New Trier’s pitching staff is loaded with good arms.
Fortunately, it’s loaded with good heads too.
One without the other would be a decidedly mixed blessing because bad chemistry can blow up even a team as talented as New Trier’s.
Six seniors already are Division I signees, including pitchers Paul Duncan, Trey Frahler, Will Hebard and Walker McKinven. Junior pitchers J.B. Blanchard and Jack Boehm may join that club next year.
“We have a staff,” said New Trier coach Mike Napoleon, who uses the word “luxury” to describe his embarrassment of riches.
It has helped make New Trier (23-1) the top team in the Chicago area, but the senior pitchers seem determined that their pursuit of the Class AA state title will not turn into an arms race. Discuss the staff’s pecking order, and they react as though you’d suggested they spot Evanston a couple of runs.
“I feel we don’t have a No. 1, 2, 3 or 4,” Frahler said Wednesday. “We’re all basically No. 1.
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“We just want to win.”
For the record, Duncan, who has signed with Eastern Kentucky, goes first in the rotation, though Napoleon regards him and Frahler, who is headed for Bucknell, as co-No. 1s. Hebard, who has signed with Villanova, is No. 3, followed by Blanchard.
The pitchers love to one-up each other but pull for one another as well.
“It’s a friendly competition,” Hebard said. “Obviously we look at the [pitching] numbers and keep track, but it’s certainly not like we look for somebody to do badly.”
That attitude is partly a product of history. The seniors have been playing with or against each other since 3rd grade in the Kenilworth-Winnetka Baseball Association.
Their closeness came in handy when Napoleon put all his potential starters through an early-season audition, limiting them to three or four innings and also using them in relief to build strength and see how they fared in each role. The result was the current rotation, with McKinven and Boehm pitching in relief.
Even Duncan, a three-year varsity player who was 8-0 last year, didn’t mind the bullpen, where he got two saves.
“It’s good for us to see both positions and where we fit in,” he said. “It kind of shows us how to perform if we have to pitch seven innings or close.”
If anyone had a temptation to gripe, though, it was McKinven, the lone senior left out of the starting mix. But he seems fine with his role, in part because he has been battling a tender forearm and in part because he just wants New Trier to prosper.
“I don’t really mind it,” said McKinven, who has signed with Binghamton. “It was my role last year.
“I just want to be on the best team in the state.”
So far he has been part of something special. Frahler is 6-0 and has not allowed an earned run in 34 innings. Duncan is 4-0, Hebard is 6-1 and Blanchard is 4-0.
The other number that jumps out among the starters is their height. Duncan, a lefty, is 6-3, Frahler is 6-6 and Hebard is 6-7.
Put that size on a mound, and it can be unsettling for opponents, especially when it comes to the 230-pound Hebard, whose fastball averages about 86 m.p.h.
“When you have a 6-7 kid looking down on a hitter with this little white thing in his hand, it can be pretty intimidating,” Napoleon said. “I’d call him our power pitcher. He’ll bust people inside.”
Duncan has great movement on his fastball and good command of that pitch, his curveball and his demeanor.
“He’s a gamer,” Napoleon said. “He’s the kind of kid who has been there before and has a good, strong presence.”
Frahler, 8-1 last season, has great command of his fastball, curve and changeup. He’s a ground-ball pitcher who lets his infielders make plays, and he excels in big games.
McKinven may have the best pure stuff on the staff, with a fastball in the high 80s and a hard curve that resembles Niagara Falls.
Napoleon and pitching coach Scott Klipowicz have handled their talent with an eye toward giving New Trier’s 2000 state title trophy a companion.
“We’re trying to develop kids and also be strong enough to win games at the end of the season because our ultimate goal is the state championship,” Napoleon said.
“Somebody asked me if this staff is better than when we won the 2000 championship. Well, I’ll let you know after the tournament, but depth-wise, I can’t imagine having a staff as deep as this, and hopefully it will carry us.”
Help needed
Former Deerfield and Gordon Tech basketball coach Steve Pappas died almost a year ago from the effects of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but the group of supporters who helped him seek a suitable blood stem-cell or bone-marrow donor continues to help others find a donor match.
“Team Pappas” will conduct a drive to add people to a marrow donor registry Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 11 locations, including five high schools.
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The procedure is free, requires only a swab test and fights a variety of diseases.
For information go to www.stevepappasbasketball.com
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