at Michigan.
Through 71 innings last season, Nutof boasted an area-best 0.39 earned-run average. Though Keough employs a completely different style, the Wisconsin-Oshkosh signee finished the 2015 season with an area-best 0.91 ERA in 69⅓ innings.
"He just goes out there and wins," South Elgin varsity coach Jim Kating said of Keough. "Last year Nutof threw 90-plus and won 8 games. This year Max wins 8 throwing 81-82 because he has a lot of arm-side movement to his fastball. He added the change as a third pitch and he has that nice tight curve he can throw in any count. He worked hard to get to this point."
Off the field, Keough is known for his fashion taste, or lack thereof. Though he has grown up in the Chicago area, he somehow became a fan of the Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Bucks, perhaps a remnant of Wisconsin roots on his Dad's side. An uncle is still a devoted Green Bay fan.
Thus, it's not uncommon to see Max wear a pair of green and gold Packers shoes to school along with a red Bucks hat and maybe an orange shirt for more color. Unapologetically, he wore that Bucks hat to school during the recent NBA playoff series between Chicago and Milwaukee.
"I think maybe it's to get everyone else upset because he has that kind of sense of humor," Erickson said. "The guys give him grief all the time because he wears all different colors. I'm not sure he means to do it, but, knowing him, there's a purpose."
Keough swears his Bucks love is genuine "though it makes no sense at all," he admits. He said his fandom of Wisconsin's NBA franchise was forged during Milwaukee's playoff series two years ago against LeBron James and the Miami Heat.
In fact, he likes the Bucks so much he convinced South Elgin shortstop Dane Toppel and third baseman Kyle Hays to join him at the BMO Harris Bank Center last December 17 for a Bucks game against Portland. Keough, of course, dressed the part.
"He was wearing light-green shoes, a green Packers shirt and something orange," Toppel said. "He looked terrible. He fit right in."
Keough clarified: the outfit actually consisted of his familiar Bucks hat, a red, long-sleeved Bucks shirt under a green Packers hoodie, Packers shorts and his green and gold shoes.
"It was pretty funky. I'm not going to lie," he said. "But I'm definitely going to wear that outfit again sometime, probably when it's cold out."
By the time the autumn chill returns Keough will be living comfortably north of the Illinois border as a freshman at Oshkosh, where such style is not only accepted but embraced. The relationship with the Oshkosh baseball program began last summer in St. Charles after the Titans' staff watched him pitch at the annual junior showcase.
Keough, who carried a 4.2 grade-point average in high school, later visited the campus "and I really liked it up there," he said. "Coach (Kevin) Tomasiewicz is really professional and did a good job selling me on the program. I'm excited."
Erickson said he expects Keough will continue to win games in college "because he knows what he has and knows what he can do. He's a smart pitcher and he uses the tools he has. He creates great movement, great sink and he works fast. He's really smart. That's part of his makeup."
Keough made a point when interviewed of thanking his coaches for teaching him to become a better pitcher, which included learning to control his emotions on the mound. For that he credited South Elgin's staff as well as travel ball coaches Randy Dunnet and Mark Ramos of Finish Strong Force Elite in West Chicago.
"I've always been confident in my ability, but physically and mentally my game has come a long way," Keough said. "I really wasn't that good freshman year. Along the way they taught me a lot."
Fashion sense excepted.